Marine Resources Library

11/07/2023

A beautiful hawk paused awhile upon the railings outside the Marine Resources Library late this afternoon.

11/01/2023

It’s a boisterous morning out there! “White horses” in the harbor and waves rolling into the marsh grass, which is doing a first class job of helping prevent erosion on the shore!

09/17/2023

Are you aware of so-called Predatory Publishers? Publish a paper in a quality journal and information about it is available for all to see. Great! But it’s quite possible you’ll soon receive emails from predatory publishers.

A predatory publisher is one that publishes (or promises to publish) papers with little to no quality control, for a (usually) modest publishing fee and often very quickly. They just want to make quick money.

Some key warning signs in these emails are:
* Unsolicited requests for your work in response to something you just published
* Errors in addressing you
* Dubious English language for an English language journal
* Excessive flattery
* Urgency
* Indicators of automation in writing your name
* Quoting your abstract
* Invitation to join the board of editors when you know you are not a well established and published researcher.

It is prudent to research the journal at its website. Further warning signs on the website are *excessive* promotion of:

* Published in the USA (some will use a shared office space address in the US just to appear to have a US address).
* Indexed in [followed by a list of insignificant indexing services, including emphasizing Google Scholar]. Look for reliable indexes like Scopus, Web of Science (or its sub-indexes), or known field-specific indexes.
* Promise of rapid review and publishing within just a few weeks
* fake Journal Impact Factor (real one is from Clarivate [Web of Science]) metric or one that sounds really like it but has a slightly different name. Note there are numerous other legitimate metrics these days but JIF is the longest established. Investigate the metric.

Here’s a sample excerpt from an email I received shortly after I published a paper:

Dear Dr. Geoffrey P.,

Greetings of the day!

Can we have your article for successful release of Volume 1 Issue 4 in our Journal?

In fact, we are in need of one article to accomplish the Issue prior 23rd September and we hope that the single manuscript should be yours.

If this is a short notice please do send 2-page opinion/mini review/case report, we hope 2-page article isn’t time taken for eminent people like you.”

To safeguard your work in your goal to publish it, be sure to Think, Check, Submit when choosing a journal.

Tools and practical resources, aiming to educate researchers, promote integrity, and build trust in credible research and publications.

12/21/2022

The MRL will be closed from 12/22/2022 through 1/2/2023 for the winter break. We will reopen on Tuesday, January 3. We wish you safe and happy holidays!

02/25/2022

Seven weeks of Python learning have reached their conclusion here at the Marine Resources Library today, and what a great experience it has been! It’s been a joy to work with graduate students and SCDNR and NOAA researchers to explore the basics of this popular programming language. And even more exciting to begin to hear how people hope to apply it in their work. Thank you to our 27 participants for your engagement and contribution! Special thanks to Jeff Guyon, NOAA, for his valued contribution to this series of training sessions!

02/04/2022

We’re in Week 4, also marking the mid point, of the Introduction to Programming with Python training at MRL. It’s been great working with people who are curious about learning Python and applying it in a variety of contexts in their work. Programming skills are also increasingly desirable for science and research positions.

This week we learned how to write a script to read a CSV file, modify the contents, and write data to a new file. Next week we’ll be looking at pattern matching. There’s no feeling quite like learning new skills!

01/14/2022

This week the Marine Resources Library launched its inaugural training series, Introduction to Programming with Python. Twenty-seven state and federal researchers and graduate students are learning the fundamentals of this popular open-source language to help them in their work to advance marine science!

01/13/2022

COVID-19 seems so… 2019/20. But here we are in 2022 and the 🦠 remains present. Please do your part to minimize transmission in the work/study place!

Wear your masks diligently. We wish we could see your smile again, but right now we need to protect each other. Mask Up

Continue strong hygiene practices. Hand sanitizer and surface wipes continue to be available at MRL.

Take those COVID tests if you have symptoms or have been in close contact with a COVID+ person. Follow the quarantine protocols of your school/employer if necessary.

Let’s rock this year and do our best to put COVID far astern. 🚤. 💨 💨 💨 🦠

01/13/2022

Happy new year! Does the MRL seem lighter and airier than last semester? Can’t quite put your finger on what changed? After completing our collection shift/condensing last summer, the three empty shelf ranges have finally beem removed! Now we’re contemplating how to optimize use of the newly liberated 400 square feet!

07/27/2021

40,000 books moved over the past two weeks. Phase One condensed books in the SpaceSaver mobile shelving to make space for the 434 linear feet of books removed from the static shelving in Phase Two. Next to arrange for the removal of the empty shelves.

07/15/2021

Things are afoot in the stacks at the MRL! We're tackling a major collection shift to condense the entire book collection onto the SpaceSaver mobile shelving. This will enable us to remove the three fixed shelf ranges to free up floor space for seating in the short term and new initiatives in the future.

If you're using the mobile shelves, please pay extra attention to ensuring the aisles are empty before moving the ranges. People, book carts, and kick stools are in the open aisle much of the time at the moment.

Also, please do not remove any temporary notices that you see on shelves, carts, etc. We plan to move 40,000 books without any hitches!

07/08/2021

Clarivate Analytics has just reconfigured the Web of Science database platform to make it less cluttered and more intuitive. Both the search pages and results pages look different, but all of the features from the previous version appear to be operational.

* The former (and default) Basic search is now called Document Search, while the Advanced Search still goes by the same name
* The Web of Science Core Collection consists of four specific indexes or collections that can be chosen in the Editions dropdown (they are all selected by default):
** Arts and Humanities Citation Index
** Science Citation Index Expanded
** Social Science Citation Index
** Emerging Sources Citation Index (interdisciplinary journals in the probationary process of being permanently added to one of the three primary indexes)
* You can still select different databases within the Web of Science platform to search – like Zoological Record and MEDLINE, among others
* If you created a personal account on the old platform, it will still be accessible and operational on the new platform

If you have any questions or problems with the new platform, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your librarian