The latest Library News for Staff is hot off the press.

Read about how Discover, the new Google-style search tool launched this semester, is working out for students and staff. Get the most out of the Library for 2012 with our top 3 tips. Have a look at recently added resources, including all New Zealand Standards, and a hundred years worth of Vogue.

The higher citation pattern of journal articles that are freely accessible to all internet users (Open Access or OA) comparative to those whose use is restricted to members of institutions who pay a subscription is well known and even has its own name - the OA Advantage. It has often been suggested, however, that this was largely the result of selection bias, the tendency of authors to place their best work in institutional repositories. Now a study from the University of Quebec at Montreal has tested this theory by comparing "self-archived" articles with those that have been placed in repositories as a result of institutional mandate - the Queensland University of Technology, for example, requires all its research staff to place their published articles in QUT ePrints and a high rate of compliance is achieved.

The authors conclude that "the OA advantage is a statistically significant, independent positive in citations, even when we control the independent contributions of many other salient variables" and that this advantage is just as great for the mandated articles as those they are voluntarily contributed in institutions where this is not a requirement. Internationally about 15-20% of articles are being self-archived by their authors although this figure is much lower at Massey. Some confusion exists about the ability of authors to archive articles after they have assigned the copyright to publishers, but in fact most publishers allow for a version of the peer-reviewed item to be placed in a university repository like Massey Research Online.

Any citations of your work in 2011 will count towards its assessment in the 2012 PBRF round so there's no better time than now to submit your published articles. Email the library today to find out more. Read the full article here - Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research

The latest issue of Library News for Staff is hot off the (virtual) press! Be sure to have a read.

Dear Concerned Library Enthusiast,

Sorry, the scrumptious closing down music was a bit dodgy a couple of weeks ago, but it's back to normal now. Enjoy.

If you're after some good tips on using Google Scholar for literature searches, take a look at this new article we've come across:

Younger, P. (2010). Using Google Scholar to conduct a literature search. Nursing Standard, 24 (45), 40-46.

It's written for nurses, but is useful for all topics. The step-by-step approach is easy to follow, and there are relevant screenshots and references to PubMed, CINAHL and BNI.

The article is recommended by Heather Da Vanzo, Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian at Wellington Library.

You might also be interested in our tutorial How to Find Articles Using Google Scholar.