A website for publishing scientists http://www.firstauthor.org en-UK Mon, 23 Apr 2006 17:45:00 GMT Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#OUBSM06--articles Sir Marton Wood is the founder of Oxford Instruments and an integral figure in the development of superconducting magnets. An account of his recent lecture in Oxford can now be read. Updates Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#ecmeeting First Author* has collected the impressions of various bloggers regarding the EC's meeting yesterday, in which they pledged funds to supporting author payments and a repository infrastructure for OA research Updates Tues, 20 Feb 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#symposium Podcasts and Slides from the BMC's Open Access Colloquium are now available Updates Tues, 20 Feb 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#npgchina The NPG has launched Nature China, an internet portal designed to publicize the best research to come out of mainland China and Hong Kong. Updates Tues, 20 Feb 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#feb17 The BMC has launched Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care. Further, BMC Evolutionry Biology and BMC Cancer have both published their first supplements. Updates Tues, 20 Feb 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html#protocols Read for a review on the latest online protocol sharing resources. Updates Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#petition A petition has been launched in support of the findings of the European Commission, published the Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets of Europe. If successful the petition would be massive in the advancement of open access science. Updates Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#mucosal The NPG has adopted the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, and formed a new partnership with the Society for Mucosal Immunology in launching a new journal. Updates Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#3elsevier Elsevier has announced the launch of 3 new publications: the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, the International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, and Biotechnology, the Journal. Updates Wed, 7 Feb 2007 15:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#gatesnpg The Nature Publishing Group and the Gates Foundation have released Improved Diagnostic Technologies for the Developing World, an open access publication aimed to determine global health diagnostics needs. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#sanitation The readers of the BMJ have elected Sanitation the most important medical breakthrough since 1840, from a selection of 15 advances voted by the BMJ editors. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#education The Nature Publishing Group has launched Nature Education, a digitally based resource designed for undergraduate science students and their professors. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#honours Four Oxford academics have received CBEs for their services to their respective areas of study, ranging from economics to Islamic studies. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#PLoSonedec In December PLoS One was launched by the Public Library of Science. Ongoing commentary about published articles can occur in this new approach to electronic publishing. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#wikiasari Jimbo Wales is developing a search engine combining Google's ranking system with a subjective, user-based system of rankings. Updates Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#ukpmc The UK has launched an open access archiving system which mirrors the US PubMed system maintained by the National Institutes of Health. Research funded by any of the 9 participating bodies will be archived in the open access UKPMC. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#Oxfordevents The Controller of BBC4 will start a series of three Tuess evening lectures on 30 Jan, discussing Why Television Still Matters. Updates Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#bmcifi Biology Direct is now on track to receive an Impact Factor in 2008. Updates Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#hydro In April 2007 Elsevier will launch a new journal entitled Journal of Hydro-environment Research. The Journal of Hydro-environment Research provides an international platform for the dissemination of research and engineering applications related to water and hydraulic problems in the Asia-Pacific region. Updates Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#ethics Blackwell's Publishing has released the Best Practice Guidelines on Publication Ethics: A Publisher's Perspective, marking the first time a publishing body has offered a series of ethics guidelines to its editors. Updates Tues, 19 Dec 2006 18:35:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#icb The journal, Immunology and Cell Biology has joined the Nature Publishing Group's portfolio of scholarly journals. Updates Tues, 19 Dec 2006 18:35:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#embo The Nature Publishing Group and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) have announced that the EMBO Journal and EMBO Reports will offer an author pays open access option from January 2007. Updates Tues, 19 Dec 2006 18:35:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#3supple Two BMC Journals, Bioinformatics and Pulmonary Medicine, have recently published 3 new supplements between them. Updates Tues, 19 Dec 2006 18:35:00 GMT Oxford University Press Announces Agreements with NLM http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#openox Oxford Journals has announced a new agreement with the National Library of Medicine (NLM) that will allow all content published as open access under its Oxford Open model to be available from PubMed Central. Updates Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:15:00 GMT Scientists push open access for developing nations http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#opendev Scientists from Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India