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Elsevier celebrates scientists’ groundbreaking work with competition

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-09T15:50:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 9 February 2010 at 15:50:00

Elsevier, the publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has launched a competition for excellence in methodology and approach in a peer-reviewed publication.

Called the Reaxys PhD Prize, the STM publisher aims at recognising original and innovative research in organic, organometallic and inorganic chemistry.

The competition is for candidates currently studying for a PhD or having completed a PhD within the last 12 months. David Evans PhD, scientific affairs director at Elsevier Properties SA said today: “Reaxys is designed and built around chemists’ needs. With this competition we’re taking this partnership even further.”

“The research being produced by young chemists deserves recognition. We want to celebrate this groundbreaking work and provide scientists with the recognition they deserve.”

The entries will be reviewed by a board of international chemists and chaired by members of the Reaxys Advisory Board on the basis of originality, innovation, importance to the field, applicability, rigor of approach and publication quality.

Three prize winners will each receive a check for $2000 and be invited to present their research at the Winners’ Symposium, held at the EuCheMS meeting in Nuremberg, Germany on August 30, 2010.

All submissions, including a PhD supervisor letter of recommendation, a CV and a representative peer-reviewed piece of published research must be submitted by February 28, 2010 on Reaxys website.

Electronic Enlightenment wins digital prize

Archana Venkatraman — 2010-02-08T15:51:00.000Z

Archana Venkatraman, Information World Review, Monday 8 February 2010 at 15:51:00

Web win for Age of Enlightenment

Electronic Enlightenment (EE), a website that reconstructs the vital web of 18th century correspondence that marked the start of the modern world, has won the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) digital prize for 2010.

Launched in June 2008, the site is a scholarly research project of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, distributed exclusively by OUP. It features primary documents based on scholarly critical editions and never-before-published material. Over 55,000 letters and 6,500 correspondents provide a new vision of the early modern world. Linking people and ideas across Europe, Asia and the Americas from the early 17th to mid-19th century, EE recasts our understanding of the Enlightenment and ourselves in a more detailed and personal context than ever before, says the university.

The BSECS prize for academic resources is funded by GALE Cengage Learning, JISC, Adam Mathew Digital and ProQuest. The judges said: “With wide coverage, full annotation and presentation, EE will be immensely valuable to scholars of the 18th century.”

www.e-enlightenment.com

Government’s refusal of FOI requests at its peak

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-08T15:01:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Monday 8 February 2010 at 15:01:00

The Government’s response rates to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests has deteriorated significantly since the Act was introduced five years ago. Furious info pros want stricter penalties to apply to public sector bodies failing to comply with the spirit of the Act

As FOIA celebrates its fifth anniversary, legal information provider Sweet & Maxwell published Freedom of Information Manual which revealed that in the last quarter of 2009, 22% of requests for information under the FOIA were refused as compared to 18% in 2005 when the Act first came into force.

The report found that the cabinet office withheld as much as 51% of formal information requests. The FOI to obtain information on MPs expenses was first submitted in January 2005 and it took more than four years before the information was disclosed.

One of the main reasons given for withholding information, as in MPs expenses saga, is it contains personal details. Experts called it a “bit of a catch-all excuse”.

In addition, it found that HMRC and OFT refused 45% , MoJ refused 44% and HM Treasury refused up to 32% of FOIA requests. In all, 6,334 requests for information were withheld in the last 12 months.

Besides, the percentage of requests which did not receive a proper response in the 20-day deadline rose from 16% to 18% over the last year.

Marcus Turle, author of the Manual, said: “Government departments still have a deeply rooted ‘need to know’ culture and are struggling to come to terms with the ‘right to know’ principle enshrined in the FOIA.”

Turle, also a partner at commercial law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, said: “Public sector bodies are increasingly refusing to disclose information or dragging their feet over dealing with requests as a way of managing their reputations. There is a feeling within some public sector bodies that information on their poor performance which is disclosed is too often used as a stick to beat them with, which is reinforcing this reluctance.”

