CONTENTSDo You Know Writing your data management plan: Are you ready?

Information Literacy for all undergrads = A competitive advantage!

Virtual reality is set to take off in 2016

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ResourcesA Bibliography on the history of Nanyang University

Chemistry resources at a glance

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Snapshots

New Staff: Bella Ratmelia

New Staff: Tint Hla Hla Htoo

New Staff: Vincent Wong

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Info Buzz

Analysing the buzz around your research

Reading engineering and science reserve textbooks on the fly!

Faculty inspiration for the next generation

Publishing a book? Make sure you get an ISBN and CIP data for it

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A Word from the University LibrarianQuestionable journals

Online version www.ntu.edu.sg/library/

pages/xpress.aspx

VOL.11ISSUE

01JAN

2016ISSN 1793-222X

WRITING YOUR DATA MANAGEMENT PLAN:

ARE YOU READY?

More and more research funding agencies in US, UK and Australia are starting to require data management and sharing plans for grant applications. Examples include the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) in US, Wellcome Trust in UK and Australian Research Council in Australia. The National Medical Research Council in Singapore has also indicated that it would be having similar requirements for new grant applications soon.

But I Don’t Know How to Write a Data Management Plan!

If you need to write a data management plan (DMP) and would like some tips, the

NTU Libraries would be glad to help. We are conducting workshops and providing consultancy for NTU researchers who need help to write such a plan. At the end of the workshop or consultancy, you would be able to identify the key elements for an effective data management plan and write one for your own research proposal.

What is a Data Management Plan?

A DMP is a formal document you develop at the start of your research project which outlines all aspects of your data (i.e. what you will do with your data during and after your research project). Key elements in a DMP are likely to include the type of data you will be collecting and how it will be collected,

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DO YOU KNOW

whether there will be restrictions on accessing and sharing your data, the documentation you will be providing to facilitate a better understanding of the project data, where and how would the data be stored during and post project.

Developing a DMP may seem daunting. However, it is a vital step in your research process that you cannot afford to skip. It helps you ensure your research data are accurate, complete, reliable, and secure both during and after you complete your research.

Good Stewardship of Research Data

Research data is one very important component of research. Whether you are working alone or in a team, have you taken the necessary measures to effectively manage your research data? What if your laptop stops working? What if you are accused of fraud? What if someone in your lab quits? What if you need to reuse your old data? Good stewardship of research data can bring many benefits to the researchers as well as the organisation. According to MANTRA (a free online research data management course provided by the University of Edinburgh at http://datalib.edina.ac.uk/mantra/datamanagementplans ), the benefits of managing data include:

Ensuring research integrity and reproducibility

Increasing your research efficiency

Ensuring research data and records are accurate, complete, authentic and reliable

Saving time and resources in the long run

Enhancing data security and minimising the risk of data loss

Preventing duplication of effort by enabling others to use your data

Complying with practices conducted in industry and commerce

Facilitating the analysis of change, by providing data with which data at other points in time can be compared

Meeting funding body grant requirements (if applicable)

According to the UK Data Archive,

”

Data often have a longer lifespan than the research project that creates them. WELL ORGANISED, WELL DOCUMENTED,

PRESERVED AND SHARED DATA are invaluable to advance scientific inquiry

and to increase opportunities for learning and innovation.

“

When to Manage Data?

Good data management is the basis of successful research. Managing your data effectively across the data lifecycle is very important for the success of your research project. A research data lifecycle describes the different stages through which research data is created, processed, analysed, preserved and then made accessible and reusable. A typical research data lifecycle could look like this:

Research Data Lifecycle

It is widely recommended that one should start to plan data management early, even when your research proposal is still being developed. Before you actually start creating data, think carefully about choosing the type and format of data you will create and how you will create and store your data. You may also need to plan consent for sharing, locate any existing data, capture and create metadata at this early stage.

Interested to find out more?

You may like to visit the ‘Data Management Plans’ by the Digital Curation Centre at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/data-management-plans for good tips on writing data management plans.Keep a look out for our very own guide which would be available via the NTU Libraries website in early 2016 too!

