ticTOCs - New Table of Contents service

ticTOCs is a new Table of Contents service that aggregates data from journal publishers RSS feeds, currently over 11,000 titles from 400 plus publishers. It's free to register and use. If you are not familiar with RSS you can just use the ticTOCs interface to manage your subscriptions to individual titles. Search for the titles you want to monitor and add them to your personal list. Just login to check for updates.

If you use an RSS reader, for example Google Reader or Bloglines, you can add titles to your reader account using the ticTOCs service. ticTOCs can also export groups of titles to an RSS reader using an OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) file.

Added functionality is promised in later upgrades, for example the ability to export records to EndNote. Currently the only bibliographic software supported is RefWorks.

ticTOCs provides a useful alternative to ZETOC (although not as comprehensive) or you can use it to search for RSS feeds to your favourite journals and add them to an existing RSS reader.

ticTOCs is funded under the JISC Users and Innovations programme and developed by a consortium lead by Liverpool University.



Links

ticTOCs home page
ticTOCs blog
ticTOCs Project Home Page

RAE 2008 results out today

The RAE 2008 results are published today, 18 December 2008. You can find an explanation of the RAE marking scheme here. The results are available on the RAE home page. Bournemouth University's results can be found here. For comment visit the Guardian Education website or the Times Higher Education which has a special issue on RAE 2008.

Rankings

The Times Higher ranks Bournemouth =75 overall in their Table of Excellence up from 107 place (2001 RAE). Guardian Education table ranks Bournemouth in 70th place. ResearchResearch ranks Bournemouth in 65th place. The Independent ranks Bournemouth 65th.

The Independent and ResearchResearch (Research Fortnight) use a Quality Index for their ranking using the following formula. Quality Index = [ (% in 4* x 16) + (% in 3* x 9) + (% in 2* x 4) + (% in 1* x 1) ] / 16.

Using the example of Bournemouth

Quality Index =

[ (8.08453237410071 x 16) +

(31.2005396 x 9) +

(35.278777 x 4) +

(21.807554 x 1) ] / 16

which calculates out as 573.08 / 16 = 35.8175

The Quality Index is 35.8175 . Have a look at Independent ranking for the bigger picture.

The Times Higher uses an Average Score. This is calculated using the percentage of staff within an institution who receive a 4* grade multiplied by 4, the percentage of staff to receive a 3* multiplied by 3, the percentage of staff to receive a 2* multiplied by 2 and the percentage of staff to receive a 1* multiplied by 1. Those who are U/C are not counted. The results are added together and divided by 100 to give an average score of between 0 and 4. To use Bournemouth as an example: (8 * 4) + (31 * 3) + (35 * 2 ) + (22 * 1) / 100 or 217/100 = 2.17 although the Times Higher actually puts the BU score at 2.18.

Links

Press Release from HEFCE
BBC News item
Exquisite Life ResearchResearch hosted blog

ResearchResearch

How do I find out the latest news on the Research Assessment Exercise [RAE] or the Research Excellence Framework [REF], where can I find information on research funding, where do I look to get information on potential funders and sponsors? Bournemouth University has an institutional subscription to ResearchResearch a comprehensive current awareness service for the research community.

ResearchResearch is the world's leading publisher of news and information for the international research community. From their offices in London, Brussels, Washington, Amsterdam and Sydney their editorial team provides unrivalled expertise and in-depth news coverage of research policy and politics, and comprehensive listings of funding opportunities and sponsors across all disciplines. (ResearchResearch website).

ResearchResearch provides information in three interlinked databases:

• Funding Opportunities


• Sponsors


• News

Staff can register for a ResearchResearch Personal Account to use ResearchResearch off campus, or ask Centre for Research and Knowledge Transfer (Kelly Deacon-Smith) to set up an account for you. You don't need an account to use ResearchResearch on campus.


Links

ResearchResearch
Welome page for Bournemouth University Staff.

BURO - how are we doing?

The offer to input your personal publications list ends on the 18th December 2008. If you would like to take up this offer please e-mail your publication lists to Julie Cheshire. If you have an urgent reason for your publications to appear on BURO please contact Matt Holland, and we will fast track your list.

Currently BURO has over 5000 entries. 1100 entries are in Review awaiting bibliographic checking before being made publically available. There is a backlog of lists which we will catch up with in the New Year (2009). BURO will be the main data collection tool for the University for data for the Research Excellence Framework [REF] pilot. If you don't take up this offer you need to plan to enter your own publications. Contact Matt Holland, if you need advice or training on BURO.

Links

Message on Staff Portal Important news about BURO
BURO
Research Excellence Framework