and South Africa have set guidelines for developing countries to freely access publicly funded research. Updates Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:15:00 GMT New economics journal launched by Oxford University students http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#oxonomics A new journal founded and edited by postgraduate researchers from Oxford University, Oxonomics: Oxford University Economic Studies, promises to retain the rigour of academic research while exploring a wide range of economic issues. Updates Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:15:00 GMT WikiPedia launches Quickwiki http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#quickiwiki A new service is now available that condenses Wikipedia articles into key excerpts. Updates Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:15:00 GMT STAIR/Oxford Internet Institute Conference, The Internet: Power and Governance in a Digitised World http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#Oxfordevents On Dec 6, this day long meeting will convene at St. Anthony's College, Oxford, to discuss the impact of the internet on world politics over the last decade. Events Tues, 28 Nov 2006 18:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#selfarch Evidence has emerged in the fields of astrophysics and condensed matter physics that journal articles self-archived in Arvix are more likely to be cited by others. Updates Tues, 28 Nov 2006 18:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/events.html#NOV06 In the coming months, the aforementioned authors will publish a well-researched journey into such cutting edge topics as intellectual property, collaboration, and innovation. Events Tues, 28 Nov 2006 18:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#informatics Elsevier has hired Dr. Jonathan Teich as chief medical informatics officer. Teich will be responsible for directing the development of the vision, strategy, and broad product design to translate Elsevier’s content base and publication resources into products that provide a sophisticated level of support to clinical practice and healthcare delivery. Updates Tues, 28 Nov 2006 18:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#wireless Researchers at MIT have devised a method for providing battery operated devices with wireless power. Updates Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#sbs On Monday 20 November, the Said Business School will host its annual event in which entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley come to Oxford to interact with the community. Updates Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#bio1000 The Faculty 1000 of Biology has launched its Pharmacology and Drug Discovery Faculty on 30 October. The world's top pharmacologists will highlight and evaluate the most important research articles in their field. Updates Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#bmjgoogle The British Medical Journal has published a paper from Australia in which doctors used Google searches as a tool for diagnosis, in 26 case studies from the New England Journal of Medicine. Google searches provided the correct outcome 58% of the time. Updates Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#supplemcf Biomed Central journal Microbial Cell Factories has published its first supplement, consisting of the proceedings from a recent meeting in Barcelona. Updates Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#pubdrug The University of Buffalo has launched Pubdrug.org, a wiki aimed at providing copyright and royalty free resources regarding a wide range of clinical drugs. Updates Fri, 10 Nov 2006 19:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#rheum To celebrate the first anniversary of the journal, http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#virology On Nov 30 at 4:30 pm, a series of lectures will be held at the University Museum in Oxford discussing current topics in virology. The lecture series will feature three prestigious speakers, including Nobel laureate Professor Baruch Blumberg. Updates Thurs, 9 Nov 2006 9:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#eldev With "Trials from Resource-Limited Settings," the established journal Current Therapeutic Research makes the inclusion of articles from resource-limited settings a key priority. It is hoped that this new addition will have an impact on therapeutic research efforts far beyond resource-limited settings. Updates Thurs, 9 Nov 2006 9:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#orthopedic Biomed Central has launched the open access journal The Journal of Orthopedic Surgery and Research. Updates Thurs, 9 Nov 2006 9:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#lipid In March 2007, the Association and Elsevier will commence publication of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology as the official publication of the Association. Updates Thurs, 9 Nov 2006 9:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#dpag Professor John Hall, former president of the American Physiological Society and currently at the University of Missippi Medical Centre, will lecture on Fri 3 Nov on the metabolic causes of hypertension. Updates Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:40:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Nat_peer_rev Nature's experiments with open peer review have yielded some interesting discussions, but as yet no conclusions appear to have emerged. Updates Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:40:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Self_arch_mands Several more public institutions require authors to archive their work in freely available form. Updates Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:27:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Chem_OA Collaborative research tools and research environments featured on BMC's new service, Chemistry Central. Updates Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:27:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#SL_data_vis Second Life launches a weather visualisation project in collaboration with NOAA, while Nature populates its own island, Second