Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/rebelot.html A jumble of everything and nothing // Complete and utter chaos quarto-1.9.31 Wed, 05 Aug 2026 22:00:00 GMT CleanEX: A Browser Tool for Dualex Leaf Optical Data Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/cleanex_eng/

Introduction

The Dualex1 is a handheld optical sensor that measures chlorophyll (Chl), flavonoids (Flav), anthocyanins (Anth), and the nitrogen balance index (NBI) directly on intact leaves, non-destructively and in a matter of seconds. It is exactly the kind of tool that ends up being used a lot in plant physiology and field phenotyping experiments — quick, portable, and producing a lot of data per session.

The problem is what happens after the session. The raw .txt export from the Dualex organizes measurements into numbered groups, but offers no direct link between those group numbers and the treatment names you had in mind when you were collecting data. You are left with a file that knows what was measured but not why — and bridging that gap involves several cleaning steps that have to be repeated every single time.

The Need It Covers

The Dualex does not export a clean, ready-to-use table. What you get is a .txt file with a non-standard structure: four header metadata lines at the top, a main column header on line five, and data from line six onwards — but interspersed with #Groupe comment blocks that appear between measurement groups and break any straightforward read.csv() call. On top of that, the file contains null bytes that need stripping before it can even be parsed, and the column names are terse and unexpressive (groupe, mesure, jj/mm/aaaa).

Before any of the four parameters are usable, the file needs: null-byte removal, comment-block filtering, column renaming, and linking to a treatment structure that only exists in your field notebook. None of this is hard, but it adds up — and it has to be repeated from scratch every time, for every session.

That is exactly the kind of friction worth automating once and reusing forever.

What CleanEX Does

CleanEX runs entirely in the browser via WebR — no installation, no account, no server. Your data is processed locally and never leaves your device 🔒.

Drop in a raw Dualex .txt file and the app:

  • parses the file correctly, stripping null bytes and skipping #Groupe comment blocks automatically;
  • renames terse column names to clean English equivalents (groupe → group, mesure → measure, jj/mm/aaaa → date);
  • lets you pick which columns to keep with a single click — the obvious candidates (GPS coordinates, qual_sat, etal) are excluded by default, but nothing is hidden;
  • displays a group-by-group treatment assignment interface: one text field per group, applied to all measurements within that group, with the group-level measure column preserved as the replicate identifier;
  • keeps the individual measure number (measure) intact, so the distinction between biological and technical replicates is maintained in the final file.

The Outputs

Once the file is clean and treatments are assigned, CleanEX produces:

  • a tidy dataset in wide or long format, ready for R, Python, or a spreadsheet;
  • an optional merge step (Step 7): if you ran multiple sessions on the same experiment, you can load a previously exported CleanEX file in the same format and stack it on top of the current one with a single click — the app checks that the column structure matches before combining;
  • exploratory bar charts (mean ± SE) for Chl, Flav, Anth, and NBI, with individual data points overlaid and a 300 dpi PNG downloadable immediately;
  • the full interface in English and Italian.

Try It

CleanEX is free, open, and lives entirely in your browser: link. If you use the Dualex regularly and have ever spent more time wrangling group numbers in a spreadsheet than actually thinking about your data, it will feel familiar.

Note📄 Documentation & Citation

A formal software note for CleanEX is available on Zenodo:
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21894246
If you use CleanEX in your work, please cite it using the DOI above.

CleanEX is part of the Clean* family of browser-based tools for plant phenotyping data. See also CleanRhizo for WinRhizo root morphology data.

Back to top

Footnotes

  1. Dualex is a product of Metos.↩︎

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@software{maver2026,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  title = {CleanEX: A Browser-Based Tool for {Dualex} Leaf Optical Data
    Cleaning and Exploration},
  version = {1.0},
  date = {2026},
  url = {https://stramon1um.github.io/CleanEX},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.21894246},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Maver, Mauro. 2026. CleanEX: A Browser-Based Tool for Dualex Leaf Optical Data Cleaning and Exploration. V. 1.0. Zenodo, released. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21894246.
]]> apps Dualex plant physiology phenotyping Dualex EN 🇬🇧 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/cleanex_eng/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 22:00:00 GMT CleanRhizo: Cleaning Root Data Without Leaving Your Browser Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/cleanrhizo_eng/

Introduction

Every WinRhizo1 scan session ends with a raw .txt file: dozens of columns, one row per scanned segment, with no built-in link between that row and a treatment or plant. Before any real analysis can happen, someone has to decode the sample names, assign treatments, and reshape the table — a step I’ve repeated for years, slightly differently each time, in whatever R script or spreadsheet happened to be open that day.

CleanRhizo is my attempt to stop repeating it from scratch every time.

