Author Archives: Frank Norman

About Frank Norman

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

Page charges and OA policies

Posted on June 11, 2021 by Frank Norman

Much of my time in the past 12 months has been committed to preparing for compliance with the Coalition S / Wellcome open access policies. Because we have core funding from Wellcome this means that all research papers submitted on … Continue reading →

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Preprints and science news

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Frank Norman

I’ve written before about preprints and science news. That blogpost was occasioned by the open letter last summer from Fiona Fox at the Science Media Centre on the subject, and the follow-up comment piece by Tom Sheldon in Nature. Mine … Continue reading →

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Diversithon – some recipes

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Frank Norman

Recipe 1 It’s a simple recipe. Gather together some people who want to change the world. Put some inspirational speakers in front of them to get people fired up about diversity in science. Provide cakes and biscuits. Teach some basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating science, Wikipedia | 2 Comments

Tracking less tangible research outputs

Posted on November 18, 2018 by Frank Norman

When I spot a problem then I start wondering what the solution is. It might be a bottleneck in some workflow, or a process that requires excessive effort to achieve a small effect. So I feel that there must be … Continue reading →

Posted in Metadata, Research management | 1 Comment

Scientific archives workshop 2018

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Frank Norman

I attended the Second Workshop on Scientific Archives held at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C. on the 13 & 14 August 2018. The first Workshop on Scientific Archives was held at EMBL in 2016, and was organised entirely by Anne-Flore … Continue reading →

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Library day in the life 2018

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Frank Norman

This post is an account of what I did at work each day from Monday 17 September 2018 through to Friday 21 September 2018. The idea is to give an impression of the range of tasks I engage in. I’ve … Continue reading →

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Open access deposits to Europe PubMed Central – building skills

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Frank Norman

Blogpost by Kate Beeby and Frank Norman. Our funders’ open access policies mandate deposit of all primary research articles into Europe PubMed Central (ePMC). We opt for the Gold (immediate Open Access) route when we can, but if the publisher … Continue reading →

Posted in Libraries and librarians, Open Access | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

To fail is to learn

Posted on August 29, 2018 by Frank Norman

After leaving school I worked in a library for a year and was in the music and drama section for six months. Towards the end of that time I was trusted enough that they let me prepare some orders for … Continue reading →

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What is open science?

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Frank Norman

The question Wikipedia suggests that open science began in the 17th century, with the start of the academic journal. Some say that open science started in 1957 with the establishment of the World Data Center system, for International Geophysical Year. … Continue reading →

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Cat Zero – book review

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Frank Norman

This lablit novel is set in a research institute in north London. The story is centred on a virology research lab and its work. An old lady dies. A cat dies. More cats die – could it be suspicious? Artie … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , | 1 Comment