The Distant Librarian

More proof that information wants to be free?

Originally noted by ResearchBuzz, from PsyPost: The “Sci-Hub effect” can almost double the citations of research articles, study suggests.

The researchers found that articles downloaded from Sci-Hub were cited more frequently compared to articles not downloaded from Sci-Hub. After controlling for variables such as the number of figures included in a paper, title length, the number of authors per article, the H-index of the first author, and the impact factor of the journal, Correa and his colleagues found that articles downloaded from Sci-Hub were cited 1.72 times more frequently on average.

This would seem to me to be more proof that making articles available via open access (i.e. not behind a paywall) is a good way to get yourself cited.

New to me: Google Scholar “Public Access” feature

I was alerted to a new(ish?) feature within Google Scholar earlier this week by this blog post: What does this new Google Scholar “Public Access” feature mean for me or my work? More information on the Google Scholar site itself: https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html?1#publicaccess.

From that original post:

The new Google Scholar feature is a reminder that it is all too easy to forget about open access responsibilities when you’ve already got your sights set on the next project. But researchers should keep in mind that making work open does more than just comply with funder policies — when research is more accessible to a broader audience, it has the best chance for the biggest impact. The more people who can read it, the more people who can use it, implement it, draw on it, build on it, and cite it.

Here's the page at the University of Calgary that discusses many options for hosting publications in order to comply with Open Access mandates.

Historical COVID-19 R-Values for Alberta charted

Last month, I posted about how a patron request prompted me to collect the historical COVID-19 R-values for Alberta. That data is available on a public Google Sheet, but I had meant to throw up a chart as well. The other day I was reminded about Datawrapper, so I used that to make this:

Hopefully it will update itself as I continue to update the source...

I could've also done it right on Google Sheets, but with fewer customization options. I think. Maybe I'll go add that there now!

Update (June 22, 2021): Apparently this chart will not automatically update, which seems a glaring oversight on the part of Datawrapper. From their site: "The data will be updated from the spreadsheet every time you open the chart in Datawrapper, but not after the chart is published."

Linked data types in Excel

Apparently parts of this have been around for a couple of years, but it just came on my radar last week with this blog post.

Did you know that Excel can do lookups from providers like Wolfram, Bing, and Power BI on a bunch of different data types? Only available with a Live365 (and/or institutional?) account though, but that covers MPOW. Here's the overview page at Microsoft.

A partial list (you provide the first part, Excel will return data on the second):

• Food: calories, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, nutrients, etc.
• Exercise: exercise types and calories burned.
• Locations: zip codes, economic data, airports, schools, forests, etc.
• Universities: graduation rates, tuition, student body, etc.
• Chemistry: elements, compounds, and minerals.
• Space: planets, moons, satellites, supernovas, space missions, etc.
• Movies: actors, characters, directors, release dates, poster art, etc.
• And More: music, plants, animal breeds, famous people, languages, etc.

I was going to do a little screencast, but there are good ones already out there.

You can even define your own data types.

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with this, but at least now that I know about it, I'll keep my thinking cap on!

Historical COVID-19 R-Values for Alberta

Filed under stuff no citizen should have to do, today I went through pages archived by the Wayback Machine in order to provide a patron with historical R-Value data for COVID-19 for the Province of Alberta. This information is updated weekly (since mid-December, 2020) at https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-alberta-data.aspx, but for some reason the Government has chosen not to make previously-reported numbers available. Anywhere.

Here are the Historical COVID-19 R-Values for Alberta in a Google Spreadsheet. I'll continue to manually update.

 

That cool picture from the cover of The Data Journalism Handbook

The Data Journalism Handbook has been updated from its original 2012 edition, and is available to purchase or for free download from the publisher. When I first tweeted about this a month ago, @Gersart wondered who was responsible for the artwork on the cover. Frustratingly, there was no information about it in the publication, and my email to the publisher went unanswered.

So I clipped the image and threw it into TinEye and was able to identify it as a photograph from a 2012 exhibition by Sarah Sze entitled Fixed Points Finding a Home.

See also, and this YouTube video.

Bounegru, L. and J. Gray (eds.), The Data Journalism Handbook: Towards a Critical Data Practice.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021

Google Earth timelapse of Fort McMurray

Google just announced what they're calling Google Earth’s biggest update in years.

With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change.

It's pretty neat! A number of years ago I took a look using a different product at how quickly the tar sands around  Fort McMurray grew, so I thought it'd be neat to look at the same area with Google Earth. Here's the animated GIF. Timeline is in the upper right corner, and we're looking this time at 1984 - 2020. How have things changed in your neck of the woods?

 

A couple of quick updates - FOIP and Twitter Academic

Just a couple of quick updates.

First, in December, I posted about my initial experience with Alberta's new(?) FOIP process. And then I actually submitted that request on January 26. So the fact that I was never notified that my submission was incomplete is a strike, for sure. But on February 16 I did get my response, so they easily made the 30-day deadline. Download AE000-2021-G-9 Applicant Copy. As you can see, it's a PDF, not the CSV I requested. Not a big deal in this case, but had there been lots of information it might've been, so another strike. I actually emailed back and forth a couple of times, because I didn't realize that both of my requests were being satisfied on that single page. Ultimately this response clicked with me:

I can confirm that the record provided to you in response to your FOIP request identifies all contracts awarded by Advanced Education to McKinsey and Company under the heading “Contract Number”. The list of reports finished by McKinsey and Company is identified under the heading “Finished Reports”, which indicates “None to date”.

If you are not satisfied with the response to your request, you have a right under Part 5 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to request the OIPC review the decision of the public body. Additional information regarding this process can be found here: Request a Review/File a Complaint.

I have to assume the 1054-20200609-MCKINSEY contract number is associated with the Alberta 2030 Building Skills for Jobs contract (CBC article), but they would not claim that in the email, so I guess I'd have to spend another $25 to verify that? :-(

I am no longer a FOIP virgin.

Second up, on January 7 I submitted an application to be accepted into Twitter's Academic Developer program and on February 2 I got an email that I was in. I've since attended a webinar on the program and understand that lots of people have been waiting far longer than that, so I may have slipped in by being quick. I haven't actually done anything other than log in, attend that webinar, and install the postman tool that was being demoed in the webinar, so I can't give you any more info on the ease of the back end (I'm truly not a developer), but when I get around to it, I'll report back on that, too!