Nature. Updates Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:27:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#cancer BMC has launched the open access journal Infectious Agents and Cancer. New Publications Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#ismej NPG, along with the International Society for Microbial Ecology, have launched a new journal. ISME: The Multi-disciplinary Journal of Microbial Ecology will be available in hard and electronic copy from May 2007. New Publications Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#bmcsupple The BMC has published a new supplement to BMC Bioinformatics New Publications Thur, 12 Oct 2006 19:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#nnano NPG has launched the first issue of Nature Nanotechnology New Publications Thur, 12 Oct 2006 19:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#NGPAthens NGP has announced that its services are now accessible through the academic authentication service ATHENS and will soon be Shibboleth compliant. New Publications Wed, 4 Oct 2006 13:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#AjaxDesktopsUpdates Netvibes and Pageflakes introduce new features as part of the upgrade to 2.0 status while Google distributes its widgets and Nokia introduces a mobile version. Updates Wed, 4 Oct 2006 11:01:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#DataMiningUpdates Following First Author's recent article on the subject, we review some recent controversies over data mining and privacy and some new methods of using Connotea to bookmark machine-readable xml data created using Simile. Updates Tue, 3 Oct 2006 18:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#PLoSNTD PLoS Neglected and Tropical Diseases aims to raise the profile of research focusing on the neglected 'diseases of the poor' and to build biomedical research capacity in affected countries. New Publications Tue, 3 Oct 2006 13:53:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#OA A new article from First Author* discusses the impact of the open access model on accessing and publishing scientific research in less developed countries and examines some of the challenges it will face as it emerges into the mainstream. Research Tools Tue, 3 Oct 2006 13:17:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#JRobotSurg Springer launches the Journal of Robotic Surgery, focusing exclusively on this emerging field of medicine. New publications Tue, 3 Oct 2006 13:17:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#OUBSM06 The University's Biochemical Society and the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics have released their seminar schedules for Michelmas term 2006. Update Mon, 2 Oct 2006 13:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#DataMiningUpdates New ways to use Connotea for data mining, and the privacy issues surrounding data from search engines. Update Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:13:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#DissectMed Two services based on the Digg model of ranking new sites gain popularity Update Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#BlackwellTool Blackwell teams up with the Web of Science and Thomson Scientific to produce a new tool to integrate the processes of drafting, submitting, and reviewing papers New Publications Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:21:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#RoyalSocOA The Royal Society counters critics of its negative view of open access by launching an experimental author-pays option. Free access is also granted to the full archive of RS journals for a limited period Update Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:53:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#MoreMapMashups As Flickr and Picasa web users pin their photos to the virtual globes of Yahoo and Google, First Author* looks at some scientific uses of geotagging images. Update Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:22:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#JAI The Institute, set up in collaboration with the Royal Holloway University London, will investigate two of the fundamental questions of physics: the 'Big Bang' and the mysterious properties of neutrinos. Oxford Science Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#OIIreport The OII recently released the final report of its study entitled 'World Wide Web of Science: emerging global sources of expertise project', which assesses whether, and to what extent, the Internet and the Web are transforming access to sources of scientific expertise. Oxford Science Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:16:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/events.html First Author events page now contains listing for conferences and meetings until May 2007. Events listing cover the key themes of the site: communicating research, new technologies, access to research materials and debates within scientific publishing. Events Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#IDOA A new initiative makes it easier to self-archive even before publishing deadlines expire by encouraging institutions to make immediate open archiving mandatory alongside optional immediate access. Update Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:24:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#PLoSONE OA publisher PLoS has generated widespread enthusiasm with the recent release of medical/basic science journal PLoSONE, receiving 70 submissions in the past 3 weeks. Update Tues, 29 Aug 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#oac OA publisher BioMed Central has launched two new OA repositories, Opan Access Central and Chemistry Central. Physics Central, an analogue site for Math and Physics, will be released at a later date. Update Tues, 29 Aug 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#nerc The National Environmental Research Council has joined other UK Research Councils in mandating that all funded research is archived in an open access repository. Update Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#medipaedia The UK network for medics, doctors.net.uk, has launched a Wiki-based