Goh Su Nee Senior Assistant Director (Scholarly Communication) sunee@ntu.edu.sg

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DO YOU KNOW

AY2015/16 saw NTU adopting an information literacy requirement for all undergraduate students which is being implemented across all Colleges/Schools in collaboration with the Library. But what do we mean by “information literacy”, and what advantage will it give our students?

Information literacy is a set of crucial academic and professional competencies that include information research skills, technological skills for a digital environment, and critical thinking skills for evaluation and decision-making in a vast and complex information world.

”

Information literacy is demonstrated by the ability to: identify, access, manage,

critically evaluate, and skillfully use best-suited information from a variety of sources, for a variety of purposes,

using a variety of digital tools.

“

As encapsulated by NTU Education, our digital world requires new types of learning, new types of soft skills, and the attitudes and

INFORMATION LITERACY FOR ALL

UNDERGRADS = A COMPETITIVE

ADVANTAGE!

Dianne Cmor Deputy University Librarian dcmor@ntu.edu.sg

abilities that will encourage rich lifelong learning. In order to gain a competitive edge, NTU graduates must be able to continuously bolster their knowledge and competence with the ability to effectively find, manage and apply new information in their academic, professional and personal lives. Information literacy is an essential soft skill that will enable our students to succeed in their academic studies and professional careers, and is a key to lifelong learning well beyond their years at NTU.

We envision that an information literate NTU graduate:

Adeptly navigates information/digital environments

Skillfully finds and creatively applies best-suited information for a variety of purposes

Skillfully selects and uses digital tools for a variety of needs

Critically evaluates information in all forms/formats

Ethically uses information in various forms and contexts

Builds and manages a positive online identity, both personally and professionally

Though basic information literacy requirements may be met via stand-alone courses or modules, it is best to learn about the information world that is specific to different disciplines and professions. Thoughtfully using and managing business information is very different from using and managing chemical information, for example. As such, NTU’s information literacy instruction is built into core courses within each College or School, where such knowledge and skills can be meaningfully learned, applied, practiced and discussed in relevant disciplinary contexts.

Each undergraduate student will learn these information/research skills via a Foundation module (Year 1 or 2) and an Advanced module (Year 3 or 4), with the content prepared and delivered by our subject librarians in collaboration with course instructors. Each module is developed as a blended learning experience with one face-to-face tutorial during classroom time, as well as online activities to be completed independently.

”

It is our intention that one of the hallmarks of an NTU graduate will be his/her critical, creative, skillful use

of information and digital tools – a concrete competitive advantage

in their further studies and/or future workplace.

“

Feedback to the library’s instructional efforts in the past has always been very positive, with senior students often saying “I wish I had learned this earlier!”. With this new programme, with both a foundation and advanced modules for all undergraduates, we can ensure that all NTU undergraduates have the same information literacy advantage.

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DO YOU KNOW

VIRTUAL REALITY IS SET TO TAKE OFF

IN 2016

Have you heard of “Virtual Reality” (VR), or the “Oculus Rift”? If not, chances are, you will hear about it very soon.

According to EON Reality, a company specializing in Virtual and Augmented Reality, VR can be simply defined as “a computer generated 3D environment in which a person can interact with an artificial world.”

In the world of VR, people can interact with objects and feel physically present. This is made possible by wearing a VR headset that takes over our vision. When we look up, down, left or right, what we see changes with our head and body movements—similar to how our eyes work. And when we put on our earphones, we allow our hearing to be taken over too. This means that two of our major senses are being immersed in the VR environment.

The VR world can become even more life-like when we use input devices to control our movements and interactions. We will feel like we are doing things in VR, just like how we do so in the real world.

VR technologies are not new, but it has been very expensive for the past few decades, and thus only used in niche areas, such as training simulators for professions such as pilots, soldiers or doctors.

This year, VR looks set to go mainstream, with the launch of affordable VR headsets like the Oculus Rift. What’s more, VR can also be experienced from low-cost headsets that work with mobile devices, such as Google Cardboard which can be easily purchased online.

To get a basic experience of VR on your mobile device, you can watch 360-degree videos on YouTube’s #360Video channel. In addition, you can search for mobile VR apps.

Some suggested mobile apps* (works with Google Cardboard):

Apple Android

Jaunt VR

Amex UNSTAGED – Taylor Swift

VRSE – Virtual Reality

War of Words VR

Titans of Space for Cardboard

Amex UNSTAGED – Taylor Swift

VRSE – Virtual Reality

War of Words VR

*Note that apps may not work on all mobile devices.

