PhysMath Central Blog
The above is a Wordle representation of a recent talk at Ted by Murray Gell Man on Beauty and Truth in Physics.
Below is a Wordle representation of the abstracts of published manuscripts in PMC Physics A to date [click image to reveal full awesomeness]. Why not play with it yourself to see what you can create?
Posted by Chris Leonard at 13:31 Comments (0)
Mathematicians criticize impact factors
The Wall Street Journal's blog reports on the increasing dissatisfaction of mathematicians with impact factors. Nothing really new in the blog posting (for those who follow bibliometrics), but interesting to see that the arguments are getting much wider exposure now.
The posting was inspired by the release of the report by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) in cooperation with the International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) on Citation Statistics. Brief excerpt:
For journals, the impact factor is most often used for ranking. This is a simple average derived from the distribution of citations for a collection of articles in the journal. The average captures only a small amount of information about that distribution, and it is a rather crude statistic. In addition, there are many confounding factors when judging journals by citations, and any comparison of journals requires caution when using impact factors. Using the impact factor alone to judge a journal is like using weight alone to judge a person's health.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 15:12 Comments (0)
To further celebrate the launch of PMC
Biophysics, we have a T-shirt competition for you!
We have pun-tastic
tshirts for PMC Physics A and B, but now it's up to you: come up with a clever
slogan for the new journal, ideally referencing both biophysics and open
access:
Inspiration might be found from the scope of the journal -
beyond that, it's up to you.
The reward for the winning slogan will be
nifty, high-quality tshirts for you and two friends, with your biophysical
slogan across the front, and our logo on the back.
Entries should be
emailed to info@physmathcentral.com by
the 31st of July, and we will announce the winners and their idea on the
blog.
Pun away!
Posted by Morag Hickman at 13:04 Comments (0)
Zotero support for PhysMath Central
We are very pleased to announce that PhysMath Central now has Zotero support.
On each abstract and full-text article page you will notice the blue Zotero icon in the address bar, which you can click to add the bibliogrpahic information to your Zotero account. And if you don't know what Zotero is, click here and find out more. You'll be glad you did.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 17:08 Comments (0)
Editorial Board for PMC Physics B
We're delighted to be able to announce the first members of the Editorial Board for PMC Physics B, our open access journal on condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical physics and, particularly, the interfaces between these areas. Along with Editors-in-Chief, Stephen Buckman and Peter Hatton, they welcome your submissions to this new and exciting journal.
- Mohammad Akhavan - Sharif University of Technology, Tehran
- Klaus Bartschat - Drake University
- Simon Bending - University of Bath
- Michael Brunger - Flinders University
- R. N. P. Choudhary - Indian Institute of Technology
- Daniel Fruchart - CNRS
- Franco A. Gianturco - University of Rome
- Helen Gleeson - Manchester University
- Mark Golden - University of Amsterdam
- Alexandr L Ivanovskii - Russian Academy of Sciences
- Yoshiyuki Kawazoe - Tohoku University
- Kliment Kugel - Loughborough University
- Marco A. P. Lima - University of Campinas
- Dennis Lindle - University of Nevada
- C K Maiti - Indian Institute of Technology
- Nigel J. Mason - Open University
- Zoran Petrović - Institute of Physics, Belgrade
- Bernard Raveau - ENSICAEN
- Ifor Samuel - University of St Andrews
- Siddharth Saxena - Cambridge University
- Kenneth Taylor - Queen's University Belfast
- Tseung-Yuen Tseng - National Taiwan University
- Howard M. Wiseman - Griffith University
- Zhongxian Zhao - Chinese Academy of Sciences
Posted by Morag Hickman at 15:36 Comments (0)
The latest installment in what I imagine will be a very short-lived series - 'British Comedians and The LHC' - comes from the CERN Podcast where comedy actor Kevin Eldon and League Against Tedium head honcho Simon Munnery are shown around the Large Hadron Colilder by PMC Physics A editorial board member Brian Cox. Eldon and Munnery worked together the arrestingly entitled 'Attention Scum' and you can see them get somewhat awed at the scale of the ATLAS detector here.
Although it's not a laugh-a-minute tour, it is a fascinating insight into the state of modern particle physics as Cox pitches his explanations at an educated layman level and tries to answer some very perceptive questions, especially from Eldon, like 'Why do different particles have different masses' and 'How does gravity work'.
Eldon & Munnery at the LHC with Brian Cox: Part 1 - Part 2
Posted by Chris Leonard at 16:34 Comments (0)
Subscription prices still shocking
The Engineering Library at Cornell University has announced a new exhibit online and in the library - Sticker Shock 2. This is an update to the original 2002 Sticker Shock exhibition which highlights the cost of journal subscriptions and equates them to items, holidays and scholarships that a similar amount of money can buy.