The Need It Covers

Root morphology software like WinRhizo measures roots very well, but it knows nothing about your experimental design. That part is entirely up to the user, decided the moment each sample is named during the analysis: if treatment and replicate are meant to become separate columns later, that information has to be encoded in the sample name itself (something like CTR_1.2), following a consistent format, every time.

This is exactly what CleanRhizo relies on: it decodes treatment and replicate automatically from the sample name, provided it follows one of a small set of standard naming formats the app offers. In other words, using CleanRhizo effectively starts one step earlier than opening it — at the moment samples are named in WinRhizo.

None of this requires anything sophisticated. It just requires doing the same careful, slightly boring work correctly, every time. That is exactly the kind of task worth automating once and reusing forever, rather than solving from scratch in every project folder.

What CleanRhizo Does

CleanRhizo runs entirely in the browser, built with Shiny and deployed as a static site via Quarto and WebR — no installation, no account, no server. That last part matters: your data is processed locally and never leaves your device 🔒.

Once you drop in a raw WinRhizo .txt file, the app:

  • lets you pick which columns to keep, instead of dragging dozens of them into a spreadsheet;
  • automatically decodes treatment names from sample IDs, including two-level designs (e.g. pot and plant);
  • falls back to manual, per-segment treatment assignment when sample names don’t follow one of the supported formats, so no dataset is left unusable;
  • flags names that don’t match the expected format, so mismatches surface before they turn into analysis mistakes.

The Outputs

The point of cleaning data is to use it, so CleanRhizo produces exactly what I need next:

  • a tidy dataset, exportable in wide or long format, ready to drop into R, Python, or a spreadsheet;
  • exploratory bar charts (mean ± SE) with individual data points overlaid, so patterns are visible before any formal analysis;
  • a 300 dpi PNG of that chart, downloadable with a click — handy for a quick lab meeting slide;
  • the whole interface in English, Italian, Spanish, and French, since not everyone in a shared lab reads the same language.

Try It

CleanRhizo is free, open, and lives entirely in your browser -> link. The first load can take a few seconds while the browser sets up the R environment behind the scenes — no need to refresh, just wait it out.

If you work with WinRhizo output and have ever lost twenty minutes to a stray underscore in a sample name, it might save you the trouble.

Note📄 Documentation & Citation

A formal software note for CleanRhizo is available on Zenodo:
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21894027
If you use CleanRhizo in your work, please cite it using the DOI above.

Back to top

Footnotes

  1. WinRHIZO is a root image analysis system developed by Regent Instruments Inc. (Québec, Canada).↩︎

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@software{maver2026,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  title = {CleanRhizo: A Browser-Based Tool for {WinRhizo} Root
    Morphology Data Cleaning and Exploration},
  version = {1.0},
  date = {2026},
  url = {https://stramon1um.github.io/CleanRhizo},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.21894027},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Maver, Mauro. 2026. CleanRhizo: A Browser-Based Tool for WinRhizo Root Morphology Data Cleaning and Exploration. V. 1.0. Zenodo, released. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21894027.
]]> apps root biology lab research phenotyping WinRhizo EN 🇬🇧 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/cleanrhizo_eng/ Mon, 20 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT Feed RSS · Plant Science Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss/

Introduzione

Breve post, dopo anni di inattività, in cui elenco in ordine alfabetico i feed RSS delle riviste scientifiche maggiormente correlate alla macro-area della biologia vegetale, alias Plant Science.

Per un’introduzione generale su cosa sono i feed RSS, come si usano e quali vantaggi offrono, trovate tutto nel post precedente → Oltrepassare lo Stato dell’Arte….