Apps or content that fully exploit the characteristics of VR are those that allow a high degree of interactivity, and these are more likely to be designed for VR headsets that work with PCs.

The majority of VR content to be launched this year looks to be games. From these, we are likely get a better understanding of the potential of VR technologies beyond entertainment, in areas such as education, training and marketing.

The Library is exploring how VR content and devices could be made available for you to experience. If you have any feedback, ideas, or suggestions for us, we’ll love to hear from you.

Google Cardboard

Source: http://www.popsci.com/

Estimated Price: Less than $20 System Requirements: Apple or Android mobile phones and apps (works better on higher-end devices)

Samsung Gear VR

Source: http://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/gear-vr-galaxy-s6-s6-

edge-samsung-virtual-reality-2.jpg

Estimated Price: $200-299 System Requirements: Selected Samsung mobile phones

Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheus, or HTC’s Vive

Source: http://www.technologytell.com/gaming/files/2014/03/oculus-rift-dev-kit-2.jpg.

Estimated Price: $700-1000 System Requirements: A VR-ready PC with a high-end processor, graphics card and lots of RAM. For Sony’s device, a compatible PlayStation. Apps can be purchased from vendors or downloaded.

References

Cubitt, Sean. (2011). Virtual Reality. In Donsbach, W. (Ed.). International encyclopedia

of communication online. Malden, MA : Wiley/Blackwell.

Stein, J. (2015). Inside the Box. (Cover story). Time, 186(6), 40-49.

(2015). Virtual Reality Adoption in Enterprise and Industrial Markets Will Be Driven by

Training, Simulation, Virtual Prototyping, and 3D Modeling Applications, According to

Tractica. Marketing Weekly News.

Law Loo Shien Senior Librarian (Acquisitions and Collection Management) looshien@ntu.edu.sg

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INFO BUZZ

ANALYSING THE BUZZ AROUND

YOUR RESEARCH

In the last two years, many publishers have started incorporating altmetrics (short for alternative metrics) for articles in e-journals. To put it simply, alternative metrics aim to go beyond citation counts by tracking the associated interactions and mentions surrounding an article in online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, news outlets, patent databases and reference managers like Mendeley. This helps to provide a more holistic view of the usage and social impact of a research article (Priem, Groth & Taraborelli, 2012).

Recently, we presented a conference poster on the link between citation count and altmetric scores for 1,200 scholarly articles that had citations in the Web of Science database (WOS). These articles, drawn from 12 subject areas, were published between January to June 2015. 4 out of the 12 subjects showed moderately strong correlation between altmetric score and citation count. These subjects were physics, communication, general and internal medicine, and geography.

The chart below shows that some disciplines take to social media more readily than others.

Figure 1: Correlation between citation count and altmetric score

Next, we noted that of all the social media platforms tracked, 4 were the most popular, namely Twitter, Mendeley, blogs, and news outlets. It is clear that in particular, research is being widely discussed through Twitter and Mendeley.

Figure 2: Number of articles being mentioned in 4 popular social media platforms

These findings supported the results of a larger study (Thelwall et. al. 2013) done in 2013 that compared mentions on 11 social media platforms with WOS citations for PubMed articles published between 2010 and 2012. It revealed that 6 out of the 11 altmetrics had close association with citation counts for subjects like medical and biological sciences. A large portion of the social buzz for the research articles was contributed by tweets.

In 2014, Thelwall and Holmberg expanded their research to include researchers from 10 disciplines and analysed over 500,000 tweets by 447 tenure-tracked researchers. According to their findings, Twitter was used more frequently by researchers in disciplines like biochemistry, cheminformatics, astrophysics and digital humanities. Compared to the average Twitter users, researchers tended to share more links and they used tweets as an informal scholarly communication channel among colleagues.

The Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) stated in their most recent conference in 2015 that it is increasingly important for researchers to articulate the social impact of their work and how their research may influence national policy and practice in order to secure funding. It is also clear that funders are looking at the different ways of evaluating research visibility and impact.

Would you like to find out more about altmetrics? If you would like to learn how to leverage on social media networks and tools to disseminate your research and engage with a wider audience more effectively, drop us an email.

