It’s Open Access Week, a global event organized to promote free online access to scholarship.  Research funders are increasingly mandating that underlying research data and articles for sponsored research are made available via open access.  Some universities have adopted open access policies encouraging or requiring faculty to deposit their scholarship in open access archives.  Many scholars are motivated to publish in open access forums for a range of moral (open access advances science and innovations) and self- interested reasons (open access results increases readership and impact via citations).

Falvey Memorial Library supports faculty interested in publishing in open access journals via the SOAR fund and provides assistance with identifying reputable open access journals.  Your liaison librarian is able to guide you through these sources designed for finding high quality open access journals.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is an international organization dedicated to advancing open access and best practices in scholarly publishing.  It maintains a browseable and searchable list of open access peer reviewed journals.  The DOAJ doesn’t include so called hybrid open access journals that are subscription based but make individual articles open access in exchange for significant article processing charges.  Only true, sometimes called “gold”, open access journals with creative commons licenses, allowing authors to retain copyright and users to read, copy, download and reuse without significant restrictions are included.

Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities is a bespoke database for academic authors seeking just the right journal outlet for their scholarship.  The Falvey Library subscription includes the education, nursing, business and psychology modules.  Authors can use check offs and slides to find journals by topic, acceptance rates, time to review, time to publication, review type, impact factor and of course by gold open access.

SCOPUS, Elsevier’s multidisciplinary search engine, provides multiple pathways for finding open access journals.  From the Source tool you can browse journals by subject and limit to open access or you can do keyword searches in journal titles and limit to open access.  To find cross disciplinary open access journals, searching Scopus on the article level and scanning the results to see which journals in the results list are labeled “open access” is another effective approach.  Scopus also provides journal level metrics and tools for comparing custom build lists of journals.

Similarly, Web of Science, the Thomson competitor to Elsevier’s SCOPUS, has an open access check off on the article search results screen.  The Impact Factor, perhaps the gold standard for journal metrics, is only provided for titles included in the Journal Citation Report.

Checking Beall’s List of “potential, possible or probably predatory publishers” is a must for any to do list for finding and evaluating open access journals.  In short, Beall’s list is a curated, vetted list of where NOT to publish.  Jeffrey Beall, a librarian passionate about integrity in scholarly communication, conceived of and maintains the list.   Beall’s criteria for inclusion in the list is inspired by theCommittee on Publishers Ethics’ (COPE) Code of Conduct for Journal Publishersand the Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing.  To apply similar criteria to a journal that is a promising candidate for publication try the Think Check Submit website.

Whether or not you choose to publish in an open access journal depends on many factors including whether the journal will reach your intended audience, handles the publication process in a timely businesslike manner, the availability of funding for article processing fees, and not least, tenure and promotion committee attitudes.  If you’d like a sounding board and assistance identifying reputable open access journals your liaison librarian is here to help.

Article by Linda Hauck, MS, MBA, business librarian and team coordinator for the Business Research team.

The relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union has never been an easy one.  It took over 11 years from the first decision to apply for membership in 1961 to the 1973 legislation mandating membership.  By comparison, the referendum known as BREXIT, to leave the European Union, was swift, but the fall-out is likely to reverberate long into the future from the United Kingdom to Europe and beyond.

The Financial Times has posted a brief video explaining how the UK fit into the EU and VOX has posted a deck on what the BREXIT vote means. For other expert and concise explanations of how the European Union developed see the CQ Political Handbook of the World Online  or The European Union: A Very Short Introduction.

For more in-depth analyses of Britain and the EU with regard to integration, monetary policy, competition, nationalism, social policy, migration, & political developments our print and ebook collection has much to offer.  Search Books & More for “European Union” AND Britain or “European Union” AND “United Kingdom” to find books like these.

