Inspec Analytics: tools for engineering, computing & physics research

Inspec and Inspec Analytics from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, are highly specialised discovery and research intelligence tools that provide detailed insights into research trends and patterns across physics and engineering disciplines at both local and global levels. The granularity of the Inspec index makes it easy to analyse research output by organisation and/or specific subjects, allowing you to monitor research output over time, compare output between organisations, stay up to date with emerging trends, find collaboration opportunities and identify the most relevant  journals and conferences to publish work.

From 2021, all IET journals will become Open Access. This approach builds on a strategy that began in 2012 when the IET launched its first open access journal, The Journal of Engineering. The IET now has 15 wholly open access journals with open access publication routes in the remaining 27 journals. 

To Access Inspec Analytics, first go to Inspec, then underneath the search bar, click ‘Go to Inspec Analytics’

For training and tips on using Inspec and Inspec Analytics to inform your research strategy, and identifying emerging trends in your field, contact Ellie Downes, Research Librarian at e.c.downes@swansea.ac.uk

For further information about Inspec Analytics, check out some of their guides here;

Inspec Analytics user guide and videos: https://inspec-analytics.theiet.org/inspec-analytics-user-guide/ 

Sources indexed in Inspec: https://www.theiet.org/media/6168/inspec-active-journals.pdf  

More about Inspec’s subject classifications: https://www.theiet.org/publishing/inspec/inspec-content-coverage/inspec-classification/  

Pre-Prints at Swansea University

Introduction;

Pre-prints are not new. Some pre-print servers such as arXiv have been going since 1991; however, there is increasing interest in the use of pre-prints as part of the move towards open access publishing and open scholarship in general.

What are they?

Pre-prints are versions of your paper before it has been submitted to peer-review. The use of pre-print servers varies significantly between disciplines, being an embedded and well known practice in areas like Physical Sciences, and almost unheard of in others.

Why should I bother?

Posting a pre-print on a specific pre-print server or repository means your work has the potential to reach other researchers in your discipline and citations can accumulate, earlier. It is also useful to gather early feedback on the paper from your peers, before the official peer-review process of the journal you submit to.

Will my paper be scooped?

Contrary to some fears, pre-prints can actually help protect your work from being ‘scooped’. Most servers register the papers on receipt enabling you to establish provenance should another very similar paper be published after yours. Many pre-print servers enable you to add a DOI allowing you to keep track of your paper and its citations.

Swansea Specifics

Swansea University researchers are not restricted from using preprint servers by the institution. Individual researchers considering submitting a paper do need to check the funder and journal to see if any restrictions apply. This can be done using SHERPA/ Romeo and searching the journal you are considering submitting to.

As stated above, there are preprint servers for different disciplines and institutional repositories can host preprints. The benefits of submitting preprints in terms of citations, engagement and impact will not materialise unless the author/college publicise the paper themselves especially in disciplines which are only just starting to use pre-print servers.

ISS Research Support are happy and able to assist researchers with information regarding journal restrictions, and which pre-print server may be most appropriate. We have a list of pre-print servers and open access repositories here.

Using Scival to find Economic Impact

Scival have recently introduced an Economic Impact measure which you can find in the Overview section of the tool.  This uses information from around the world to find patents which cite publications from Swansea University, potentially showing an effect on industry. As there is an 18 month time lag between a patent being applied for and being published it won’t show an effect for very recent publications.

It is possible to filter by patent office so you can look at just the UK, Europe, Japan, US or worldwide.

This recorded webinar has more information about using this feature.

If Scival is new to you, our previous post has links to guides etc.

Are you missing out on research promotion? Cronfa reaches further than you might think.

Some of you might have wondered if there is any point in putting your work in the university repository, other than the REF requirement. I have been taking a look at usage statistics and have definitely found an upwards trend . We have had an increase in over a thousand users since December so the site is getting attention – why not take advantage of that to showcase your work?

Where are the users from?

Since 1^st December, although a large percentage of visitors came from the UK, there was use from 122 countries in total. This shows the top ten.

How do they find Cronfa?