References

Holmberg, K., & Thelwall, M. (2014). Disciplinary differences in Twitter scholarly

communication - Online First - Springer. Scientometrics. doi: 10.1007/s11192-014-1229-

3

Priem, J., Groth, P., & Taraborelli, D. (2012). PLoS ONE 7(11), e48753. doi:10.1371/

journal.pone.0048753

Thelwall, M., Haustein, S., Larivière, V., & Sugimoto, C. R. (2013). Do Altmetrics Work?

Twitter and Ten Other Social Web Services. PLoS ONE, 8(5), e64841. doi: 10.1371/

journal.pone.0064841

Tweets Mendeley Blogs News

Arts & Humanities 34 12 3 1

Biochem & Molecular Biology

95 93 40 34

Business & Economics 67 64 18 16

Chia Yew Boon Head of New Media Group ybchia@ntu.edu.sg

Joan Wee Senior Librarian (New Media Group) joanwee@ntu.edu.sg

Chemistry 64 68 19 25

Communication 79 72 19 11

Computer Science 26 27 4 1

Engineering 21 24 3 8

General & Internal Medicine

100 77 90 90

Geography 57 55 21 15

Mathematics 39 31 7 2

Physics 65 58 16 28

Social Science 75 63 20 15

-0.2 -0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Social Science

Physics

Mathematics

Geography

General & Internal Medicine

Engineering

Computer Science

Communication

Chemistry

Business & Economics

Biochem & Molecular Biology

Arts & Humanities

6

INFO BUZZ

READING ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE RESERVE

TEXTBOOKS ON THE FLY!

Cannot locate the recommended textbook for your course at Lee Wee Nam Library Reserve Room (Level 3)?

No worries — you can now access e-books for certain titles. Look out for the QR code pasted on the bookend for the e-book version.

The next time you are in the Lee Wee Nam Library Reserve Room, have your mobile device ready and scan the QR code to view the book content online.

Steps for accessing reserve e-textbooks

Below are some e-textbook titles which you might want to try:

Advanced Biological Treatment Processes

Environmental Biotechnology

Materials Selection in Mechanical Design

Photonic Crystal Fibers: Properties and Applications

Polymers in Nanomedicine

Shipping Company Strategies: Global Management Under Turbulent Conditions

The Materials Science of Thin Films: Deposition and Structure

A complete e-textbooks listing is at: https://goo.gl/9Qbha7

NOTE

Actually, most textbooks do not have e-versions as publishers want students to buy individual copies – that is the business model for textbook revenue. Beyond textbooks, NTU Libraries subscribes to 650,000+ other e-books.

Locating other NTU e-books

Go to Library home page http://www.ntu.edu.sg/library

Under the Books tab in OneSearch, type the search terms in the search box and select the appropriate Keyword/Title/Author field.

Check the box “Restrict to: E-books only” and click Go button.

Happy reading!

David Tan Chiang Wee Engineering Librarian(Communication) cwtan@ntu.edu.sg

STEP

1

STEP

2

STEP

3

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INFO BUZZ

FACULTY INSPIRATION

FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

Wouldn’t it be great if our students could benefit from reading the books that influenced the life and careers of our faculty? Today, there are many good reads to choose from, but we think that personally recommended books by professors is a great way to introduce students to the love of knowledge, reading and lifelong learning. The Library Outpost, located on Level 1 of The Hive, has a special collection entitled, ‘Books Your Professors Read’.

“Books Your Professors Read” collection at Library Outpost

Faculty were invited to send us titles of books which have inspired them and which they thought our students would enjoy reading. With over 245 recommendations from 81 faculty members from across all colleges/schools, we have created this unique collection arranged by faculty names. Students may start with a natural curiosity about their favourite professors’ reading habits, but soon find themselves just as inspired by the authors and topics as were their professors.

‘Books Your Professors Read’ is proving to be quite popular already with many of the books often checked out! We are now looking to grow this collection, so if you have not made any recommendations as yet, but would like to be a part of this collection, we would love to hear from you.

All we need from you is a list of 3-5 books that have had a strong influence on your life. Author and title would be sufficient. You don’t have to provide any comments on these titles, but if you do, we will be most happy to accept them (now or later) and will gather them for users.