“What’s worrying is that public sector bodies are actually getting worse at dealing with requests when you would expect them to be improving their performance. The Act has been in force five years now. Rather than becoming faster and more open in dealing with requests, the trend is going in the opposite direction.”

Part of the problem is that there are no penalties if public sector bodies withhold information unjustifiably or fail to disclose information within the 20-day deadline.

“There is very little disincentive for public sector bodies not to comply with the spirit of the Act. They cannot be fined for withholding or taking too much time to disclose information just because it might be embarrassing to them. Too many perfectly valid requests are taking years to process and all too frequently by the time the information is obtained it is out of date.”

According to Sweet & Maxwell, the performance of some government bodies differed radically from others in Q3 09. For instance, the Ministry of Defence only refused 8% of requests in the same period. Other government bodies least likely to hold information include HM Land Registry at 3%, Scotland Office at 4%, Treasury Solicitor’s Department at 6% and the Department of Health at 9%.

“If the MoD, which has a reputation for secrecy and could justifiably withhold information on national security grounds, only refuses 8% of requests you have to wonder whether departments like HMRC are withholding information on legitimate grounds.”

Prof David Shumaker receives SLA award for excellence in LIS education

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-04T15:41:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Thursday 4 February 2010 at 15:41:00

David Shumaker, associate professor at the Catholic University of America (CUA), has received the 2009 Rose Vormelker Award for excellence in guiding and mentoring future information professionals and librarians awarded by the Special Libraries Association (SLA)

Since joining the faculty at CUA, Shumaker has actively recruited students to the library profession and promoted the values of special librarianship. His students from the marketing information services class participate in real-life practical assignments in libraries across the American capital.

He was honoured for his instruction on embedded librarianship and marketing and establishing librarians collaborative programmes.

Shumaker has served as clinical associate professor and director of the Information Commons at the CUA School of Library and Information Science since August 2006.

Through his work with library school students, Shumaker encourages the study and application of “embedded librarianship,” which is the idea that the librarian or information professional break out of the library or information center and work directly with external clients as an integral part of specialized project teams.

“The embedded librarian doesn’t wait to be asked; the embedded librarian identifies information needs that may be unexpressed,” he said. “The embedded librarian can proactively go out and get the information, the best information, the most important information, and make sure it gets to the point of need.”

Compelled by his belief that students need to collaborate, share information and build relationships, Shumaker has led the establishment of a multipurpose collaborative space for CUA called the Information Commons.

He also organises a series of colloquia each semester, taught by innovative librarians, on a variety of interesting and engaging topics. “Teaching is important for me for two reasons. One is the desire to share what I’ve gained with others, and the other is that I think our society really needs librarians.”

Prior to joining CUA, Shumaker was manager of Information Services at Mitre. Previously, he was a Library of Congress intern, a cataloger and an automation specialist for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. He is co-editor of two editions of the Washington Area Library Directory and author of presentations for SLA conferences and other events.

In 2005, he co-authored a white paper on the future of librarians in business for a study, "The Future of Librarians in the Workplace." He holds a bachelor’s degree in Slavic languages from the University of California Los Angeles, a master’s degree in library science from Drexel University, and a master’s degree in management from the University of Maryland.

Autonomy defies economy with strong revenue and positive outlook

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-04T15:37:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Thursday 4 February 2010 at 15:37:00

British software company Autonomy has reported a 55% rise in its annual profits before tax at $323m (£203m) for 2009 and attributed its revenue increase to acquisitions, IDOL-range information product developments, expansion and positive Q4

Its full year revenue of $740m, was up 47% from 2008 including strong organic growth while its operating margins were at 44% compared to 41% the previous year.

Mike Lynch, Group chief executive, Autonomy said today: “Looking back on 2009, despite an economic environment that can be described at best as difficult, and an unhelpful foreign exchange headwind, Autonomy produced outstanding results with adjusted profit from operations growing by 59% at a time when most of our software peers have seen small or negative growth. We delivered this strong growth on top of an exceptionally strong performance in Q4 2008.”

