Scientists and the social network

Nature just blew the bubble! Last month an article entitled Online collaboration: Scientists and the social network, by Richard Van Noorden, put focus on the role social media has on scholars.

The article gives a detailed insight on the attitude of scientist towards social media by discussing the various existing platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and others. Clearly Google Scholar and ResearchGate are the current winners while the others are right behind. The article also discusses the rapid increase of sharing of scientific papers, which typically are copyrighted by the respective publishers.

The conclusion is clear: Scientists today are using social media more than ever, as a tool to exchange information, and, also to increase their presence with the community. Some might wonder who will be the ultimate winner, and will the craze on social media come to an end one day?

Read the full article here.

Upcoming EGU elections: Autumn 2014

The EGU Election Autumn 2014 for the Treasurer and Division Presidents will take place between 01 November – 01 December 2014.

You are kindly asked to propose a candidate to any vacancy by 15 September 2014. You are welcome and encouraged to nominate yourself. If you are nominating someone else, please get the candidate’s consent. Please have the information listed in the application form as well as a photograph available when you summit the application.

The list of the current division presidents, including the number of terms they have served is available here: http://www.egu.eu/elections/.

NOTE: Seismology Division president Charlotte Krawczyk is currently serving her second term and has to be replaced by a new candidate.

Perhaps toads can do that

Probably every seismologist has been asked the question “Can you predict earthquakes?”, or “Is it true that animals can sense an imminent earthquake?”. Despite the crushing answers from some trying to explain that not all seismologist work on earthquake predictions and that there is far more other areas of specialisation, the truth is that researchers are still trying to answer both questions.

Bufo Bufo toad

Changes in the environment and animal behaviour have long been considered as earthquake precursors, but a consistent, recurring scientific process has, so far, been harder to establish. Historically there have been too few cases of successful predictions. The 1975 Haicheng earthquake is a perfect example of mass evacuations ordered by political leaders a day before the magnitude 7.3 earthquake took place.

A 2011 paper published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health provides an interesting study on the possible effects on animals due to the chemistry changes of ground water before a major earthquake. The authors conclude that the electronic chargers generated from the tectonic stresses build up in the Earth’s crust cause chemical ionization at the rock surface, which then cause irritant compounds to certain species of animals. Bufo bufo toads were observed to exhibit a highly unusual behavior prior to a M6.3 earthquake that hit L’Aquila, Italy, on April 06, 2009: a few days before the seismic event the toads suddenly disappeared from their breeding site in a small lake about 75 km from the epicenter and did not return until after the aftershock series. In this paper we discuss potential changes in groundwater chemistry prior to seismic events and their possible effects on animals.

Here is the full PDF of the article:
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/8/6/1936/pdf

EGU journals now display the most recent Impact Factors

EGU journals now display the most recent Thomson Reuters Impact Factors (IFs), which were published on 29 July in Journal Citation Reports. Earth System Dynamics received its first impact factor (IF 2.771), while publications such as Geoscientific Model Development (IF 6.086), The Cryosphere (IF 4.374) and Solid Earth (IF 2.155), significantly improved its impact in the past year.

Copernicus has also recently included the new Google Scholar Metrics h5-index, released at the end of June 2014, on the EGU journal pages. The index is based on citations from all articles indexed with Google Scholar as of mid-June 2013 and covers papers published between 2009 and 2013. According to this metric, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics is the top journal in atmospheric sciences with an h5-index of 89. Other EGU journals, such as Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (h5-index 39) and Climate of the Past (h5-index 33), are also in the top 20 of their respective categories.

Read more about this:
http://www.egu.eu/news/119/egu-journal-news-new-impact-factors-h5-index-and-an-anniversary/

Find out more about EGU open access journals:
http://www.egu.eu/publications/open-access-journals/