SearchPigeon.org - Online Journals and Research Tools (blog)

Plug

2008-02-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Peter Suber for the blog post promoting Search Pigeon on Open Access News. For a streaming list of posts from this top-rated site, see the feed in the far left column.

A Victory for Open Access at Harvard

2008-02-12T22:29:00.000-08:00

Harvard's Arts & Sciences Faculty has adopted the proposed open access policy in regard to its scholarly articles. This is terrific news for those who care about the dissemination of research beyond those who can afford to pay for it.

Here is the beginning of the statement submitted today:

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University is committed to disseminating the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible. In keeping with that commitment, the Faculty adopts the following policy: Each Faculty member grants to the President and Fellows of Harvard College permission to make available his or her scholarly articles.

Thanks to Peter Suber of Open Access News for providing this text. (For the full-text, click here.)

This is a potentially momentous decision. What is important is that faculty not opt-out (which of course they are free to do), and that other faculties across the country be encouraged to follow suit.

Harvard scholars vote to provide open access

2008-02-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today Harvard professors will be voting on whether or not to publish academic articles for free through an online repository. Such a vote, if it comes out in favor of open access, could, as this New York Times article comments, "given the university’s prestige... be significant for the open-access movement, which seeks to make scientific and scholarly research available to as many people as possible."

Let's hope they make a wise decision, favoring open dissemination of scholarship over current business practices! Then other institutions might, encouraged, follow suit...

Free Subscriptions

2008-02-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

All of the journals searched at SearchPigeon.org are, to the best of my knowledge, comprehensively search-able even as they publish new issues. All of the journals also have made all of their content available to anyone who wants it. Nonetheless, subscription is still a valuable option -- all the more valuable for being free! Don't forget to look for the option to freely subscribe to any of the journals you find through this project, so that they can let you know whenever they publish new material.

For example, if you are interested in new perspectives on conflicts in Africa, you can search for them in the Social Sciences CSE, but you can also go to the magazines devoted entirely to the topic, African Journal on Conflict Resolution and Conflict Trends (both of these journals are published by ACCORD, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes), and subscribe to either of these journals using their easy form.

New Journals Added

2008-02-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

This morning I included seven new journals to the various CSEs at SearchPigeon.org.

In the Social Sciences CSE:
The International Journal of Mental Health Systems
The Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics

In the Arts, Literature and Cultural Studies CSE:
New Voices in Classical Reception Studies
Particip@tions: International Journal of Audience Research
TRANS: Transcultural Music Review
Transformation

In the Philosophy CSE:
William James Studies

Thanks again to the people at DOAJ, from whose near-complete collection of online journals I select only those which are English-language (or primarily English-language) and catered to students in the humanities.

More on Zotero

2008-01-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've had Zotero for almost a year and have used it little since I graduated from my Master's program last spring.

In the meantime, pursuing independent studies haphazardly, I have been trying to figure out an easy way to compile and take notes on web resources, as web research has always overwhelmed me with its possibilities. There are two main problems to solve, in my view:

1. Remembering and cataloguing sites, etc, for future reference.
2. Taking notes on these resources that are easy to locate and place.

Suddenly I realized how much more there is to Zotero! Here's how it solves the above problems:

Trying to answer problem #1: Playing around with social bookmarking sites like Furl and del.icio.us has been semi-rewarding, but because they demand their own tab, it takes unnecessary effort (it seems to me) to access the files and sites I want, and to flip through them easily. The Zotero browser bar (let's call it the "Z-bar"), on the other hand, stays on top, making it easy to open a few tabs with the files/sites of interest (like open books on a table), and have your libraries before you at all times (the stacks of books waiting on the corner of the table, whose titles are always available to scan...).

Plus, if you have the "Z-bar" open, it is just as easy (or easier) to add any new item to your collection with it than with any social-bookmarking utility I have found. Just click on the "Take Snapshot" icon and there it goes! If you need to tag it, you can, as well as slide it over into whichever of your libraries you like.

Easy.

Problem #2: I have been enamored with ShiftSpace and programs like that, which enable one to leave notes right on webpages themselves, for anyone else to find and learn from, add to, etc. But this isn't the solution to effective note-taking for serious students and researchers. Let me say why Zotero is, rather than why ShiftSpace is not (I still admire ShiftSpace very much, and don't want to put those folks down!):

a) with Zotero your notes/highlights are saved as you make them, and because it is a snapshot, the page is accessible whether or not it changes later (much like Furl, whose features most closely resemble Zotero's, as far as social bookmarking sites are concerned);
b) with Zotero also, you can easily search your notes, and create connections between items (though I can't testify to this feature, not having used it much yet).
c) and finally, of course, and very importantly: Your Zotero files are available OFFLINE!

