Resources for Academic Publishing

Library workshop #1

Learning outcomes

• Connect lit review w/ reading w/ publication process
• Learn how to quickly get a bird’s eye view of your topic
• Learn basics of using the library for the lit review
• Understand how to effectively use Google Scholar
• Appreciate the benefits of citation managers
• Know how to quickly assess a journal
• Learn how to avoid predatory journals 

The publication cycle is discipline dependent: chart = STEM or some Social Science

Some disciplines/areas have review publications
•Cochrane
•Nature Reviews

Other disciplines may have articles that review the literature
Or use a very recent, highly cited article w/good lit review

Let's Go Meta! Finding a review article: not as common outside the sciences. Includes both literature reviews as well as systematic reviews (evaluates the research) [In the humanities and social sciences, we might want to focus on finding a recent book related to our topic and review its bibliography. Book-length bibliographies, although increasingly less common, are another means to gain an overview on a topic]. 

1. Cochrane as example of systematic review http://cityte.ch/mj
2. Chemical Reviews (ACS)
3. Annual Reviews. 41 journals. Available at {call first re. access}: Brooklyn, Baruch, City College, Graduate Center, Lehman, Queens, York
4. Nature Reviews! Library has these NOW http://cityte.ch/nature

We have almost *everything*
We have hundreds of thousands of ejournals and ebooks. If we don't have what you need, we can help you get it via Interlibrary Loan.

We have data sets for socials sciences. Ask us for more details.

Connect us to Google Scholar! 

Electronic content outside of City Tech
Every CUNY library has distinctive library resources that they pay for. Although you can borrow books from other CUNY libraries, you can not request any electronic content from outside of City Tech from your office or home. Access electronic content from outside of City Tech by:

• interlibrary loan of specific articles or ebook chapters
• on-site visit to library with ebook or ejournal or database, etc.

Interlibrary loan for most types of content is possible.

Finding books and more outside of CUNY
​WorldCat is an immense resource in finding books and archival materials, particularly in the English-speaking world. 

MaRLI is an initiative that provides access for CUNY faculty to New York University and Columbia's libraries via New York Public Library. You can borrow books and access electronic content on-site. Annual access runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30.

ALB, Academic Libraries of Brooklyn
Card via City Tech Library by semester. Tandon (Polytechnic) with special arrangement (ask me)

Metro card
Card via City Tech library, one-time use for books not in CUNY in most NYC libraries. Have to prove we do not have the book. 

Access electronic content only via the library's website (with the exception of Google Scholar when it is configured to connect to our library)

How to access library article databases

• on homepage, FIND ARTICLES > filter by subject or specific database
• off-campus login -- use your CUNYFirst Username and password

Teach yourself library search basics

• Do a quick search in Academic Search Premier and use the FindIt button to get articles
  • If FindIt can not connect you to the full text 
    • Push the citation into interlibrary loan or try searching in Google Scholar via the FindIt menu
• Practice emailing articles to one's self
• Practice pushing citations into RefWorks [suggested that participants use a citation manager] 
• On your own: peruse the databases by your discipline and try searching them

How to find a specific journal

• Browsing a journal or seeking a specific known article? Try our journal portal
• Most journals let you set up an alert for new issues or articles

How to find books inside CUNY and beyond;

• Find books in CUNY
  • ​Traditional online catalog; toggle between City Tech and CUNY / CLICs delivers books here from any CUNY school
  • Find books in OneSearch
• WorldCat: books in all kinds of libraries, everywhere; differences between two versions
  • WorldCat.org is the light version of WorldCat and has limited searching capabilities. Can easily push citation into RefWorks
  • WorldCat First Search is higher powered

OneSearch (see box below)

• Like Google and Google Scholar, can be overwhelming, not comprehensive and provide irrelevant results
• Filter results by resource type, date, peer-review, etc. 
• May or may not be productive depending on what you are researching and what stage you are at
• student-oriented

If we don’t have it … ILL it! (interlibrary loan)
Need to create an account and sign up

WorldCat for books + more outside of City Tech and CUNY

Worldcat.org (light)

WorldCat via library database pages (heavy)

What is Google Scholar? 

Google Scholar indexes

• journal articles
• conference papers
• theses and dissertations
• academic books (especially collections of chapters by different authors)
• pre-prints (openly available early versions of articles usually in subject repositories like arXiv for physics)
• abstracts
• technical reports
• ResearchGate and Academia.edu content (some)
• More details from Google Scholar re. coverage and indexing: 

Advantages of Using Google Scholar

• All disciplines, easy inter-disciplinary research
• Citation trail! “Cited by” feature 
• Gives article recommendations through “my updates”
• Indexes material not always covered by library databases 
• Easily exports to citation managers
• Easy to link to City Tech library and other libraries' content

Issues to be Aware of When Using Google Scholar

• Google Scholar does not index all scholarly material. 
• Even when connected to our library, Google Scholar cannot access all of the library’s collections  
• Searching is more effective and targeted using the library databases. 
• Library databases offer peer-review filter

RefWorks is a citation manager that is geared to faculty, not students. It works with many resources, particularly Google Scholar. The best part of RefWorks is that you can create custom styles. Some journals have a unique variant on an existing citation style and RefWorks allows you to adjust your citations to fit that style.  

• Sign up for a new account. Our account code is rwnycct. Use the same link to login once you've set up your account. Please note that RefWorks is not free, it is paid for by CUNY.

Zotero is a free, open source citation manager. It does not allow for customization not as powerful as RefWorks but it allows you to easily share your citations with a co-author, unlike RefWorks. It is also much easier to learn. You can use Zotero to manage your workflow. You can also add free-standing notes, attach notes to specific citations, attach PDFs, copy text into notes, and add tages. 

Mendeley is used by academics in the sciences and has some nice social components.

This article in Nature provides an overview of citation managers. You can embed documents in most citation managers including RefWorks.

The FIND IT button takes you to full text whether you are searching a library database or Google Scholar (provided you set up a specific library in LIBRARY LINKS).

Here's how FIND IT looks in MathSciNet: 

The details that matter:

• Content scope
• Acceptance rate?
• Peer review format?
• Metrics?
• Methodologies?
• Article formats (e.g. original research, opinion pieces)
• Editor-in-chief?
• Editorial board?
• Authors? 
• Quality of writing
• Reputation

A strategy if you are an inexperienced author or haven't published recently is to look for low-hanging fruit: publication venues that are scholarly but may not be peer reviewed or, if peer reviewed, may be less likely to reject.

Peruse Call for Papers CFPs for themed special issues of journals;encyclopedias; book chapters (that are not peer reviewed). See our guide to CFPs.

Spam queries, flattering emails

Fast peer review promised Lack of focus (sometimes)

Have you heard of the journal?

• Are you sure? Copycat names

Ask a well-published colleague

Is it in a known database or citation index?

Conferences are especially insidious

INVESTIGATE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT OR SAY ‘YES’ Use Think.Check.Submit 

Take a few minutes to read through TEACH YOURSELF: SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING+FINDING THE JOURNAL (section below this one on the left-hand navigation). These "homework" questions will help you analyze a possible target journal.