reference for medicine called Medipaedia. Medipaedia will be dynamically editable by all of the 130,000 medics registered in the UK, and as information is accumulated, will serve as a virtual encyclopedia. Update Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#avs Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, the official veterinary journal of the nordic countries, has announced that all content will be available as open access. Update Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#jordan Elsevier announced the signing of a three-year agreement for the provision of vital scientific and medical information to the Jordanian Consortium. The agreement provides all Jordanian undergraduates, graduates, researchers, faculty and staff within the consortium with access to ScienceDirect collection of 2,000 journals from 2002 onwards. Update Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#authorpays The Health Information and Libraries journal will publish an article in September 2006 that provides evidence for publication bias in the author-pays model of Open Access publishing. The study concludes that authors from developing countries are significantly less likely to have their research published in author pays journals. Further, among all journals, clinical case studies are more likely to be published when funded by industry; this type of research tends not to focus on concerns of developing nations. Update Mon, 14 Aug 2006 9:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#25 Provosts from 25 renowned universities from the US have signed a letter in support of the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRAPP) of 2006. The bill would mandate that research funded by organizations with budgets in excess of $100 million be publishing in an OA archive. Update Mon, 14 Aug 2006 9:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#naturejap Nature has released its first Japanese language publication, Nature Digest. Update Fri, 4 August 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#harpercollins HarperCollins has announced that the first 3 pages from a number of its books published from well-known authors will be available free online, on its website Browse Inside and the authors' own sites. Update Fri, 4 August 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#carbon The BMC has launched a new journal, Carbon Balance and Management. Update Fri, 4 August 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#natureoa The Nature Publishing Group has announced that from January 2007, archives from all journals more than 4 years old will be freely available. NPG has implemented this program to encourage more widespread use of their journals' content. Update Tues, 2 August 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#aggademia The website Aggademia, which collates articles from the top 50 science blogs, is now up and running as a prototype version. Update Tues, 2 August 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#roar OA repositories ROAR and ROARMAP have reported participation of nearly 500 instittions and funding bodies, in terms of registering OA mandates, policies, and databases. Update Fri, 28 July 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#newassignment Jay Rosen has just launched a non-profit website that will employ journalists to drive open source news publishing. The hope is that individuals with news to report will contribute to result in a news repository of superior quality. Update Fri, 28 July 2006 15:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#gates Bill and Melinda Gates have announced a donation for $287 million to 16 research groups across the world, for the pursuit of a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. As a condition of funding, groups agreed to share all results with other participating groups. Update Wed, 26 July 2006 17:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OAelsevier In 6 of its nuclear physics journals, Elsevier have launched a 'Sponsored Articles' model, in which authors of accepted publications can pay a fee to ensure that their article will be available free of charge on Science Direct. Update Wed, 19 July 2006 17:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#Hubertalk An article describing Professor Robert Huber's recent lecture at Oxford, entitled Molecular Machines for Protein Degradation, is now available for download. Update Mon, 17 July 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#europlat Dr. Nicholas Shea, a philosophy postdoctoral fellow, and Dr. Kristine Krug, a research fellow in the Department of Physiolog, Anatomy and Genetics, have been invited to join project called ‘European Platform for Life Sciences, Mind Sciences, and the Humanities’, with the first workshop taking place in Berlin in October. Delegates will discuss recent multi-disciplinary advances in the cognitive sciences. Update Fri, 14 July 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#Naturenano The Nature Publishing Group's new publication, Nature Nanotechnology, is now available for preview and there is a call for relevant papers. The journal will be launched in October 2006. Update Mon, 17 July 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#bornertalk A brief summary of Dr. Katy Borner's recent talk, describing an approach to creating a cyberinfrastructure for science, has been posted on Oxford Science. A more detailed article is on the way. Update Mon, 17 July 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#chinagateway BioMed Central has launched a network focusing on papers co-authored by scientists in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Update Thurs, 13 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#Naturemedline The National Library of Medicine has indexed the four newest members of the Nature Clinical Practice Series. These four journals join the original four journal in the series, which were published one year earlier. Update Thurs, 13 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#NatureProtocols The Nature Publishing Group has launched Nature Protocols, a database for publishing and public discussion of laboratory procedures. Update Thurs, 6 