You can send your recommendations to Debra (dblang@ntu.edu.sg), the Outpost Librarian. We look forward to building this unique collection with you.

Debra L’Angellier Outpost Librarian dblang@ntu.edu.sg

NEW STAFF

Bella joined NTU Libraries in January 2013 as a support staff for the New Media Group. She became an Assistant Librarian in July 2015.

Bella started out as a game developer at a local game company where she worked in a small team to build games and develop the content. She wanted a career where she can meet, interact with and help people in an academic environment. She decided that she wanted to join the library profession. It was pretty tough for her at first, but she grew to love and enjoy the job.

Bella obtained her Bachelor of Information Technology degree from the University of Wollongong. She will be pursuing her Master’s degree in Information Studies at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in NTU in August 2016.

In her free time, Bella loves playing games, watching thought-provoking anime or films, as well as learning new things from Udemy. She’s currently playing several games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect trilogy and looking forward to the new instalments coming out next year!

Bella Ratmelia Assistant Librarian (New Media Group) Engineering Librarian (General) bella.r@ntu.edu.sg

Let’s build this unique collection together. Send in your

recommendations today. ”“

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INFO BUZZ

Phoebe Lim Head of Art, Design & Media Library phoebelim@ntu.edu.sg

PUBLISHING A BOOK? MAKE SURE YOU GET AN ISBN

AND CIP DATA FOR IT

2 books lay on the table in front of me. Both are donated by a faculty member to the library. I think they contain fairly good content and I wanted to add them to the library’s collection. However, both publications lack International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) and Cataloguing-In-Publication (CIP) data.

Without these 2 pieces of information, these books are like orphans, aliens, unknowns in the world of information. Nobody knows about them except their authors, the printer and the handful of people who received them. Booksellers probably won’t touch them and libraries need to spend more time and effort processing them because relevant bibliographic information is hard to locate.

I don’t think the authors of the 2 books on my table realized this. If you are ever going to write and publish a book without the assistance of a publisher, may I suggest taking the extra step to prepare it for the publishing world?

What is an ISBN?

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a global unique 13-digit numbered identifier assigned to a publication. It identifies the title of a publication, the publisher and the country it was published in.

What is CIP Data?

CIP stands for Cataloguing-In-Publication Data. It is a record of a publication created using internationally established cataloguing standards usually by the national library of the country where it is published.

It provides standard information about a publication, allowing libraries to easily copy catalogue it to their collection. It can also be easily added to trade directories, book sellers’ catalogues and

bibliographies, making it easier to distribute. Buyers (individuals, institutions or libraries) also find it easier to order.

The important thing about CIP data is that it is created and added to the back of the title page of the publication before going to print. This means that a draft copy must be sent to the national library for cataloguing first.

An example,

In Singapore, the Legal Deposit Department at the National Library Board handles the application for both ISBN and CIP data. More information can be found at http://www.nlb.gov.sg/Deposit/Home/Index. Application is free. Your only obligation is to personally deposit 2 copies of your books once it is printed with the National Library.

Added benefits of applying ISBN and CIP data with the National Library Board:

Your publication is indexed by the Singapore National Bibliography. See http://snb.nl.sg/aboutsnb.aspx

It is discoverable in Worldcat.org. WorldCat is an international network of library content and services which allow searching and locating specific items across many libraries simultaneously.

National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Sum, Hedren, 1984- author, editor.

Desert playground / editor and content, Hedren Sum. – [Singapore] : School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, [2015] pages cm ISBN : 978-981-09-5914-2 (paperback)

1. Art and technology. 2. Design and technology. 3. Sustainable design.

4. Art, Modern – 21st century. 5. Exchange of persons programs – Singapore.

I. Nanyang Technological University. School of Art, Design and Media, publisher. II. Title.

N72.T4 701.05 -- dc23 OCN912382661

NEW STAFF

Tint is with the Library Technology Group and is also the subject librarian for the School of Computer Engineering (SCE) to provide SCE faculty, staff and students with resources and services relevant to their needs.

Tint is actually a familiar face on campus. She started her career in NTU Libraries after graduating from NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information in 2007. After several years, Tint left and joined SMU Libraries as Research Data Services Librarian. As

a data librarian, she provided new services in emerging areas such as altmetrics and research data curation and management in SMU.

