Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
Some time ago, I have discussed identifiers for a specific edition of a book (ISBN), serials and other continuing resources (ISSN), and content objects like journal articles (DOI). But did you already know the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)? According to the ORCID website, it “provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized”. Hereby, a unique 16-digit code (e.g. 0000-0003-0010-4240) is used to identify a researcher. In a Nature editorial back in 2009 it was discussed that an academic-reward system would be tied less heavily to publications and citations if an author ID system like ORCID gained widespread support. This could soon become true, as ORCID is supported by important organizations, including publishers like Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley.
An Introduction to Logistics and SCM Principles and Concepts
Being part of Apple’s iTunes Store, iTunes U contains educational audio and video files shared by institutions worldwide. It enables lecturers to create own courses for iPad to be accessed by students. Richard Wilding, Professor of Supply Chain Strategy at the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Cranfield School of Management, has provided the iTunes U course Supply Chain Management & Logistics: An Introduction to Principles and Concepts. “This course is a collection of enhanced podcasts and videos which provide an introduction to the principles and concepts of logistics and supply chain management. By utilising the material all users will be provided with a foundation of terminology and concepts enabling them to move forward and investigate the topics in more depth.” So, the next time you will see students “playing” with their Apple devices, be sympathetic to them. Maybe they are just accessing a supply chain management course.
Academic English on the “Sentence Level”
In spite of high scientific quality, academic manuscripts sometimes do not survive the peer review process just because they are written in broken English. Therefore, researchers should conceal from their reviewers that they are non-native speakers. For sure, a traditional dictionary is an essential tool on the “word level”. But, a combination of correctly spelled words is not sufficient on the “sentence level”. Therefore, I would like to recommend Linguee to you, which was launched by a Cologne-based start-up company in 2009. “Linguee is a unique translation tool combining an editorial dictionary and a search engine with which you can search through hundreds of millions of bilingual texts for words and expressions.” Currently, Linguee contains English translations of texts in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, which are usually, yet not always, reliable. Linguee helps both on the word and sentence level. I am sure you do not want to miss it any more.
“Facebook for Scientists”
I recently discovered ResearchGate, which is a Cambridge and Berlin based social network for researchers. It is described by its founders as “Facebook for scientists” and helps scientists to collaborate with colleagues and find new publications. ResearchGate has implemented workgroups, which are invitation-only. Own workgroups can be created in order to collaborate in a closed and secure environment. “ResearchGate was built for scientists, by scientists, with the idea that science can do more when it’s driven by collaboration.” This ResearchGate slogan reminds a little of supply chain management. Over 1 million researchers have already joined this service, tens of thousands of documents have been uploaded, and thousands of subgroups have been formed. So far, ResearchGate is particularly popular in the fields of biology and medicine. However, the topic Supply Chain Management has already more than 100 followers and a search for the keyword “supply chain” results in more than 500 researchers.
How to Organize SCM Research Resources
Some months ago, the reference management software Zotero got into my hands. On the Zotero website it is described as a “free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources”. It gives yet another reason to use Firefox: Having Zotero installed, a small symbol appears in your location bar, if you’re using Firefox to browse the websites of ScienceDirect, Ebsco, Amazon, and all the other supported resources. By clicking the symbol, you can collect information on books, journal articles, and other resources in your database. You can synchronize your database with the Zotero server and create group libraries to use Zotero collaboratively. Thousands of journal-specific styles are available to turn the data into a bibliography in your own paper. Word processor plugins are available for Microsoft Word in order to automatically update your bibliography. Unlike commercial software packages like EndNote, Zotero is an open source project (GNU General Public License).
