Resource of the Month: Nexis

• Nexis is an online full-text database which searches regional, national and global newspapers from over 100 countries, business and industry trade magazines, business news and company information.

• This resource is often used to aid businesses as it provides insights into over 30,000 trusted and invaluable sources of business and news information. These range from global news articles, to company records and additional legal information.

Why the resource is useful for students;

• Nexis helps to prepare for job interviews and careers – the database can be used to gain insight over others within the current job market. This is through the ability to monitor and obtain crucial information about specific companies and job sectors.

• It can be used to aid research for assignments and dissertations – the vast database allows users to research and reference approved news sources, business statistics and bibliographic references within their work.

• The resource’s varied document types can be used to aid research within a wide range of degree subjects – the main types of accessible documents include;

• UK and international news sources
• Business and trade publications
• Company profiles
• Company, country and industry reports
• Market insights
• Biographical data
• International and emerging market sources
• US public records
• Legal information

Access Nexis from the University network at: https://www.nexis.com/home/home.do?randomNum=0.6811372427443615

If accessing Nexis away from campus, connect via the University’s VPN: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/it-services/vpn/

Nexis training resources including video tutorials and downloadable guides can be found here: http://help.bisuktraining.lexisnexis.co.uk/about-nexis

Contact acastaff@aber.ac.uk for further information or to arrange a demonstration.

Forum for Responsible Research Metrics

In 2015, an independent report entitled "The Metric Tide" chaired by Prof James Wilsdon of the Science Policy Research Unit (Univ Sussex) drew attention to the rising pressure on universities, research funders and policymakers to use quantitative metrics in the assessment of research quality and productivity.  In the opinion of many academics and information professionals, however, the current levels of understanding of  the ways in which such measures are calculated, described and used is not high and can lead to inappropriate conclusions being drawn and unintended negative publishing behaviours developing.

To address these matters, the Forum for Responsible Research Metrics has been set up by a partnership of HEFCE, RCUK, Universities UK, Wellcome and JISC in September 2016 to develop the understanding, transparency and flexibility of research metrics as applied throughout the UK research and funding communities. Under the chairmanship of Prof David Price, Vice-Provost (Research) at the University College London, the Forum will advise all UK higher education funding bodies as to how research metrics might best be used in assessing research outputs and environments, Such advise will have particular relevance in terms of the consultations currently taking place on the structure of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise scheduled for 2021.

Steve Smith
March 2017