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Announcements

October 27, 2015: New tools to help connect people and share information

Sent By: David Wilcox

I am pleased to announce the launch of two new tools, Knowledge Exchange and Board Expert Finder, which represent important steps forward in our ongoing effort to better support research and facilitate internal communication. Both the introspective process and my ongoing dialogue with sections have impressed upon me the division’s need for better methods of sharing information. To that end, staff throughout the division have been working on solutions that will, ultimately, comprise a suite of tools that address our most pressing information sharing needs. Please take a moment to read the below descriptions of these two tools that, while a fantastic start, are only the first installment of what I expect to be ongoing progress on this issue. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions on these or related matters, please feel free to contact Jeff Campione, Tim Mullen, or Kris Vajs.

Regards,

David

Sharing Knowledge About Datasets and Software Languages

Knowledge Exchange is a new platform for Board staff to share information and ask questions about data and technologies. If you learn about ways to use statistical software more effectively, develop a new piece of helpful code, or have a tip about using a particular dataset, post it to Knowledge Exchange. Staff can also post questions and subscribe to content regarding datasets and software languages.

Too often important pieces of information slip undocumented into our e-mail archives. When you have knowledge about data and technologies that may benefit your colleagues, post it to Knowledge Exchange.

Watch the Knowledge Exchange tutorial video

Finding Board Staff Who Share Your Research Interests

Looking for a co-author? Want to share the draft of your paper to get other perspectives? Board Expert Finder (please open in Firefox) helps you to identify and contact Board colleagues interested in subjects that interest you. Expert Finder’s visual display uses metadata from OneBoard Research to present Board researchers by the subjects of their published works.

Expert Finder presents subjects and authors as a series of bar graphs with the length of each bar representing the number of published works. Work your way through the visualization tool by clicking on either subjects or authors. Expert Finder also provides author contact and publication information.

Watch the Board Expert Finder tutorial video

For more information about the Knowledge Exchange or the Board Expert Finder, contact the Research Library via e-mail, phone (x3333) or instant message (at Ask-a-Librarian).

View on the R&S Division Homepage.

July 2, 2015: Updated Economist Citation Reports

Web of Science citation reports, containing bibliographic data current as of April 2, 2015, are now available on the Research Library website. Please direct questions about your report to Ask-a-Librarian@frb.gov. We are interested in your ideas for improving the reports and welcome your feedback as we continue development of this tool.

April 30, 2015: OneBoard Research

OneBoard Research supports detailed discovery of publicly-available research authored by Board staff since 2009, including working papers, notes, reports, journal articles and other publications. Developed by the Research Library, OneBoard Research facilitates simultaneous full-text searching of FEDS and IFDP working papers, Notes, and Board-prepared reports. The database also reveals the relationships between research products.

Announcing a New Tool to Track and Aggregate Citations to Your Research

"I am pleased to announce a new tool developed by staff in the Research Library allowing Board economists to track citations to their published research and their working papers. The Research Library and the ADD Section worked with Thomson Reuters to create a custom citation dataset for Board-authored research as tracked in the Web of Science database. The Web of Science is a well-regarded resource in the field of citation analysis, indexing thousands of peer-reviewed social sciences journals.

The tool allows economists to see which of their research papers have received the most citations and produces some common aggregate measures of an economist's citation-based research "impact," such as the "H Index." Many of us have used Google Scholar to learn our own and our colleagues' H index values; this tool promises to provide Board economists with metrics that are more accurate and consistent than Google tends to produce. In addition, looking across the full set of reports will allow economists to identify journals in which their colleagues have tended to have the greatest impact (in terms of citations), which should be valuable, for example, as they consider where to submit their research for publication.

This tool will also allow the Division to more accurately gauge research output, both for individuals and across the Division. Research performance is an important aspect of the Board's assessment of the Division's overall output, and this tool should enhance our ability to report on it. As always, there is no plan to apply this tool in a mechanical fashion, but rather to gain experience with its strengths and weaknesses.

Library staff recognize that the accuracy of the tool can be improved further but doing so will require direct input from economists. In particular, assembling accurate reports requires a comprehensive list of research papers for which citations can be searched and cumulated using the Web of Science database. I would appreciate if economists would take some time over the next few weeks to study their current report. Please submit any requested changes to "Ask-a-Librarian" at Ask-a-librarian@frb.gov. Below, is a more specific timeline for the roll-out of this exciting new research tool.

I appreciate the excellent work by Krista Box, Jeffrey McClelland, and Kris Vajs on this project. If you have questions about this new tool, please contact Diana Hancock, Michael Palumbo, Wayne Passmore, or Kris Vajs.

Timeline:

• Around February 27 --- Preliminary reports are available to all Board economists for review.

• Before March 25 --- Economists send any potential changes or possible errors to "Ask-a-Librarian."

• By mid-May --- Updated and revised reports will be available to the Board research community through the Research Library's citations reports web page except for economists who expressly "opt out" of having their report linked to the web page. Such requests should be sent to Kris Vajs."

Sent by: David Wilcox