TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Nuclear Science Abstracts at LANL
• Oxford English Dictionary online trial
• Scholarly communication concerns of scientific authors
• Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Conferences via RealVideo
• ERIM/Infrared Information Analysis Center tickets
• Research Library hosts Aussies: CSIRO
• New electronic journals from the Research Library
• Search engine profile: InvisibleWeb.com
• Statistical highlight: 50 million database records

Most online indexes and abstracts start in the mid-1970s.  Need research material older than that? Nuclear Science Abstracts at LANL is now available -- a comprehensive index to historic international nuclear science and technology literature 1948 through 1976.

The database of almost one million records includes reports of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and its contractors, other agencies, universities, and industrial and research organizations. This is the electronic equivalent of the printed Nuclear Science Abstracts, 1948-1976. Coverage of the literature since 1976 is provided by DOE Energy Science and Technology at LANL. About 50% of the references are to journal literature, 25% to technical report literature, and 25% to books, conferences, dissertations and patents.

Nuclear Science Abstracts at LANL features:

• Alerts - weekly email delivery of new information for searches of your choice
• Search engine and interface familiar to users of the other "at LANL" databases available from the Research Library
• Searching in multiple indexes, by phrase or keyword
• Easy limiting by date, language, document type, and electronic format
• Sorting of results by relevancy ranking, date, author or title
• Display of both print and electronic Library holdings
• Ability to mark records to print, e-mail or download

Access at http://nuclsci.lanl.gov/lanl/. Send comments or questions to db-info@lanl.gov.

Kathy Varjabedian
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is now available electronically for a free trial though the middle of May at http://dictionary.oed.com/. For more than a century, the Oxford English Dictionary has been the undisputed authority on the history and development of the English language. With more than 2.5 million quotations illustrating how words are used, the OED is a unique source of information on the evolution of words and meanings, from the earliest times to the present day.

The searchable version of the OED allows a user to search a word not only by its entry term (similar to the alphabetical arrangement of the 20 volume printed set), but also by any part of the full text entry: the definition, etymology, usage date or the quotation author, document title or text term. The advanced searching allows the user to enter phrases or to combine term and date ranges.  Please send all comments and questions about using the OED online to Marie Harper at : mharper@lanl.gov or 667-3065.

Marie Harper
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In 1999 the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) worked with a large number of their members to survey over 3,000 writers. The survey was an attempt to understand what motivated their authors, what worried them about the current system and what their expectations were for the future. The LANL Research Library has obtained a copy of the results of this intriguing survey.

Some general information about the authors who responded: over 60% were from Europe or North America; 90% worked in universities or research institutions; most respondents were at a senior level or were full/assistant professors; 60% were over 40 years of age and 25% were in the life sciences.

The most important reason to publish for these respondents was to communicate to the widest possible audience. In deciding where to publish, the authors ranked the following as the most important factors: 1) perceived reputation of the journal, 2) Impact factor of the journal, 3) perceived international reach of the journal and 4) inclusion of the journal in abstracting/indexing services.

The ALPSP publishers were interested in other methods that authors are using to disseminate their findings. Authors report that they use these methods to disseminate information: 1) conference presentations, 2) conference abstracts and 3) circulated drafts to colleagues and 'offprints'.

In answer to the question about what authors perceive as obstacles to achieving publishing objectives; the overwhelming response was publication delays, with minor obstacles being: 1) requirement to submit in a particular style, 2) editorial process, 3) publication delays and 4) peer review process. The major concern about publication delays is that delays may mean that someone else might publish similar work first. Publication speed was most important to authors in the life sciences, with high response also from chemistry and physics.

Other interesting survey questions elicited the information that 62% of the respondents agreed with the statement, "scholarly publishing is changing its function from knowledge dissemination to the building of an author's resume or reputation." Although many proponents of electronic e-print systems applaud the lack of peer review, in this survey 69% of the authors stated they were satisfied that the peer review process works as intended. Their concerns about peer review were: 1) delay by the reviewer, 2) superficial reviews, 3) hostile reviews and 4) unqualified reviews. Also of surprise to those of us who read about the imminent demise of the print journal, 70% of the authors agreed with the statement, "the present system of scholarly journal publishing should continue more or less in its present form."

What did the survey respondents see for the future? Electronic publishing with a rapid peer review system; the continuation of conventional publishing with minor modifications to the system; electronic self-publishing with NO peer review; and more posting to preprints databases.

Donna Berg
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The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) "exists to further mathematical research through broadly based programs in the mathematical sciences and closely related activities." MSRI is making conferences and workshops available to the general public through RealVideo. The web page http://www.msri.org/publications/video/index.html lists the conferences by year. A list of upcoming conferences and lectures is available at http://www.msri.org/calendar/workshops/index.html. There is also a subject index to the Institute's offerings at http://www.msri.org/navigate.html.

One interesting conference held last December was "The Future of Mathematical Communication." The conference's goal was to provide "a snapshot at the start of the millennium of the present state of mathematical communication and a provocative look at the future --- from various perspectives and engaging diverse stake-holder groups."

The conferences for 2000 include:

• Workshop on Computational Algebraic Analysis
• Combinatorial Algebra
• Mathematics of Quantum Computation
• Interactions between Algebraic Geometry and Noncommutative Algebra

This doesn't count any of the external databases to which the Library provides access, such as GeoRef or MathSciNet.


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Newsletter Editorial Team: Donna Berg, Helen Boorman, Jack Carter, Lou Pray, and Kathy Varjabedian.

The name and e-mail address of the Library member who contributed an article appears at the end of the article. If you have comments or further questions, please contact that person. If you have general questions or comments about the Newsletter itself, please contact the Newsletter Editor, Kathy Varjabedian.

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