Tint is happy to be back in NTU Libraries and she looks forward to supporting the information and research needs of the NTU community. In her personal time, she enjoys stargazing, hiking and travelling. So if you are looking for a buddy for these activities, she is the one to ask!

Tint Hla Hla Htoo Senior Librarian (Library Technology Group)

Engineering Librarian (Computer Science and Engineering) hhhtint@ntu.edu.sg

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阮阳中文图书馆主管 ruanyang@ntu.edu.sg

“南洋大学历史参考资料目录”，简称“南大书目”，是南洋理工大学中文图书馆编制的一个线上专题目录，旨在汇总、整理、共享所有与南洋大学历史有关的参考资料，以方便研究者或有兴趣者使用。到目前为止，收集了约25,000条记录，主要内容包括：南洋大学存在期(1955-1980)由南大各行政单位、院系、学术团体、学生组织等出版的各类校内出版物，各校友团体出版的纪念特刊、纪念文集或校友个人的纪念文章，相关政府文献、报告、会议记录、报纸文章、音像资料等，以及历年来出版的有关南洋大学研究的专著、资料汇编、书本章节、期刊论文、会议论文、学位论文、网络资源等。只要其内容与南洋大学历史研究有关，都在此目录收罗之列。时间上限为1950年代初南洋大学筹建时，下限为2015年8月，后出资料将逐年更新。

值得注意的是，由于本馆原始资料的缺乏，加上时间、人手的限制，有些记录尚无从核对，姑且上载以提供研究线索，如需引用，请查核原件，也希望热心的读者给我们提供信息以帮忙补正，邮件请至：chineselibrary@ntu.edu.sg。另外，本馆也在努力收集南洋大学的文献资料，吁请有收藏的人士捐赠本馆，我们将妥为保管，并开放给学者专家或有兴趣者使用。学术乃天下公器，南洋大学历史资料的收集整理，还仰仗各界人士的支持，如蒙割爱，将不胜感激。

南洋大学历史参考资料目录

A BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE HISTORY

OF NANYANG UNIVERSITY

NEW STAFF

Screenshot of online bibliography on the history of Nanyang University(https://eps.ntu.edu.sg/client/NanyangUniversityBib)

NTU Chinese Library has compiled an online bibliography on the history of Nanyang University, the only overseas Chinese language university founded in Singapore from 1955 to 1980. Nanyang University had a profound impact on the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaysia and held a critical position in the history of Chinese education in Southeast Asia (SEA). Research on Nanyang

University has been a hot topic in Chinese Oversea Studies, especially in SEA Chinese studies.

The bibliography has a total of 25,000 records of various format types including monographs, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers, newspaper articles, government documents, audio-visual materials, oral history interviews, film and broadcast, thesis, Internet resources. It covers materials from early 1950s to the present and will be updated regularly.

The editorial team welcomes contributions from the users. Due to lack of original materials, some records in this bibliography could not be verified. If you have these documents, please contact us so that we could correct or add the necessary bibliographic information. We will also be happy to receive donation of materials listed in the bibliography which are not available in our Library. Our email contact is chineselibrary@ntu.edu.sg.

Vincent obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English Literature from NTU in 2013 before returning to do his Master of Science in Information Studies and thereafter, becoming the English Literature Librarian in NTU’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library. As an alumni of the university, he is very happy to be able to contribute to his alma mater in a professional capacity, and in an area of his interest as well.

While working on his undergraduate work, he grew to be very impressed and appreciative of both the breadth and depth of the

library’s resources as well as the professionalism of the librarians who helped with his work. Now as a librarian, he is resolved to providing help and support that is relevant to the research and interests of students and faculty alike.

In his spare time, Vincent pursues his love for reading and learning, while also indulging in his interest in music by exploring developments in the indie and youth groups. He travels when he can, flying often to Japan where he had spent a semester on an exchange programme.

Vincent Wong Humanities Librarian (English Literature) vincentwong@ntu.edu.sg

RESOURCES

10

RESOURCES

CHEMISTRY RESOURCES AT

A GLANCE

Your time is better spent on research than hunting down resources. To help you navigate the wide array of chemistry resources available at NTU Libraries and beyond, a selected list of useful resources has been compiled below.