That's enough reason for me. I'll let others talk about any problems with Zotero, until I find some of my own. Zotero is close to being the only tool you need for organizing web research, once you've found your content.

Here is a Library Tutorial on downloading and using Zotero, created by librarians from the University of Michigan.

My original post on Zotero can be found here.

Customize Google

2008-01-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

[Note: All 'Tools' posts cite directly from their home page. My own comments appear in green.]

www.customizegoogle.com/
CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).

Features:

* Use Google Suggest (suggest words while you're typing)
* Add links to competitors
* Rewrite links to point straight to the images in Google Images
* Removes image copying restrictions in Google Book Search
* Secure Gmail and Google Calendar, switch to https
* Block Google Analytics cookies
* Hide the Gmail spam counter
* Make URL previews on sponsored links visible NEW!
* Add favicons in the web search result NEW!

* Remove ads
* Anonymize your Google userid
* Add a result counter in search result
* Filter spammy websites from search results
* Add links to WayBack Machine (webpage history)
* Remove click tracking
* Add links from Google to your bookmark manager
* Use a fixed font for Gmail mail bodies
* Stream Google search result pages NEW!
* Sticky Google Preferences NEW!

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There are clearly many opportunities for enhancing your web research with Customize Google. The simply effective feature I've most recently added is the streaming Google search results pages, making it so that I never need to click the "next page" button, but can scroll the results easily (using Cooliris to collect the links I am interested in!). I look forward to exploring other features of Customize Google, and will announce new features as I become happily familiar with them.

(Unfortunately, the streaming results feature doesn't work on hosted Google Custom Search Engine pages like those of SearchPigeon.org...)

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Combining Religion, Theology, Biblical Studies

2007-12-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

At the advice of a librarian friend, I have decided to compress the Religion and Theology, and Biblical Studies CSEs into one. However, I have kept the Biblical Studies journals apart under the larger heading, for easy perusal of what's there for those users. The CSE searches all the Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies journals at once, but they are easily distinguished for journal browsing.

Tools: Zotero

2007-12-08T13:39:00.002-08:00

[Note: All 'Tools' posts cite directly from their home page. My own comments appear in green, after the linebreak.]

www.zotero.org

Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways. Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).

The 1.0 release of Zotero already provides advanced functionality for gathering, organizing, and scanning one’s research, as well as significant import/export capabilities (including integration with Word and an API for communication with any program or service on the web). In 2007, Zotero users will gain the ability to share and collaborate on their collections with other users through an exchange server, and receive recommendations and feeds of new resources that might be of interest to them. In short, over the next year Zotero will expand from an already helpful browser extension into a full-fledged tool for digital research and collaboration.

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I discovered Zotero last spring when I was finishing up with my Master's degree. It was an extremely helpful way for me to keep track of articles and resources for quick reference as I wrote my final papers. Integrating it with Word enabled me to put together footnotes in a flash, and the dreaded compiling of the bibliography was accomplished for me with a simple click of the button.

But definitely one of the great attractions to me with Zotero is its ability to search full-text any pages you save to it. Unfortunately this doesn't include pdfs yet, but there is some work being done to include even these I think (though not "image only pdfs"). The potential is there, however, for any article you would find on Search Pigeon (or any other portal to open access content) to be downloaded to your Zotero bibliography and then searched (even offline, I think) whenever you like! An incredible possibility, it seems to me.

[Remember, though, that if you download to Zotero something that is on EBSCOhost while you have access to EBSCOhost (I just use it as an example), you will not have access to this once you lose your access to EBSCOhost -- unlike the content of open access journals.

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A Comprehensive Online Journal CSE

2007-12-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally put together a CSE that includes all of the journals searched by the topical CSEs, so that users can easily and quickly search everything. This is an essential addition, and I hope soon to be able to promote the site with greater vigor (though I still don't know know the best way to do this...)
At present Search Pigeon CSEs include 300+ English-language freely-accessible online journals!!, and that number should rise steadily as I become aware of more, and as more journals decide to make their content free to anyone.

