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Special Edition - NRC Research Press
VOLUME 24, NUMBER 3
In This Issue
- From Pam's Desk
- A note from Cameron Macdonald, Director, Research Press
- The Journals Program
- Man of the Deep: John Smol's reputation looms large
- The Monograph Program
- Exceptional people, as brought to you by talented biographer Richard (Dick) Bourgeois-Doyle
From Pam's Desk
Exceptional milestones require celebration and an 80th birthday definitely qualifies as a special event!
NRC Research Press has been a welcome component of the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (NRC-CISTI) since the two entities merged in 1994. This year, we are joining with the Press to celebrate their 80 years of excellence and innovation in Canadian scientific publishing. The Canadian Journal of Research was originally published in 1929 and since then, that first journal has evolved into a suite of 15 journals that enjoy a strong readership by Canadians and in more than 100 countries around the world.
The NRC Research Press showcases Canadian and international research to the world under the banner of a respected Canadian imprint. The Press contributes to the publishing community in Canada by helping researchers disseminate their research within Canada and around the world.
As I mentioned in our last edition of CISTI News, this year the Press is also preparing for their move in 2010 to a not-for-profit corporation outside CISTI and NRC. On behalf of NRC-CISTI senior management, I would like not only to thank the management and staff of Research Press as well as their many volunteer editors and reviewers across Canada for their outstanding work over the years but also to wish them well in their continuing success. We look forward to seeing what you have in store for us!
A note from Cameron Macdonald, Director, Research Press
In 1929, the National Research Council launched the "Canadian Journal of Research." At that time, it was recognized that Canadian researchers had no Canadian publishing venue in which they could disseminate their own research in Canada and around the world. Eighty years later, Canadian researchers have access to a wide array of quality Canadian science and technology journals with a global reputation.
Scientific research has no borders. Researchers draw on the work of their peers, regardless of its place of origin. For this reason, being a good Canadian scientific publisher means being a good international publisher. We have succeeded in publishing high-impact research for 80 years in journals that are disseminated to over 101 countries around the world.
We've grown from our original single journal to 15 journals, while also providing services that support 14 additional scientific society journals and a scientific monograph program. With support from researchers and their scientific societies across Canada, our scientific journals address critical subject areas for all Canadians, from nutrition to pharmacology, from fisheries to clean water, forestry to botany and from Canadian fauna to the Canadian environment.
Our Monograph Program has published comprehensive Canadian scientific research on topics as diverse as weevils, dinosaurs, mycorrhiza and biographies of great Canadian scientists and innovators, such as George Klein and Elsie MacGill.
Open Access has recently become a major development and will continue to change the future landscape of scientific publishing. Our journals are currently available electronically to all Canadians through the support of the Federal Depository Services Program. We proudly participate in United Nations based programs such as HINARI (World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored-program), AGORA (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) led program) and OARE (United Nations Environment Programme) that deliver our content to the developing world.
The Journals Program
Dr. Bruce P. Dancik
Editor-in-Chief
Did you know that NRC Research Press currently publishes 15 journals - most on a monthly basis - on subjects ranging from engineering to physical, biological and biomedical sciences?
Our titles, as well as the articles published in the journals, are indexed in Google, Google Scholar and in other academic and scholarly search engines. Moreover, through an agreement with the Depository Services Program, Canadians have full electronic access to all of our journals for free.
A few years ago, NRC Research Press embarked on an ambitious project to move decades of paper copies of its journals from library shelves to the World Wide Web. As scientists and engineers turn more and more to the Web for information, the legacy of past research can be forgotten. To prevent this from happening, Research Press has devoted resources to scanning the paper articles into a readable, searchable format (PDF), and compiling the abstracts and tables of contents in HTML format. The result is that a wealth of information can be found through current search engines and reference links on other sites - ensuring that since January 2008, over one million pages are accessible for sale. Over 160 institutions - mostly American and Canadian - have purchased rights to use to these backfiles.
Additionally, earlier this fall, Research Press journal papers from the fall of 2006 were classified into "hot topic" areas consistent with NRC's areas of key interest previously identified in Science at Work for Canada, NRC's current strategy. By undertaking topic aggregation, Research Press has identified papers of interest to researchers working in such diverse areas of research as agri-food, bioproducts, climate studies, disease studies, energy, environmental technologies, nanotechnology, polar and arctic studies as well as water technology - and created syndication alerts for subscription that will advise the user of new additions to that area of research.
As part of its mandate to support the Canadian scientific community through its publishing expertise, NRC Research Press now provides a wide range of services to scientific journals published by scientific and technical societies. Clients and their journals can benefit from NRC Research Press's 80 years of publishing expertise as well as from state-of-the-art technology in areas such as online submission, Web hosting and XML-based publishing.
Man of the Deep: John Smol's reputation looms large
Few people would declare mucking around in ancient lake bottom sediments in frigid, High Arctic waters as their "hobby" or the ideal way to spend three weeks of their summers, but Professor John Smol, Editor of NRC Research Press' Environmental Reviews and the world's leading expert in paleolimnology, is delighted to do so. With an extensive list of academic achievements, awards, journal publications and book titles to his name, this popular Queen's University professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change says he has always been interested in the environment and credits Jacques Cousteau's popular TV documentaries for reeling him in.