Subscribed Databases

SciFinder

SciFinder is a research discovery application that provides access to a wide diversity of research in chemistry and related sciences. It is a product by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Society.

There are three ways in which you can explore the database, namely by references, substances or reactions. To find references, you can search by research topic, author name, company name, document

identifier, journal, patent or tags. Substances can be located via their chemical structure, Markush structure, molecular formula, properties or substance identifier. Reactions can be found by using reaction structure.

First time users need to fill up the SciFinder User Registration form to create a personal SciFinder username and password using your NTU email address.

Reaxys

Reaxys is a database of chemical compound properties, structures, and reactions with references to the journal and patent literature of chemistry. It originates from the Beilstein, Gmelin and Patent Chemistry databases. Similar to SciFinder, there are various ways to explore Reaxys. You can search by reactions, substances, and literature. Substance searching includes exact structure, substructure, Reaxys registry number, CAS registry number, chemical name, molecular formula, and many other options. In addition, you can also search by physical property, spectra property or natural product.

Take note that SciFinder and Reaxys are complementary resources. It is advisable to consult both databases for a more complete coverage of compounds, reactions, and properties.

E-Books

Science of Synthesis: Houben-Weyl Methods of Molecular Transformations

Science of Synthesis provides a critical review of reliable organic and organometallic synthetic methods. Its coverage dates back to the early 1800s and it is designed to be the first point of reference when searching for a synthesis strategy.

e-EROS: Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis

The encyclopedia contains a description of the use of more than 4,500 reagents and catalysts in organic chemistry. It is regularly updated to include new reagents and catalysts.

Physical Chemistry in Depth

Like many other physical chemistry textbooks, this book starts with thermodynamics, deals with kinetics, structure of matter, etc. but includes chapters that are usually treated inadequately in ordinary textbooks. Examples of such chapters include general scaling laws, the graph-like structure of matter, and cross connections between the individual disciplines of physical chemistry.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

The handbook, which is currently in its 96th edition, is a comprehensive one-volume reference resource for science research. It contains wide-ranging information on chemistry and physics topics such as physical constants of organic compounds, properties of the elements and inorganic compounds, molecular structure and spectroscopy, etc.

11

RESOURCES

Frank Seah Science Librarian (Chemistry) frankseah@ntu.edu.sg

Free Online Resources

ChemSpider

http://www.chemspider.com

ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database providing access to over 35 million structures, properties, and associated information. A product of the Royal Society of Chemistry, it integrates and links compounds from 488 data sources.

PubChem

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

PubChem is a database of chemical molecules and their activities against biological assays. It is maintained by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and consists of three primary databases, namely PubChem Substance, PubChem Compound, and PubChem BioAssay. You can freely download millions of compound structures and descriptive datasets.

Organic Syntheses

http://www.orgsyn.org

Organic Syntheses offers annual collections of detailed and carefully checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds dating back to 1921. These procedures include description of practical methods for the preparation of specific compounds of interest as well as illustration of important synthetic methods with general utility. You can search by structure, keyword and table of contents.

spectroscopyNOW

http://www.spectroscopynow.com

spectroscopyNOW is an online resource serving the information needs of the spectroscopy community. It offers an extensive range of important information, resources and services, including peer-reviewed papers from Wiley’s analytical and life science journals, specially commissioned articles from renowned science writers and up-to-the minute news. In addition, it also provides a variety of primers, glossaries, and links directories.

Chemistry Institutions & Societies

American Chemical Society

http://www.acs.org

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a professional association based in the United States with more than 158,000 members globally. Its mission is to support scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry by providing educational and career development programs, products, and services.

Chemical Institute of Canada

http://www.cheminst.ca

The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) is a Canadian professional umbrella organisation for chemists, chemical engineers and chemical technologists. Its mission is to advance the chemical sciences and engineering.

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

http://www.iupac.org

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is a scientific, international and non-governmental body that serves to advance the worldwide aspects of the chemical sciences. It also aims to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of mankind.

Royal Society of Chemistry

http://www.rsc.org

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a professional association based in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to advance the chemical sciences.