Via PAMNET.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 11:48 Comments (0)
Back from the APS March Meeting
At long last, we are back in the London office after the APS meeting in New Orleans. I was stricken by a stomach bug/chest infection whilst I was there, so it was a relief to recuperate in my own bed. As I did so I was able to catch up on some excellent blogged summaries of the talks and presentations around the Morial Convention Center. Thankfully there were people there who made their notes available to all as there were so many interesting parallel sessions going on it was like going to a great party where you're convinced there's another, more excellent party happening somewhere else. So thanks to Doug Natelson and Dave Bacon for providing their own takes on the meeting.
Elsewhere, a storm in a teacup, or the beginnings of something more serious? APS declines to publish papers asking for Wikipedia-friendly licenses. See also comments on Peter Suber's blog and Slashdot. Interestingly I had a long chat with someone from the APS about what a Creative Commons license (as all articles on PhysMath Central have) allows that their copyright agreement does not allow. This story cropped up just as I was landing back at Gatwick.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 15:52 Comments (0)
The PhysMath Central team are at the APS March meeting in New Orleans. Come and visit us on stand 441 and play the elements game to win an iPod shuffle for you and whoever has the matching element to you.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 11:58 Comments (0)
Reminder - Today is SCOAP3 day on PhysMath Central
Don't forget, in honour of the SCOAP3 initiative, today is SCOAP3 day!
All articles submitted to PMC Physics A on today, March 7th will be peer-reviewed and accepted articles will be published without incurring an Article Processing Charge. Simply request a waiver with the words 'It's SCOAP3 day!'.
Posted by Morag Hickman at 15:03 Comments (0)
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Hi PMCers, just a quick post to introduce myself.
I'm Morag Hickman, and I've answered PMC's call for an Assistant Editor. You can read the Official version of what I'll be doing here. I've got the Physics BSc, I've got the publishing experience, I even brought my own pen.
Personally, I spend my time making and selling shiny things, trying not to be deafened by two parrots and missing the seaside.
I'll be at the APS March meeting with Chris, so come and meet us if you dare!
Posted by Morag Hickman at 16:08 Comments (0)
Tonight's Horizon, for UK-based readers of this blog, will be presented by PMC Physics A board member, Brian Cox. Brian is looking at gravity and why we still can't quite figure out what it is or what causes it.
Horizon: What On Earth Is Wrong With Gravity? BBC2 21:00
UPDATE (30 Jan): There is an article on the show's content, written by Brian Cox on the BBC website. UK-based readers can watch the whole programme again until next Tuesday on BBC's iPlayer.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 15:11 Comments (2)
A trip to the ATLAS detector at the LHC lead to an fascinating discussion between Peter Murray-Rust and Jim Downing about 'big science' and how that contrasted to lab-based science:
I felt like Arthur Dent watching the planet-building in the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is enormous. And the detectors at the edges have a resolution of microns. I would have no idea how to go about building it. So many thanks to Salavtore and colleagues. And it gives me a feeling of ownership. I shall be looking for my own sponsored hadron (I’ve never seen one). So this is “Big Science” - big in mass, big in spending, big in organisation, with a bounded community. A recipe for success.
...
But where do sciences such as chemistry, materials, nanotech, condensed matter, cell biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, etc. etc. fit? They aren’t “big science”. They often have no coherent communal voice. The publications are often closed. There is a shortage of data.
But there are a LOT of them. I don’t know how many chemists there are in the world who read the literature but it’s vastly more than the 22,000 HEP scientists. How do we give a name to this activity. “Small science” is not complementary; “lab science” describes much of it it but is too fixed to buildings.
Jim Downing came up with the idea of “Long Tail Science”. The Long Tail is the observation that in the modern web the tail of the distribution is often more important than the few large players. Large numbers of small units is an important concept. And it’s complimentary and complementary.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 12:53 Comments (0)
UK-based teacher and science communicator Alom Shaha has created a series of short films about the science behind the Large Hadron Collider, unusually using animation and claymation to get across some of the concepts to its target audience of young scientists. They can all be viewed from the LabReporter website, and their channel on YouTube, and have already received rave reviews.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 12:00 Comments (0)
Statistics, it is said, can prove anything. STATS - however - are keen to de-bunk abuse of statisitics in science and the media.
From their 'about' page:
Since its founding in 1994, the non-profit, non-partisan Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) has become a much-valued resource on the use and abuse of science and statistics in the media. Our goals are to correct scientific misinformation in the media resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge; and to act as a resource for journalists and policy makers on major scientific issues and controversies.
To get a flavour of their work, read the STATS Dubious Data Awards 2007.
Posted by Chris Leonard at 11:41 Comments (0)