During 2009 Autonomy braced itself for a possible upturn in 2010 with efforts including significant IDOL product developments, launches and expansion of its IDOL hosted capabilities and increasing investment to 26% in research and development. In keeping up with the trends in meaning-based computing, the company extended its technologies from the unstructured world to the structured.

Lynch said: “After this exceptional expenditure we are now seeing our cost base return to its traditional model with an operating margin of 50% in the fourth quarter. The driver for our business is the need for computers to understand and process human friendly information automatically. We believe this driver will continue to accelerate, and as customers find discretionary budgets again we expect to see good growth in the meaning based marketing applications of our technology alongside our resilient information governance applications.

“We continue to see our strongest growth in the new models of the software industry such as OEM and cloud computing. Whilst it may still take a little time for people to understand how these models differ from traditional software businesses, we believe the momentum in these areas is accelerating.”

In 2010, Autonomy will leverage on the surge in meaning based computing portfolio as well as the ever-expanding understanding in the market of the challenges associated with unstructured information.

“At the very end of Q4 2009 we began to see some indicators of an initial improvement in the macro environment, which gives us confidence in the outlook for 2010, and accordingly we are adjusting our business plan."

Wakefield’s paper on MMR finally retracted

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-03T13:50:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 13:50:00

Medical journal The Lancet has fully retracted the discredited 1998 paper by Dr Andrew Wakefield from its published record

The editors of the journal announced that following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council's Fitness to Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010, “it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.

“In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were ‘consecutively referred’ and that investigations were ‘approved’ by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper.”

The 1998 research paper linked MMR vaccine to autism and this resulted in a surge in measles as the MMR vaccination rates declined after its publication.

The full retraction comes a week after the UK General Medical Council ruled that the lead researcher of the paper Wakefield has “broken research rules”.

Concerns about the paper were first raised almost seven years ago, in 2004. At that time, Lancet asked London’s Royal Free Society, where Wakefield worked as a gastroenterologist at that time, to look into the matter.

The Society investigated and responded saying there was no problem with the research paper.

The date of the final ruling from the watchdog has not yet been announced.

Thomson Reuters launches next-gen legal system

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-02T17:27:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 17:27:00

WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters’ just launched next generation system in legal research is set make professionals “significantly more efficient and confident”

The provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals said the system represents the culmination of more than 100 years of West attorney-created editorial analysis and technological innovation.

It offers a clean, modern interface and powerful new search functionality that will give info pros the confidence that they’ve explored every relevant document, the company said.

The cornerstone of WestlawNext is its proprietary search engine that automates the best practices of expert legal researchers, delivering more inclusive, better ranked results. The system also includes tools to help legal professionals analyse and organise legal information more efficiently than ever before.

President and chief executive Peter Warwick said: “We’ve combined our 138-year legacy of analysing and organising legal information with cutting edge search technology to set a new standard for legal research tools.

This combination of authority and insight, driven by peerless technology and innovation, is the essence of intelligent information and provides a powerful advantage for our customers.”

City University launches part-time MIL for aspiring CIOs

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-02T12:36:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 12:36:00

Plugging the gap between traditional post-graduate courses and IT Masters, City University London’s interdisciplinary Centre for Information Leadership has launched an executive-style course - Masters in Information Leadership (MIL)

The part-time course, starting in September 2010, is aimed at mid-career professionals with three to five years of experience in business-facing IT management or consultancy roles, seeking to progress to CIO-level or other top leadership positions, such as chief technology officer (CTO), business change director, knowledge director or chief librarian.

It also seeks to equip senior IT professionals with the technological, commercial and managerial expertise that are increasingly vital to today’s information-led economy.

Dr Andrew Tuson, MIL course director, said: “Currently, there are very few training options in the UK that are specifically designed to address the rigorous needs of future CIOs. By launching this dedicated post-experience degree, we are bridging the gap that exists between traditional MBA and IT Masters offerings and acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of the information leader's role.”