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#mongolia Elsevier has partnered with the Asia Foundation's Books for Asia program to donate medical texts to the Health Sciences University in Mongolia. Update Tues, 4 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#July_medscape 18 Open Access(OA) journals from BMC are to be included in Medscape, a resource provided to give clinicians and medical personnel access to current peer reviewed research. Update Thurs, 6 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#July_medscape The MRC, BBSRC, and ESRC have jointly and individually issued statements requiring all research they fund to be published in public archives within 6 months. Update Thurs, 6 July 2006 19:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#PLoSfinance Nature has recently published an article exploring the financial situation of a leading OA publisher, the Public Library of Science (PLoS). While the publisher's journals have received satisfactory impact factors, their sources of revenue have been insufficient to meet expenditures. Update Wed, 5 July 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#touchgroup It is now possible to display your Connotea bookmarks in the form of a 'touchgroup'. Update Tues, 4 July 2006 17:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#grossman A conference was held on 28 June at Imperial College London on the subject of 'data webs'. Participants emphasised that as increasing numbers of scientists were depositing work in distributed databases, the need for effective mechanisms for querying and harvesting metadata from those databases. Update Tues, 4 July 2006 17:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#nature_textmine After a period of lively discussion on Nature's science and technology blog, Nascent and elsewhere some changes have been made to Nature's OTMI tool. For more information see First Author's article on text mining, and the link on First Author. Update Tues, 4 July 2006 17:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/oxford.html#OII_symposium In association with the University of York and several others, the Oxford Internet Institute will provide an international forum for the discussion of increasingly elegant technologies and their effect on wider society. Update Tues, 4 July 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html Open access publishing adopts an extra element of importance in the context of the developing world, in which scientists and institutions may not have sufficient resources to access some expensive, high-impact scientific journals. A featured article on First Author* explores this dilemma that scientists in the developing world face in accessing and publishing scientific information, and discusses the impact of several emerging solutions. Article Wed, 28 June 2006 20:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html#MMC Macmillan has released Macmillan Medical Communications, an agency dedicated to the disseminaiton of biomedical information internationally, using novel language- and internet-based technologies. Also, Biomed Central has released a new journal, and has received its first feedback by means of conventional impact factors. Update Wed, 28 June 2006 20:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html#Pubwizard Biowizard has introduced a new tool for searching through PubMed article databases. PubMed Wizard will allow contributors to post information, rankings, and discussion on any of the thousands of articles searchable via PubMed. Update Wed, 28 June 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html#Oxfordscience First Author* has introduced a new feature on the webpage. 'Oxford Science' will discuss upcoming events and recent news items that are local to our location in Oxford, UK. Further, 'Oxford Science' will feature articles offering in-depth coverage of lectures that have recently taken place in Oxford. Currently 'Oxford Science' discusses a new internet course on nanotechnology offered by a Nobel laureate, and an upcoming lecture sponsored by the Oxford Internet Institute, among other news items. A featured article covering Nobel laureate Professor Robert Huber's recent lecture in Oxford will be posted later this week. Featured event Tues, 20 June 2006 16:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#NatureJunePeerReview2 Nature has announced that it will begin trials of an open peer review method, to run simultaneously with its conventional peer reivew. A forum for debate about various aspects of peer review will be hosted concurrently with the trial. First Author* follows up on interest generated, and public opinion, to date. Update Fri, 16 June 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#NatureJunePeerReview Nature has announced that it will begin trials of an open peer review method, to run simultaneously with its conventional peer reivew. A forum for debate about various aspects of peer review will be hosted concurrently with the trial. Update Wed, 07 June 2006 17:20:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#TextMining Many scientists trying to unearth nuggets of information from the vast online deposits have probably wished for an intelligent tool to automatically answer complex queries, such as “How does protein X affect disease Y”? Existing keyword searches largely ignore the relationships between words, so is this scenario just a pipedream? Perhaps not, as several research groups and companies are now pioneering innovative text-mining technologies that might ultimately allow personally relevant semantic searching. Article Fri, 02 June 2006 15:20:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#AvianFlu Renewed calls for improved sharing of data on the avian flu virus include proposals for an agreement such as that which applied to the Human Genome project. Update Thu, 01 June 2006 11:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#BMCPeerReview A BMC study of the quality of peer reviewer report found that reviewers suggested by authors rather than editors were less likely to recommend that papers be rejected. Update Wed, 31 May 2006 16:55:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#MobilePres