Tools: Search Everywhere by Paul Komarek

2007-12-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

[Note: All 'Tools' posts cite directly from their home page. My own comments after the linebreak.]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5054

This extension creates an on-the-fly Google Custom Search Engine, based on the links from the current page. Try visiting http://slashdot.org, then click the icon in your status bar (a "G" with a chain-link underneath). Enter a query in the textbox, and hit the Search button. You will see search results that are based on the news stories and other linked contents of the slashdot front page.

Alternately, you can check the "SiteSearch" box and search over just the site you are visiting.

Accelerator keys are accessed using the Alt-key. For example, when the toolbar is open, use Alt-i to switch to site search. Note that "i" in "SiteSearch" is underlined in the user interface.

Current options on the toolbar:
* SiteSearch: If checked, a simple site search will be performed with the provided query, using the regular Google site: operator.

* URL Extraction
Exact: use extracted URLs without modification, to create a very "narrow" search engine.
Paths: use the host+path from an extracted url, but omit any filenames.
Hosts: use only the host from extracted urls to create a "broad" search engine.

* Extraction modifiers
Filter: some of the extracted URLs might be dominate search results for almost any query. For example, if we extract http://nih.gov, it is unlikely any other extracted URL will appear in search results. By enabling this option, the search engine will avoid certain overly-dominant URL patterns, like nih.gov/*.

Boost exact: this allows combination of host or path URL extraction, with an extra layer of exact URL extraction. Exact urls will be prefered in the search results.

* Other options
New Tab: open search results in a new tab.

For more info, you might want to read this blog post:
http://notes.komarix.org/2007/06/new-firefox-extension-search-everywhere.html

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The usefulness of this tool is that it provides a quick way to find all the content you are looking for on a site at once -- and not just the site, but, if you like, all the sites linked to in that site. It's like an obsessive-compulsive "Find" function on speed. And we all know there are times when obsessive-compulsiveness can be a good thing. Like, for instance, in librarians - who are in turn basically human search engines. So Paul Komarek has provided us with a little librarian in our browser that searches any page we come to for us, if we only ask it to. Free of charge, of course. (Bad news: you need Firefox to use this tool. Good news: you have yet another good reason to start using Firefox.)

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Download

Tools: Cooliris Previews

2007-12-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

[Note: All 'Tools' posts cite directly from their home page. My own comments appear in green, after the linebreak.]

www.cooliris.com

Click-less browsing
Cooliris Previews is a free browser add-on that lets you preview links and rich media without clicking or leaving your current page, so you can browse the web faster than ever. Simply mouseover your link or our Cooliris icon, and a preview window instantly appears with your content. No more clicking back and forth!

Interactive preview.
Fully interactive on just about any website, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, YouTube, Flickr. Also try Cooliris Previews on blogs, discussion forums, news sites, and and more.

Free of adware, spyware, and worries.
Cooliris Previews is free to download, free to use, and does not contain any adware or spyware whatsoever.

Features
* Preview web links, images, and videos without even clicking.
* Stack previewed items into temporary bookmarks to review.
* Instantly send links to friends and family with just a click.
* Automatically subsearch Google, Wikipedia, or just about any searchable website by right-clicking on any phrase
* Customize Cooliris to control preview window activation (mouseover, CTRL-hover, 1-click, click icon), time delay, size and placement.

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I have found this particular tool invaluable; it is like second nature to me now, and should become a built-in feature on future browsers. It speeds up my navigation, making browsing a lot smoother and just a little less linear, so that it becomes possible to explore a possible route without needing to remember the way back to where you came from -- because where you came from is still right there waiting for you. I would compare it to the act, when reading a book, of putting your finger in a page while you read an endnote, turn to another book, or take a sip of coffee. The page you stepped away from remains there for you to return to, in this case, simply by moving your cursor off the Cooliris window. (This window, if it isn't clear already, is a fully functioning page, so it's not just a sneak peak or a snapshot. It's the real deal. An absolutely invaluable, almost necessary, tool.

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Download

Introducing the Search Pigeon blog!

2007-12-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

On this blog you will be able to find SearchPigeon.org news, updates, as well as reviews (plus download access) to many tools for (re)searching the web that will very probably help you be more efficient and confident in your search for quality content, as well as in finding (or enhancing) your system of note-taking/bookmarking/cataloguing this content.

The blog, like the online journal CSEs which are the current centerpiece of Search Pigeon, is under development as it seeks the most helpful and complete design for its purposes - which are also changing. In this time when Search Pigeon is still learning to fly, it's primary goal will be to be clear and accessible and easy to use for any who want to explore it.

So take a look around, and stay tuned for updates as this project becomes better and better suited to the needs of anyone wanting to do first-rate research on the web.