David Chan, an experienced CIO, former head of business systems at the BBC, and director of the Centre for Information Leadership, said: “CIOs today must contend with a diverse array of issues: coping with an increasingly mobile workforce; ensuring their organisations are legally and sustainably compliant; and assessing the business benefits of adopting the latest technologies, for example.

This requires a highly specialised skill set – one which we intend to instil through this course.”

The course will be taught during one weekend each month over a period of two years, by academics from City’s School of Informatics, the University’s world-ranking Cass Business School and its City Law School, with input and presentations from existing CIOs playing a central part in the course's delivery.

Nature launches iPhone App

IWR News Desk — 2010-02-01T17:26:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Monday 1 February 2010 at 17:26:00

Do you want to search, browse, read and bookmark full text content from Nature and Nature News, and search PubMed? There is an app for it

The global science publication has launched its iPhone application (app) for users of iPhone, iPod Touch and even the newly launched iPad.

Starting today, the app is available in the iPhone App Store and on Nature’s website for free until April 30, 2010. Users will need to be registered on nature.com, NPG’s publishing platform.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) will be producing EPUB files that can be read using Apple’s iBooks and other e-readers. Besides, an application for devices using Android is expected to be available within the next few months.

Users can read full text articles immediately or save them for later, search nature.com, set up saved searches, or browse the latest news and research. To ensure that research papers and news articles are truly readable on the iPhone, the app has features such as high resolution, zoom-able figures, and a special references view.

The nature.com mobile app also enables users to keep up with the latest relevant abstracts from PubMed, the widely-used search interface that provides access to over 11 million journal citations and contains links to full-text articles.

“The mobile app makes it easy to keep abreast of the latest in science news and research,” says Dan Pollock, associate director for Nature.com. “We wish to find out more about how people use their mobile devices to search and read scientific papers and news.”

Nature will further upgrade its functionality later this year and offer personal and institutional pricing options. NPG will be trialing site license access with selected institutional customers and subsequently roll out access to other Nature branded journals and publications available on nature.com, including Scientific American.

NPG aims at enabling optimised content delivery options for mobile and e-reader devices. The open e-book standard, EPUB enables text display to be optimised for a particular display device.

The file format is compatible with the Sony eReader and many other e-readers, phones and devices using Android, the iPhone and iPod Touch, the publisher confirmed.

Report data breaches or risk tougher sanctions, warns ICO

IWR News Desk — 2010-01-29T14:51:00.000Z

IWR News Desk, Information World Review, Friday 29 January 2010 at 14:51:00

The Information Commissioner’s Office has warned organisations that they may face tougher sanctions if they fail to report security breaches which subsequently come to light

David Smith, deputy commissioner, said: “We are keen to work with organisations to prevent breaches occurring in the first place and to help put things right when things do go wrong. Talking to us may of course result in regulatory action.

“However, organisations must act responsibly; those that try to cover up breaches which we subsequently become aware of are likely to face tougher regulations.”

The warning comes after the privacy watchdog said more than 800 data security breaches have been reported to it in just over two years. It also coincides with the new powers of the ICO, starting April under which, it can issue fines of up to £500,000 for serious data breaches.

Mistakes account for 195 of the 818 data security breaches reported to the ICO since November 2007, while 262 breaches are the result of theft, often where the personal information was held on an unencrypted portable device.

The ICO provides free advice to organisations to help them comply with the Data Protection Act (DPA). This includes measures such as ensuring that all portable media devices containing personal information are encrypted to minimise risks, professionals are adequately trained and restricting staff from downloading large volumes of data on to memory sticks and other portable devices.

ICO informs companies that all personal information held within buildings and offices should be protected by adequate security arrangements to prevent theft or the loss of the data. The loss of personal information can cause harm and distress for individuals, and can lead to reputational damage and loss of customer trust for organisations.

It has also produced a guide intended to help organisations safeguard people’s personal details and comply with the law. The guide takes a straight-forward look at the principles of the Data Protection Act and uses practical, business-based examples.