Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

I am a retired librarian. I spent 40 years working in biomedical research libraries.

PLOS shift

Posted on 26 July 2012 by Frank Norman

Camel case (the practice of writing words with some inner uppercase letters) is one of my pet hates, as it demands sufficient finger dexterity to make sure you hit the shift key at just the right point in the middle … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing | Comments Off on PLOS shift

Flying through the Crick

Posted on 20 July 2012 by Frank Norman

Quick update to my post about the Crick Institute building site. The Crick has now released a fly-through video animation to show what the interior of the building will look like. It is just 4 minutes long, and includes some … Continue reading →

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Another collection of essays

Posted on 19 July 2012 by Frank Norman

Last year I gave a shameless plug for the Mill Hill Essays that I produce each year.  Here is another plug, for the latest collection – Mill Hill Essays 2011-12. The printed booklets have been distributed (free to libraries and other … Continue reading →

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A very large building site

Posted on 10 July 2012 by Frank Norman

Last week I went on a short tour of the Francis Crick Institute construction site. The Crick is a new research institute due to open in 2015, and will be formed out of two existing institutes in London plus three … Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating Science, Crick | Comments Off on A very large building site

Megajournals

Posted on 9 July 2012 by Frank Norman

The trend towards Open Access has catalysed the creation of many new journals and new publishers. BioMedCentral, established in 2000, was a pioneer of open access publishing, launching a large number of journals. Public Library of Science (PLoS) initially established … Continue reading →

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M and S

Posted on 5 July 2012 by Frank Norman

I am back at work after a three-week break. I had a good holiday, visiting Manila and Singapore.  I really managed to switch off, totally ignoring the temptation to look at my email or Twitter. The part of my brain … Continue reading →

Posted in Froth, Philippines | Comments Off on M and S

Evidence of corruption?

Posted on 7 June 2012 by Frank Norman

Guilty.   Not guilty. The moment in the courtroom when a verdict is delivered is a moment of high drama, potentially a life-changing decision for the accused.

Posted in peer review | Comments Off on Evidence of corruption?

Open Access gallops on

Posted on 2 May 2012 by Frank Norman

Note: I see that Stephen has beaten me to it with his post last night (does he never sleep?!?).  This post overlaps with his but not totally, so I decided to put it up anyway. Progress towards the ideal of open … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Comments Off on Open Access gallops on

Wordy, wooden, weak-verbed

Posted on 26 April 2012 by Frank Norman

A piece in today’s Times Higher, on the flaws of academic writing styles, struck a chord with me.  It says: If you have ever needlessly added the term “Foucauldian” to a journal article or bludgeoned readers by starting an epic sentence … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Comments Off on Wordy, wooden, weak-verbed

Collecting, connecting, communicating

Posted on 19 March 2012 by Frank Norman

Librarians collect stuff. To collect is one of the most important verbs in the librarian’s instruction manual. Probably the next most important is to categorise. There is a connection between these two. We do not collect randomly but with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogology, Libraries and librarians, Writing | Comments Off on Collecting, connecting, communicating