A major topic at the Edinburgh www2006 conference was the growing importance of mobile devices. First Author looks at some of the new projects for mobile devices. Update Wed, 31 May 2006 16:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#mspace The Edinburgh www2006 conference made use of the mspace organiser, a mashup of iTunes and Google. Update Wed, 31 May 2006 16:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#SemanticWiki Some interesting suggestions have been emerging from the Edinburgh www2006 conference. First Author examines the new 'semantic wiki'. Update Wed, 31 May 2006 12:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/events.html#SAMT2006 A conference on semantic web technology hosted by Onto World Featured event Wed, 31 May 2006 11:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#UpdateCancerTherapeutics Elsevier announces the launch of online-only review journal, Update on Cancer Therapeutics New Publications Wed, 31 May 2006 10:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#4_BMC_Jnls BioMed Central releases four new journals in the areas of cell biology, emergency medicine, bioethics and scientific information management. New Publications Tue, 30 May 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Illumio Illumio, a new social networking tool will rank participants according to expertise based on the content of their computer. First Author examines the concept and its potential applications social software for academia. Updates Tue, 30 May 2006 15:40:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublication.html#PLoSTrials PLoS has launched a new open access, peer reviewed journal, PLoS Clinical Trials, dedicated to reporting clinical trials in all areas of medicine. An editorial in the first issue explains that the journal forms part of an initiative to encourages universal disclosure of clinical trials in order to combat the bias arising from the tendancy to publish only those trials that report positive or significant effects. New Publications Fri, 26 May 2006 13:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Neurona The Neurona Project proposes the use of distributed computing to create a network that functions like the human brain by combining various sensory clues detected by the computers, or 'neurons', that make up the network. Updates Fri, 26 May 2006 11:55:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#HubMed_synonyms A new feature in HubMed provides a definition and synonyms of query terms. Updates Thu, 25 May 2006 16:10:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OApapers A range of papers describing the history and current state of open access were released this week, including an interview with the founder of BioMed Central. Updates Thu, 25 May 2006 11:20:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#GICellMotility A new web portal with a range of peer reviewed material relating to cell motility in the gastrointestinal tract. New Publications Thu, 25 May 2006 10:20:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/index.html#NatureVisit First Author visited the NGP web publishing team to hear about some of the innovations in online publishing coming from Nature. News Wed, 24 May 2006 14:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Hubmed_stats A new method to track the top authors publishing in given fields. Updates Mon, 22 May 2006 16:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Patents A proposal to extend the peer review system to monitor patent applications is currently under consideration by the US patent office. The proposal is to use an online community such as Slashdot to rate applications. Updates Thu, 18 May 2006 11:10:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OpenComp A book chapter and conference report released this month provide some interesting perspectives on making full text content accessible to machines for indexing while retaining barriers on human access. Updates Wed, 17 May 2006 16:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Mellon The Mellon foundation has issued a call for nominations for two awards valued $25,000 and $100,000 for not-for-profit organisations that have been involved in developing open source technology. Updates Wed, 17 May 2006 15:40:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OADev An interview and a paper released recently raise some important question about how far open access is improving participation in scienctific research in developing countries Updates Wed, 17 May 2006 12:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#Mayr A system is proposed for using the download statistics of papers deposited in open access repositories as a measure of their impact. Updates Wed, 17 May 2006 12:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#GoogleNotebook Google has now launched its online bookmarking service, Google Notebook. Updates Tue, 16 May 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#HubMedGoogle HubMed has added a Greasemonkey script that allows users to have the HubMed options displayed in the google results page when any PubMed article is retrieved. Updates Tue, 16 May 2006 17:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#Trials This month the BioMed Central journal formerly known as Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine (CCTCVM) is re-launched as Trials. The journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, online publication that will encompass all aspects of the performance and findings of randomized controlled trials in medical disciplines. New Publications Tue, 16 May 2006 16:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#Scripta Elsevier has announced that Scripta Materialia, companion journal to Acta Materialia, has been redesigned in a new letters format. Scripta papers will be limited in length and address new results of high current interest and significance, while the Acta papers will remain full length. New Publications Tue, 16 May 2006 16:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#NeurosciGateway Nature today announced the launch of a new Neuroscience Gateway. Developed in partnership with the Allen Institute for Brain Science the gateway's more