A Stranger in Europe:  Britain and the EU From Thatcher to Blair

British National Identity and Opposition to Membership of Europe, 1961-63:  The Anti-Marketeers

The Official History of Britain and the European Community from Rejection to Referendum, 1963-1975

For the best up to the minute coverage on the repercussions of the BREXIT vote, authoritative news & analysis can be found on news outlets.  The Financial Times (sign up for a Villanova subscription), The Guardian, The Economist and Foreign Affairs are top picks.  If you hit the paywall limit for the publications, switch to free access via the library Journal Finder.  Other economic, global commentary and information can be found at the London School of Economics, Project Syndicate and Bruegel.  Of course the Official Website of the EU will have unfiltered news about developments.

Linda Hauck, Business librarian, provided this information with input from Merrill Stein, Geography and Political Science liaison team leader.

Linda Hauck, Business Librarian. 610-519-8744. Falvey, room 222.

Merrill Stein, Geography and Political Science team leader, Assessment team leader. 610-519-4272. Falvey, room 221.

Between the Presidential primaries and Super Bowl Sunday, who can help but think about advertising spending.  NPR reported that an estimated $4.4 billion dollars will be spent on presidential political TV ads alone.  Advertising Age predicts that $377 million dollars will be spend on TV advertising for this Sunday’s game.

If you want the details on advertising spending Ad$pender is the database for you!  It allows you to search for advertising spending by over 3 million brands and entities across 12 media including syndicated TV, spot TV, cable, newspapers, magazines, outdoor, and internet display ads.  You can do some serious trend analysis with this database because it goes back to 2007.

One of the biggest challenges of using Ad$pender is pinpointing the name of the advertising entity.  In a search for Superbowl 2015 advertising for Dove Men+Care, I found over 50 brands.  A search for Trump in 2015 returned over a dozen Trump related advertisers.  The challeng of identifying accurate advertisers and their entities, especially in the political arena is considerable.  Have fun digging!

The new semester brings with it new interfaces to several of our databases including Lexis-Nexis Academic, Emerging Markets Information Service (ISI) and Mintel Oxygen. Common themes to the new looks include a prominent all inclusive search box, new visual cues to the many and varied information types available and easily accessible online help. None of these databases have changed their excellent content. Lexis-Nexis is still a leading provider of global news, company profiles, industry reports, legal information and biographical reports. Emerging Market Information Services is a key provider of intelligence on macroeconomic conditions, company news and industry developments including mergers & acquisitions. Mintel Oxygen is our best in-depth source for market research reports for consumer products & services in the United States.

Lexis-Nexis Academic’s New Look

EMIS’s New Look

Mintel Oxygen’s New Look

Gfk MRI University Internet Reporter has been a mainstay for Villanova students seeking primary consumer survey information.  Their biannual surveys are used to identify demographic and media consumption patterns for consumers of a wide range of products, services and activities.  Interested in educational attainment, median home value and the web sites frequented by people that camp in national parks?  Need to know how the Yuengling drinker differs from the Budweiser drinker by region of the country or cable viewing preferences?  MRI University Internet Reporter has answers to these types of questions.

MRI University  Internet Reporter has rolled out a new interface.  It is an improvement over the legacy interface in that keyword searching is much enhanced.  It is no longer to necessary to expand and browse multiple category trees. Keyword searching displays all the possibilities.  Another beneficial feature of the new interface is the trend report showing the total users of the selected target over three years.

Access to MRI University Internet Reporter has changed with the new interface.  Previously, users simply needed to register with their Villanova email address.  Now users need to register with their Villanova email address and a registration key.  Every January the list of registered users will be cleared and re-registraiton will be necessary.  To register go to the databases A-Z List and see our topic guide to MRI

With the announcement that Angus S. Deaton was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics his most recent book, The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality, is moving to the top of my nonfiction “to read” list. I may be the business & economics librarian, but I’m not a wonky numbers cruncher eager to dive into econometric literature, so don’t be deterred. The Great Escape is written for Villanovans interested in veritas and caritas, but who are not necessarily academic economists. The book explores the relationship between economic growth and health or wellbeing. It is written from a soaring historical perspective, with a foundation in sound data. You can borrow a print or ebook copy from the library or alternately you can listen to Deaton’s summary of the Great Escape in his own words. To learn more about Angus Deaton’s scholarly and popular work check out his website.