Plant Science — Feed RSS

  1. ACS Publications — ACS Applied Science & Technology
  2. ACS Publications — Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
  3. ACS Publications — Journal of Natural Products
  4. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum
  5. American Journal of Botany
  6. Annals of Botany
  7. Annual Review of Biochemistry
  8. Annual Review of Plant Biology
  9. AoB PLANTS Current Issue
  10. Applications in Plant Sciences
  11. Biological Sciences — Nature.com subject feeds
  12. BMC Molecular and Cell Biology
  13. BMC Plant Biology
  14. Botanical Studies
  15. Chemistry of Natural Compounds
  16. Communications Biology
  17. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences
  18. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health
  19. Current Opinion in Plant Biology
  20. Current Plant Biology
  21. Current Protocols
  22. Environmental and Experimental Botany
  23. Frontiers in Plant Science
  24. Functional Plant Biology
  25. Horticulture Research — Nature
  26. Horticulture Research — OUP
  27. Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology
  28. in silico Plants
  29. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science
  30. Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology
  31. Journal of Experimental Botany Current Issue
  32. Journal of Horticultural Research
  33. Journal of Plant Biology
  34. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation
  35. Journal of Plant Interactions
  36. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science
  37. Journal of Plant Physiology
  38. Journal of Plant Research
  39. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
  40. Life Science Alliance
  41. Molecular Breeding
  42. Molecular Horticulture
  43. Molecular Plant
  44. Molecular Plant Pathology
  45. Nature Cell Biology
  46. Nature Communications
  47. Nature Plants
  48. New Phytologist
  49. PeerJ
  50. PeerJ: Plant Biology Section
  51. Photosynthesis Research
  52. Physiologia Plantarum
  53. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants
  54. Phytochemical Analysis
  55. Phytochemistry
  56. Phytochemistry Letters
  57. Phytochemistry Reviews
  58. Phytopathology
  59. Plant and Cell Physiology
  60. Plant and Soil
  61. Plant Biology
  62. Plant Biosystems
  63. Plant Biotechnology Journal
  64. Plant Biotechnology Reports
  65. Plant Cell & Environment
  66. Plant Cell Reports
  67. Plant Communications
  68. Plant Direct
  69. Plant Gene
  70. Plant Growth Regulation
  71. Plant Methods
  72. Plant Molecular Biology
  73. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
  74. Plant Physiology
  75. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
  76. Plant Production Science
  77. Plant Science
  78. Plant Sciences — Nature.com subject feeds
  79. Plant Signaling & Behavior
  80. Plant Species Biology
  81. Plant-Environment Interactions
  82. Planta
  83. PLOS One — Plant Science
  84. Protoplasma
  85. Quantitative Plant Biology
  86. Science
  87. Science Advances
  88. ScienceDirect: Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports
  89. Scientific Reports
  90. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
  91. The Botanical Review
  92. The Plant Cell
  93. The Plant Journal
  94. Theoretical and Experimental Plant Physiology
  95. Tree Physiology Current Issue
  96. Trends in Plant Science
  97. Weed Research
  98. Weed Science
  99. Weed Technology
Torna in cima

Citazione

BibTeX
@online{maver2026,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  title = {Feed RSS · Plant Science},
  date = {2026-04-30},
  url = {https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss/},
  langid = {it}
}
Per favore citare questo lavoro come:
Maver, Mauro. 2026. “Feed RSS · Plant Science.” April 30. https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss/.
]]> pubblicazioni piante RSS IT 🇮🇹 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:00:00 GMT Feed RSS · Plant Science Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss_eng/

Introduzione

A brief post, after years of inactivity, listing in alphabetical order the RSS feeds of scientific journals most closely related to the broad field of plant biology, alias Plant Science.

For a general introduction to what RSS feeds are, how to use them and what benefits they offer, check out the previous post → Going beyond the State of the Art….

Plant Science — Feed RSS

  1. ACS Publications — ACS Applied Science & Technology
  2. ACS Publications — Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
  3. ACS Publications — Journal of Natural Products
  4. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum
  5. American Journal of Botany
  6. Annals of Botany
  7. Annual Review of Biochemistry
  8. Annual Review of Plant Biology
  9. AoB PLANTS Current Issue
  10. Applications in Plant Sciences
  11. Biological Sciences — Nature.com subject feeds
  12. BMC Molecular and Cell Biology
  13. BMC Plant Biology
  14. Botanical Studies
  15. Chemistry of Natural Compounds
  16. Communications Biology
  17. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences
  18. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health
  19. Current Opinion in Plant Biology
  20. Current Plant Biology
  21. Current Protocols
  22. Environmental and Experimental Botany
  23. Frontiers in Plant Science
  24. Functional Plant Biology
  25. Horticulture Research — Nature
  26. Horticulture Research — OUP
  27. Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology
  28. in silico Plants
  29. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science
  30. Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology
  31. Journal of Experimental Botany Current Issue
  32. Journal of Horticultural Research
  33. Journal of Plant Biology
  34. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation
  35. Journal of Plant Interactions
  36. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science
  37. Journal of Plant Physiology
  38. Journal of Plant Research
  39. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
  40. Life Science Alliance
  41. Molecular Breeding
  42. Molecular Horticulture
  43. Molecular Plant
  44. Molecular Plant Pathology
  45. Nature Cell Biology
  46. Nature Communications
  47. Nature Plants
  48. New Phytologist
  49. PeerJ
  50. PeerJ: Plant Biology Section
  51. Photosynthesis Research
  52. Physiologia Plantarum
  53. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants
  54. Phytochemical Analysis
  55. Phytochemistry
  56. Phytochemistry Letters
  57. Phytochemistry Reviews
  58. Phytopathology
  59. Plant and Cell Physiology
  60. Plant and Soil
  61. Plant Biology
  62. Plant Biosystems
  63. Plant Biotechnology Journal
  64. Plant Biotechnology Reports
  65. Plant Cell & Environment
  66. Plant Cell Reports
  67. Plant Communications
  68. Plant Direct
  69. Plant Gene
  70. Plant Growth Regulation
  71. Plant Methods
  72. Plant Molecular Biology
  73. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
  74. Plant Physiology
  75. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
  76. Plant Production Science
  77. Plant Science
  78. Plant Sciences — Nature.com subject feeds
  79. Plant Signaling & Behavior
  80. Plant Species Biology
  81. Plant-Environment Interactions
  82. Planta
  83. PLOS One — Plant Science
  84. Protoplasma
  85. Quantitative Plant Biology
  86. Science
  87. Science Advances
  88. ScienceDirect: Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports
  89. Scientific Reports
  90. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
  91. The Botanical Review
  92. The Plant Cell
  93. The Plant Journal
  94. Theoretical and Experimental Plant Physiology
  95. Tree Physiology Current Issue
  96. Trends in Plant Science
  97. Weed Research
  98. Weed Science
  99. Weed Technology
Back to top