interesting feature is the Allen Brain Atlas, a publicly accessible project that aims to to create a detailed cellular-resolution, genome-wide map of gene expression in the mouse brain Updates Thu, 11 May 2006 14:20:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#GoogleNews Google releases a range of new personalised searching and bookmarking services and Google Trends, which maps search terms. Updates Thu, 11 May 2006 11:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#USBill Following the NIH's recent statement that all publications resulting from research it funds in should be freely and publicly available online by six months after publication, the US Senate is currently considering a bill, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006, that would require all federal agencies with a annual budget of more than $1 billion to do the same. Update Wed, 10 May 2006 18:00:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#MobileDevices A new generation of mobile devices combines the functions of USB flash, PDAs and server processing and investigations are underway concerning how the Web 2.0 applications can be transferred to mobile devices. First Author* investigates the possible applications to medical and scientific research. Article Wed, 10 May 2006 15:40:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#GoogleHealth Google's new health service is rumoured to be ready for release this week Updates Wed, 10 May 2006 12:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#ConnoteaAPI Nature releases the API of its social bookmarking tool, Connotea, in NGP's first release to web developers Updates Fri, 05 May 2006 11:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/events.html#iCommons Creative Commons summit in Rio de Janeiro focuses on the subject 'Towards a Global Digital Commons Events Fri, 05 May 2006 11:15:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#CCOpenSci Creative Commons Science releases a podcast of their session at the Open Science conceference Updates Thu, 04 May 2006 17:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#PubChemMay PubChem adds new structures and assays to its database New Publications Thu, 04 May 2006 10:50:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#BMCPrizes BioMedCentral is offering two awards for the best biological and medical research published in an open access journal New Publications Thu, 04 May 2006 10:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#DateLimiters The academic search engines Google Scholar and HubMed have both introduced options allowing users to limit their searches to a specified date range. Updates Wed, 03 May 2006 11:30:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OTMI Nature launches a new tool designed to facilitate 'text mining' across content provided by different publishers Updates Tue, 02 May 2006 17:45:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#WritingOnline A new generation of Ajax-based online applications that enable collaborative writing could change the process of producing scientific papers. First Author* explores the potential advantages and pitfalls of 'Writing on the Web (2.0)' Research Tools Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#WorldofWikis First Author* discusses the emergence of wikis dedicated to science and technology and looks beyond the controversy over their accuracy to examine the potential and limitations of wikis as a new form of scientifc communication. Research Tools Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:34:43 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#FeedoStyle FeedoStyle allows you to easily integrate feeds into your own website or blog. First Author* demonstrates the concept by integrating some external feeds into our Updates page Updates Fri, 15 Apr 2006 06:53:44 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#BioMed The latest new journal to appear on BioMedCentral is Theoretical Biology and Medicinal Modelling. The open-access journal describes itself as 'adopting a broad definition of "biology" and focusing on the theoretical ideas and models to which advances in biology and medicine are giving rise'. It promises swift peer-review and referees on hand to participate in ongoing discussion following the publication of an article. NewPublications Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#Elsevier Elsevier acquires US company Gold Standard and expands its Asia-Pacific coverage through a partnership with Chiba University NewPublications Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/newpublications.html#NaturePublishingGroup Nature launches a new web portal, Application Notes, and the latest in the its series of blogs. NewPublications Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#TechnologyandScientificCommunication Covered in April: Windows Live's academic search; A new database for bioinformaticians, the Protein Circular Dichroism DataBank (PCDDB); FeedoStyle has now entered Beta phase; Nature has added a new 'Community Page' to its social bookmarking service, Connotea Updates Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/debates.html#OpenAccess Open Access Updates: A new survey by The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reported that low levels of awareness about open access persisted among the majority of scientists; an EC report focuses on the market for journal publishing in Europe; The National Institutes of Health (NIH) this month reaffirmed its commitment to Open Access Updates Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/links.html#PSuberlinks Peter Suber, who is Director of the Open Access Project and Research Professor of Philosophy at Earlham College, kindly sent First Author* some links to his work. This includes the SPARC Open Access Newsletter and the Open Access News blog. The feed from the Open Access Blog has also been integrated into our Updates page. Links Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT http://www.firstauthor.org/research_tools.html#p2p A First Author* piece on scientific uses of peer-to-peer technology. A shorter version also featured in Nature's science and technology blog, Nascent Articles Mon, 23 Apr 2006 11:41:00 GMT