Teams in VSB classes doing cases related to smartwatches and over-the-top TV providers have been pleasantly surprised  to have access to Mind Commerce reports via the MarketResearch.com platform. A few weeks ago a soft trial for these reports was switched on and not surprisingly is fast becoming popular with students.
Mind Commerce does independent analysis on digital technologies and telecommunication technologies, both consumer and business facing, Unlike some publishers on the MarketResearch.com platform, Mind Commerce does not embargo their most current reports. The following is a sample of titles:

• Big Data in Retail 2015
• Data as Service
• Connected Vehicles
• Wearable Technology in Sports and Fitness, Healthcare and Clothing
• Social Business Services in the Clout

To browse the full list of reports available navigate to the Technology & Media Market Research module on MarketResearch.com.  Permanent access to Mind Commerce reports would compliment the Gartner Intergroup research provided by UNIT.  Share your thoughts on the utility of Mind Commerce Reports for Villanova by emailing linda.hauck@villanova.edu

While reading the Sunday Review section of the New York Times this weekend I was struck by how important both library books and access to scholarly articles are to not only the professional study of job satisfaction and design but also to the public debate over motivation and meaning at work.

In Barry Schwartz’s article Rethinking Work old and new books and scholarly articles frame the conversation.  Falvey Memorial Library collections and services provide direct access (via print or ebooks, open access ebooks, or EZBorrow) to the sources you need to fully engage in the discussion.  See the links to the books and articles referenced in Schwarz’s opinion piece.  Research librarians are available by chat, email and research consultations to guide you through finding the full text of vaguely referenced scholarly research articles such as these underscored in Rethinking Work.

Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Principles of Scientific Management by Taylor

The Human Equation by Pfeiffer

High Commitment, High Performance by Michael Beer

Why We Work by Barry Schwartz (On order)

Grant, A. M., Campbell, E. M., Chen, G., Cottone, K., Lapedis, D., & Lee, K. (2007). Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103(1), pp. 53-67. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.05.004

Dutton, J.E., Debebe, G. & Wrzesniewski, A. (2012). Being valued and devalued at work: A social valuing perspective.  In Qualitative Organizational Research: Best Papers from the David Conference on Qualitative Research (forthcoming). http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/janedut/High%20Quality%20Connections/Being%20valued%20%20final.pdf

S&P NetAdvantage, sometimes called S&P Capital IQ has rolled out a new interface (and possibly a soft rebranding as NetAdvantage seems to have been wholly replaced with the Capital IQ trademark).  The reworked top navigation bar makes it much easier to find some fabulous content and functionality that had been less transparent in the legacy platform.  And the ubiquitous, but undeniably useful blank search box has been added.

The Company tab provides access to profiles, filings and investment research.  This is were you can also access detailed information about company officers and directors including “relationship trees”  and company news and developments.  Screening for companies or equities is front and center. The Markets tab provides excellent overviews of government, economy, industry, transportation & communication for national economies.   Industry Survey report are still the go to source for understanding how an industry works, but now they include high level sector analysis as well.

The library will make the new and legacy interface available side by side at least through the end of the year.

The Business Team Liaison Librarians thank the many VSB faculty that  completed a survey on their use of and attitudes toward library subscription sources.  The library will use this data to inform future collection development efforts.  Key takeaways gleaned from the survey are as follows:

• Several databases could benefit from concerted marketing.
• Two low cost-low use databases are candidates for cancellation.
• There is unmet faculty demand for research databases that needs to be sustainably satisfied.

Villanova community members are invited to view the summary report.