Open science resources for molecular biology, chemistry and biomedical science

This is a selection of open science resources for molecular biology, biomedical science and chemistry. Check them out and try them out. Some may be familiar and others less so.....

• FAIRSharing: https://fairsharing.org/databases/ is a catalogue of molecular biology datasets and databases, described according to the BioDBcore guidelines, along with the standards used within them; partly compiled with the support of Oxford University Press (NAR Database Issue and DATABASE Journal).

• Open science databases resources from the Wellcome Trust are listed (via excel) at Wellcome Trust biomedical data sources 

•  The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) also  maintains a list of  open science chemistry and related databases at http://cds.rsc.org/externalresources.asp
  
  
  

Science dissertation and final year project preparation resources

Doing a final year science project or dissertation next semester? Not sure where to start with journals and academic resources?

Have a look at the resource guide pages for your specific subject and find the right information for your topic. Click on the links below to get started:

Biological & Biomedical Science

Chemistry

Computer Science

Mathematics 

Nutrition

Optometry

Physics

Science (general)

If you need any help getting started please contact kst.library@dit.ie

Europe PubMed Central: take the new Quick Tour for students and researchers

Europe PMC is a free database of biomedical and health research literature. The resource provides access to over 30 million abstracts and more than 3 million full text articles (see below). Additionally, the details of more than 44 000 biomedical research grants are available.

A new Quick Tour of Europe PMC is now available and aims to give a basic understanding of Europe PMC and its use, which makes it an ideal resource for final year undergrad students working on a project or postgraduate researchers.




Europe PMC provides access to all the abstracts in PubMed, as well as other sets of abstracts not available through PubMed (e.g. Agricola and Chinese Biological Abstracts). It also provides access to  other literature content of relevance to biomedical research such as PhD theses and patents.

International Innovation: open access research trends in science and technology

The International Innovation suite of publications provides global analysis on current research trends in healthcare, science and technology, as well as funding and policy issues. Aimed at a worldwide scientific audience, all the current and past issues are available to read free-of-charge via their website and the app (available on iTunes and Google Play).  Or follow them @IntlInnovation. Worth a look.

Generation Open - Open Access Week 2014

Access available to ITB & ITT Libraries for DIT staff & students

DIT staff and students can now visit the libraries at  ITB (Institute of Technology Blanchardstown) and ITT (Institute of Technology Tallaght) by simply producing their DIT ID cards. No letter of introduction is required. They may visit the libraries and use the print materials there for reference purposes. Use the links above to see the library collections and opening hours.

Books cannot be borrowed and three libraries may have to refuse admission during busy times e.g. during exams. In return, ITB and ITT staff and students can visit DIT libraries.

DIT visitors to ITT and ITB can still access DIT Library eJournals, databases and eBooks using the Eduroam service on their own mobile device or laptop whilst using the other libraries. For more information on connecting to Eduroam as a DIT staff or student see:

• http://www.dit.ie/is/how/mobileservices/
• http://www.dit.ie/is/how/wirelessservices/

The increased access is a pilot and will be kept under review.

New RSC chemical sciences repository

The new Chemical Sciences Repository is a non-commercial subject specific open access repository for chemistry papers, hosting Green and Gold Open Access(OA) papers. Launched by the RSC last month the Chemical Sciences Repository will host articles from across the chemical sciences and interdisciplinary work at the interface of chemistry.

The deposition of articles is the first phase of the Chemical Sciences Repository. It will be further developed to include data and theses, as well as other types of publications. For FAQs and more information on scope and subject coverage use this link.

11 myths about open access

 There are many misconceptions and arguments against open access. BioMed Central responds to some of the most prevalent and most misleading anti-open access arguments. Worth a look in this ever changing and contentious area

JournalTOCs - shortcuts to keeping research up-to-date

JournalTOCs is the largest free collection of scholarly tables of contents (TOCs) from over 20,000 journals for use by students and researchers. JournalTOCs alerts you when new issues of your followed journals are published.  Most followed journals for September were Nature, Science, NEJM, the Lancet, and JAMA.

To get the full-text of a journal article check the DIT Library eJournal listings for availability

If you are a previous ticTocs user please note that your account and contents of your MyTOCS folder has been transferred to JournalTOCs, so your current awareness service continues without interruption.

Text-mining for scientific research v publishers

Researchers are pushing for an end to publishers' default ban on computer scanning of thousands of papers to find links between genes and diseases. The scale of new information in modern science is huge; more than 1.5m scholarly articles are published every year and the volume of data doubles every three years. No individual can keep up with such a volume, and scientists need computers to help them digest and make sense of the information. The restrictions placed by publishers on text mining has led campaigners to view the issue as another front in the battle to make publicly funded research work available through "open access", free at the point of use. That would allow researchers to mine the content freely without needing to request any extra permissions. Read more on this controversy from the Guardian here.