September is all about NEW – new semester, new students, new faculty members

The Library also has a new website, newly equipped group study rooms and many new books.

We are excited to introduce our Open Access Contact Point for those of you who look for help on Open Access publishing and how to avoid predatory publishers. Please visit our website for the rich content we put together for you. The Open Science policy approved by the Academic Council can also be accessed here. The library course portfolio also has many recent additions. “Who is talking about your research? - Altmetrics tools” and “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Basic Course” are only two of them. Please visit the calendar for full course listing, as it will be filled in shortly.

We look forward to seeing all new and returning students in the Library. We provide the resources, the support and the study spaces you need.

Please remember to be considerate to other users all year long and help us have a quiet and clean library.

Tuba Akbaytürk Çanak – Library Director

New Website!

We are excited to present to you all our brand-new website, with a fresh makeover, updated content and easy layout.

• General Overview

Library has been working on a new project, to renew its website, which we had been using since 2013, with the IT department. Our primary goal was to create a website that will have a user-friendly interface and will provide easy access to our collection, our services, the e-services and our research tools. The appearance and structure of the new website is based on a template created by the IT department, but it is tailored to our needs as well as the various information needs of the users. During this preparation stage, we have been building the new site with modules, menus, pages and subpages transferring our existing content and creating new ones.

• Research & Instructions

The Library Instructions program page including various instructions, workshops and seminars aims to assist the students in becoming independent users of information resources, as well as integrate and apply research skills and knowledge in their academic studies. Therefore we have updated our course list with new titles covering different information needs, we have updated the LIB101 online course and we set a well skilled team of Librarians to assist with Research support. In addition, we have grouped several online tools as well as software that can simplify your work and assist you in some tasks. Last, don’t forget to look at our Libguides list, for brief yet focused information on various topics.

» Faculty members, Instructors and Researchers can request a session for their students, using the online Library Instruction form.

» Library users can request a research consultation with one of the Reference Librarians, using the online Research consultation appointment form.

A Predatory Publishing Case

In March of 2019, upon review of numerous allegations of predatory practices against the publisher OMICS International, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada ordered OMICS to pay $50.1 million in damages. The case marks one of the first judgments against a publisher accused of predatory practices and could be a signal of greater publisher oversight to come.

OMICS is a publisher and conference organizer and has been reported to engage in predatory publishing. According to the OMICS website, they publish over 700 journals and organize over 3,000 conferences globally. Topics covered include medicine, pharma, engineering, science, technology, and business.

If you are interested in finding more about predatory journals, please see this article by “Manley, S. (2019). “Predatory Journals on Trial: Allegations, Responses, and Lessons for Scholarly Publishing from FTC v. OMICS” Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 50(3), 183-200.

You can always consult the Library to avoid predatory publishing and check out our “Avoiding Predatory Publishing” libguide.