Social science sites of the week

Here is the latest round of new and interestign social science sites

This week is open access Week
To celebrate this ALISS has a quick list of recommended sites
Royal Society has made its historical journal, which includes about 60,000 scientific papers, permanently free to access online. See the press release BBC highlights some good historical services
Full text topics covered include biology, biometrics, neurosciences, psychology so some good content for social scientists as well as scientists!

Tunisia Historic Elections.
Took place this week see our blog posting for useful links These include the: The European Observation Mission website which has news and reports of EU observations of the conduct of the elections.

Home Office: An overview of recorded crimes and arrests resulting from disorder events in August 2011This report presents an analytical overview of the disorder that occurred in parts of England in August 2011. Find out who was involved. It reports on 5,175 recorded crimes and 4,105 arrests across 19 police forces that were affected by the disorder. The analysis covers where and when the disorder took place; the types of crimes recorded by the police; and the characteristics of suspects arrested by the police. The Guardian data blog has a visualisation of some of the preliminary data it is also involved in the reading the riots academic study which is analysing the causes and nature of the incidents. In partnership with the LSE, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Open Society.

Jewish News Archives
Excellent historic newspaper site which provides free access to millions of articles published in the leading Jewish newspaper since the 1920s. Current coverage ends in 2008. Published in New York but also includes extensive coverage of reports from Europe in the 1920s/1930s. Rambi is another good index to journal articles covering Jewish studies (including history) which is free online. It is maintained by the Jewish National and University Library

Global Reported Arms Trade.
provides free access to information about the transfer of arms, imports and exports, using data recorded in the UN Register of Conventional Arms. Since its inception in 1991 the register has recorded data relating to 170 states. Note that this only records transfers between UN Member States Categories include small and conventional arms, military expenditure.
It is possible to view reports by type of weapon and nation from approximately 1992 onwards. Statistics are being added to the site on a rolling basis not all are yet complete. On this topic other useful databases are provided by Stockholm Institute. They also cover military expenditure and arms transfers

employability4socialsciences
This new blog aims to support social science students who are applying for graduate level jobs. It is edited by academic staff including Dr Malcolm Todd Head of Learning, Teaching and Graduate Employability in the Faculty of Development and Society at Sheffield Hallam University and Dr Gary Taylor Principal Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics at Sheffield Hallam University. Topics covered include career development plans, employability skills and work based learning. Blog posts offer comment and advice. There are future plans to invite special guest writers from a range of sectors in the economy to talk about what social science students can offer to employers.

Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia The Contact Group, or CGPCS, established in 14 January 2009 by United Nations Security Council resolution 1851 (2008), is a voluntary, ad hoc international forum of approximately 70 countries, organizations and industry groups with a common interest in combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. This website provides details of recent activities. It includes factsheets and reports on recent piracy as well as UN policing.

BFI new historic film clip site
BBC/ BFI launch beta text of historic film online archive.
The first The Reel History of Britain, features films from the BFI and film archives around the UK. This complements the BBC series of the same name over 120 non-fiction films permanently available online. These are themed in collections such as slums, teenager, housing, seaside, railways. The site also has articles.

Other great bfi sites include Screen online Guide to Uk’s film and TV industry.
It has timelines plus clips. Some materials restricted to UK HE only.

Concours Google de dataviz elections 2012
An online competition running from |October 0-7th December 2011. Developers are encouraged to submit examples of applications using Google and/or twitter which will give added value to interpreting data about the French 2012 presidential elections. Site provides information about the challenge in French. https://sites.google.com/site/concoursdataviz2012/le-challenge

Polio Info
Has been launched by UNICEF to provide factual and statistical information about progress in the fight to eradicate polio worldwide.it has news stories, campaign materials and data profiles for individual nations (Angola, Chad, Pakistan, DRC Congo, India, Nigeria and South Sudan). The site is powered by Devinfo technology with excellent graphic displays. Select a nation and criteria (includes coverage of campaigns personnel and number of children missed) and create tables, maps and graphs which can be downloaded and shared.

Rudolf Steiner digital Archive
Austrian philosopher born in 1861 and famous for his work on Anthroposophy, This site, created by volunteers is digitizing his work the site includes books, letters and articles. Many are 19th century materials presented as published. Site also includes key dates and bibliographies of his work.

EU programme on demographic change– more years better lives
Is a central point for finding the latest social science research in ageing across Europe. Has lists of national research programmes focusing on demographic change in a wider number of EU countries.
Themes include education, health, housing, social welfare and work. The website has links to the projects plus press releases and full text working papers