Singapore National Institute of Chemistry

http://snic.org.sg

The Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC) was established in March 1970 as a national body for the chemical profession in Singapore. Its current Vice-President is Prof Shunsuke Chiba from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

Check out our chemistry subject guide at https://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/library-resources/chemistry for more information on chemistry resources which can help you with your research and learning!

12

A WORD FROM THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN

Choy Fatt Cheong University Librarian librarian@ntu.edu.sg

QUESTIONABLE JOURNALS

Many academic staff would have noticed the growing unsolicited email invitations to publish in some journal or other. Very often such journals promise fast turn-around time and claim to be peer-reviewed, some with lists of editorial board members. Many of these journals have websites that look polished and have information such as ISSN, submission process, copyright policy, listing of abstracting & indexing sources covering them and even impact factors.

However if one examines just a bit deeper, one would notice many suspicious inconsistencies. For example, they often have the word “American”, “Australian” or “European” in their title, and yet their address is in other parts of the world. Another tell-tale sign is their official contact, which often use email addresses from free email suppliers such as gmail or yahoo mail. Further checking of the provided ISSN, A&I sources and impact factors show them to be non-existent or fraudulent.

These are known as predatory journals, a term coined by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado Denver. These questionable journals ride on the growing development and acceptance of open access journals worldwide purely to conduct a profitable business. There is a growing concern that publishers of these questionable journals are not only operating low quality journals but are also tainting the image of bona-fide open access journals and the open access movement in general.

Open access journals have been around in some form or other since the widespread availability of the Internet though their rapid growth started only a few years ago. For example, as of mid-October, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists 10,613 OA journals containing more than 2.1 million articles.

OA journals are part of gold* open access. Scholarly articles from these journals are freely available for reading and downloading on the Internet. The cost of publishing is recovered mainly by collecting an “article processing charge” (APC) from the authors once their articles

are accepted for publishing after peer review. This is in contrast to subscription journals where users or their libraries pay annual fees for accessing articles. One of the most successful OA publishing enterprises is the series of PLOS journals.

Predatory OA journals focus exclusively on the collection of APC fees from authors who publish with them. The claimed peer review processes and other standards of legitimate journal publishing are cursorily administered or more often, non-existent. It is obvious that it serves no good to publish in these journals. Yet many people do, otherwise these journals would not be in business.

It goes without saying that one should not be associated with these questionable journals in any way. Again, email invitations to serve on the editorial board of these journals are commonly received. It is best to ignore these. There are also cases where researchers are listed in these journals without their permission and consent. Keeping a regular watch on your online profile is therefore a necessity today.

One quick way to find out if a journal is suspicious is to check the list of predatory journals and publishers provided by Jeff Beall (http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers). However, some people have criticized Beall and the partiality of his list.

Another way is the white-list verification method. You can check if the OA journal you intend to publish in is listed in DOAJ. DOAJ aims to keep OA journals with questionable practices off its list and uses a set of strict criteria for journals to get in and to stay on its list. For example, the journal must possess characteristics that indicate good publishing practices, i.e. transparency in members of journal editorial board, and preservation of its digital content for future access. Ridding DOAJ of dodgy journals is an ongoing process and existing journals are subjected to similar scrutiny. Those that do not fulfil the requirements are dropped from DOAJ.

Ultimately, verification should not be settled by a black or white list. The best approach is to analyse thoroughly the journal itself. You can check a journal against the criteria found in both Beall and DOAJ lists. A publisher’s membership of publishing associations such as Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are also good indicators of their journals’ standing as members need to abide by their guidelines on ethical behaviour.

In addition, a simple checklist developed by Think.Check.Submit (http://thinkchecksubmit.org) helps authors clarify and assess if a particular journal is a good choice. This tool is supported by organizations such as OASPA, Biomed Central, SPARC and DOAJ.

The increase in the number of questionable OA journals should not discourage researchers from publishing in good quality OA journals. There are many good quality OA journals with high impact factors that are worthy of your research papers. NTU Libraries can also advise if you have doubts or any queries on OA journals. Please contact Head, Scholarly Communication Group, Samantha Ang (samantha@ntu.edu.sg).

NOTE

*the other is green open access where the accepted versions of journal articles after acceptance of publication are deposited in institutional repositories (such as DR-NTU) for free access and download