The bulk of our users find us by keyword search (organic). A large number are also from links on other sites (a lot of them Swansea ones but some elsewhere). Direct users type in the url of the site so will be very familiar with it and a growing number come via social media with Twitter being the clear favourite.

Help to make Cronfa grow by adding your work and spreading the word.

Impact Challenge – 30 Days of ideas

The Impact Story blog has been running a great series of posts around the theme of “Impact Challenge”:

http://blog.impactstory.org/category/impact-challenge/

The series has been running through November – the first post stated their aims to “supercharge your research impact”:

• upgrade your professional visibility by conquering social media,

• boost your readership and citations by getting your work online,

• stay atop your field’s latest developments with automated alerting,

• lock in the key connections with colleagues that’ll boost your career, and

• dazzle evaluators with comprehensive tracking and reporting on your own impacts.

Each post has information and ideas, followed by some homework suggestions. Now the series is over, you can look through and pick which ones may benefit you most.

Research Impact: Tools for Success (5th Dec 2013)

Our Research Impact one-day workshop took place in the library on Thursday – the event was run by ISS in conjunction with DRI, APECS, SURF and was sponsored by a grant from the Welsh Government. For those who attended – and for those who were unable to make it – here are links and materials from the day where available:

• Open Access (Susan Glen)
• Swansea University’s Cronfa, RIS and staff web pages (Alex Roberts)
• Researcher Identity (Clare Boucher)
• Research Funding (Chris Beynon from DRI) : using Research Professional and COS Pivot
• Social Media (PDF link) (Sam Oakley) : Storify collection of useful articles and our Google Docs handout (produced by everyone in the session!)

We hope to repeat some or all of these sessions – please get in touch if you would like more information on the above or to request future sessions: library@swansea.ac.uk 

RCUK launches new system for recording “research impact”

Research Councils UK have launched the Research Outcomes System. It has been closely aligned with requirements for the REF and is designed so that researchers can input details of their research at any stage. It will be used by AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and EPSRC and will record details such as any collaboration in the project, communication and staff development as well as impact.

Let the light shine on your research publications!

It is Open Access week. Researchers, librarians, publishers, and research funders are all talking about Open Access. By publishing your work in an OA repostitory or OA journal, you will make it more discoverable by other researchers. The more people read your work, the more likely it is to get cited by others and potentially increase its impact.

As part of OA week, R2RC have published a new guide to publishing for research students: Optimize Your Research

Bibliometrics and peer review – the Italian view

A very interesting new article has just been published by researchers in Italy, who have analysed data from the first Italian national research evaluation to see whether there is a correlation between bibliometric indicators and peer review.

The questions they posed were:

1. Are peer review judgements and (article and journal) bibliometric indicators independent variables?
2. What is the strength of the association?
3. Is the association between peer judgement and article citation rating significantly stronger than the association between peer judgement and journal citation rating?

They found “a compelling body of evidence that judgements given by domain experts and bibliometric indicators are significantly positively correlated” and in their conclusions, they suggest:

Bibliometrics are not independent of peer review assessment. The correlation between peer assessment and bibliometric indicators is significant but not perfect. Peer review should be integrated with bibliometric indicators in national assessment exercises.

Franceschet, M & Constantini, A (2010) “The first Italian research assessment exercise: A bibliometric perspective“, Journal of Informetrics, in press, corrected proof Science Direct [Online].



Development of bibliometric indicators for the REF – HEFCE

HEFCE have published  “Analysis of data from the pilot exercise to develop bibliometric indicators for the REF – The effect of using normalised citation scores for particular staff characteristics”

The report analyses the data from the pilot exercise to develop bibliometric indicators for the REF. It analyses the effect of using bibliometrics  (citation scores) in the REF upon  certain types of research staff. For example, early career researchers will be less likely to have many citations. It also looks at age and sex, gender, ethnicity, disability of researchers as well as those who are part-time staff.

The report recommends:

 If citation data are used then the four UK higher education funding bodies will need to ensure that institutions planning to make submissions to the REF are aware of the results of this analysis so that they can take them into account when selecting staff for inclusion. Further, panels will also need to account for the differences found and will require guidance as part of their equality briefing.