After obtaining his B.Sc in Marine Biology from McGill University in 1977 and earning his PhD in 1982 from Queen's University, Dr. Smol waded into the budding field of paleolimnology-the reconstruction of lake histories based on sediment cores taken from lake bottoms. Eager to prove his new science in the field, he tackled the question of whether or not acid rain was really causing high acidity levels in Sudbury-area and Adirondack lakes and ultimately destroying them. Digging deeply into the bottom sediments, he reconstructed the lakes ecological histories over a 200-year period and proved the levels of acidity had slowly been increasing-and killing-the lakes over time. Most environmental assessments at the time were based on only two or three years of information. Acid rain sceptics backed off and the Canadian and international science communities took note of Dr. Smol in a big way.
In 1993, NRC awarded Dr. Smol the Steacie Prize as Canada's most outstanding young scientist or engineer. In 1998 and 2001, he was awarded the Best Professor Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching by the Queen's Biology DSC and in 2000 received the W.T. Barnes Teaching Excellence Award. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) presented him the NSERC Award for Excellence in 2003 and the NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal in 2004, as Canada's top scientist or engineer.
His challenge now is climate change and to aspiring environmental scientists, Dr. Smol offers this assurance, "those seriously working in the environmental sciences never feel they are doing something useless."
The Monograph Program
Dr. Paul B. Cavers
Editor, Monograph
Publishing Program
The NRC Research Press defines monographs to be book-length learned treatises written by specialists in any intra-, inter-, or cross-disciplinary topic of science or engineering for the benefit ofother specialists.
Established in 1994, the main focus of the Monograph Program has been to provide a vehicle for scientists to publish their high-quality research in a variety of disciplines. Many of the Monograph Program's publications have received Canadian and worldwide recognition. In addition to research-based monographs, the Program has also published more popular science-themed books such as their biography series, which was launched in 2002. The latest instalment in that series, Her Daughter the Engineer: The Life of Elsie Gregory MacGill, features the world's first female aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer; the author of that book, Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, is profiled in this issue.
The monograph collection comprises more than 100 active titles and contains unique material from a variety of sources and authors, including world-renowned specialists such as Philip Currie, who recently co-authored A New Horned Dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous Bone Bed in Alberta.
Their monographs are distributed in Canada and abroad by both traditional book distributors as well as e-book vendors. Previews of their books are available on Google Book Search.
The Program's Editorial Board, headed by Dr. Paul Cavers and composed of a distinguished group of eminent scientists from various disciplines, has ensured that each and every monograph has met with the highest quality of scientific standards.
For more information on our monograph collection, visit the Monograph Program's website.
Exceptional people, as brought to you by talented biographer Richard (Dick) Bourgeois-Doyle
Outside the Ottawa Public Library on a chilly, windy night this last October, a halfmoon shone brightly in the dark sky and a special spirit seemed to be taking flight. Inside the library, in a quaint auditorium, a tall, distinguished and insightful-looking gentleman by the name of Richard (Dick) Bourgeois-Doyle began presenting his published biography about a remarkable Canadian named Elsie MacGill, the world's first female aeronautical engineer and professional aircraft designer – small in stature but brimming with a largess of spunk, smarts, determination and good humour.
Before his presentation of Her Daughter the Engineer: The life of Elsie Gregory MacGill, Mr. Bourgeois Doyle did something remarkable himself-he took the time to welcome and sincerely thank each audience member for coming. His admiring descriptions of Elsie's valuable contributions to the Canadian aeronautical industry and her tenacious, stoic persona held the audience in rapt attention. Despite being afflicted with a crippling paralysis and completely outnumbered by men in her field, Elsie pioneered designs for a variety of aircrafts from sturdy, low-cost bush planes to huge, legendary World War II bombers.
In addition to authoring this first-ever biography of Elsie MacGill, Mr. Bourgeois-Doyle has written two other books; Renaissance II and George J. Klein, the Great Inventor, also published by the NRC Research Press Monograph Program. Quick to praise the merits and staff of Research Press's Monograph Program, he is eager to further promote the program's virtues through book venues like Chapters, public libraries and classrooms.
Monograph Program Manager, Suzanne Kettley, remarked, "working with Dick has been a wonderful experience. From the moment he first spoke to me about this project, I knew that it was a worthwhile endeavour. I think we all have a lot to learn from Elsie MacGill's outlook on life and Dick's book has made that possible."
Mr. Bourgeois-Doyle is currently Director of Corporate Governance at the NRC and since 1987 has headed a number of special projects in the NRC Executive Offices. He looks forward to writing more biographical books "but perhaps not all on science and technology themes." Purchase his books online.
Published quarterly by:
Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information
National Research Council Canada
Building M-55, Ottawa Canada K1A 0R6
Tel.: 613-998-2362
Fax: 613-952-9112
or use the online form
Web: http://cisti.nrc.gc.ca
Editor: Tracie Taylor-Labonté
Layout: Judy Letourneau
Production: Reprographic Services
ISSN 0715-8661