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@online{maver2026,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  title = {Feed {RSS} · {Plant} {Science}},
  date = {2026-04-30},
  url = {https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss_eng/},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Maver, Mauro. 2026. “Feed RSS · Plant Science.” April 30. https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss_eng/.
]]> articles plants RSS EN 🇬🇧 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/lista_rss_eng/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:00:00 GMT Going beyond the State of the Art: between scientific literature and RSS Feeds Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss_eng/

Introduction

Staying updated on the latest scientific publications is essential, especially in specific research fields. However, the main issue is the sheer volume of available scientific articles and journals, making it difficult always to track the latest developments and updates. We often don’t have enough time to check every journal for recent publications manually. If this process has to be repeated for every journal of interest, the required time multiplies.

To solve these problems, a practical and accessible solution, which I have validated for over three years, is using RSS Feeds, which allow you to quickly and automatically monitor the publications of interest. RSS Feeds1 are files containing continuous updates on newly published content, such as articles or news. To use them, just search for the RSS Feed on the websites of scientific journals and insert it into a dedicated program, an RSS Feed Reader, that automatically updates them. And, in today’s world, this process is free of algorithms, profiling, ads, tracking, etc. We are the ones who fully decide what we want to monitor and read.

These programs allow you to organize feeds by topics or journals, working in the background to periodically check for new publications, much like a classic email client. The great advantage is that unread publications remain available until they are viewed, even days later, avoiding the loss of important articles or the need to read them at a specific moment. Feeds also offer useful metadata, such as the article’s title, authors, and abstract. Additionally, by clicking directly on the title, you can access the original page of the publication on the journal’s website. Convenient, right?

This method is highly advantageous compared to manually managing bookmarks in browsers, saving time and making consulting journals much faster, more efficient, and independent of search engines and databases. As a result, bibliographic research is sped up, avoiding the typical confusion of remembering which articles have already been read manually. In short, RSS Feeds offer an automated, fast, and discreet method to manage scientific sources, keeping a historical archive of publications and allowing you to access content with just a few clicks.

Of course, RSS Feeds are not limited to scientific journals alone; they can also be used to track news, videos, or content from other platforms like YouTube or Reddit, making them a versatile tool to stay updated on any kind of information.

At this point, the question arises: how do you use these fantastic RSS Feeds?

How to Start Using RSS Feeds

  1. Identify the journals of interest

    The first step is knowing which scientific journals you want to monitor. If you already have specific journals in mind, go directly to their official websites. If you don’t know many journals in your field or simply want to expand your list, you can use websites that provide lists of scientific journals sorted by category, rank, or h-index. These tools can help you discover new journals of interest and get new RSS Feeds. One of my suggestions is the Scimago Journal & Country Rank2, which is completely free and packed with information and metrics. You can find more sources in this section.

  2. Find the RSS feed

    Once on the journal’s website, look for the typical RSS Feed icon: a square with three waves radiating from a corner (see logo). If you don’t find it immediately, look for a section called “Last Issues” or “RSS Feed.” Sometimes, the RSS Feed may not be easily accessible (or deliberately hidden by the publisher), but checking the support pages or the site’s footer is still advisable.

Common RSS Feed logo

  1. Add the RSS feed to your program

    After finding the RSS icon or link, click on it. If you’ve already installed a program or app that manages RSS Feeds on your device (whether it’s a computer, smartphone, or tablet), the link will be automatically added to the program; alternatively, you can manually insert it. From then on, the program will start collecting all (usually the last 50) new publications related to that journal. If you have an Apple device, I recommend the free program NetNewsWire; I use it on almost every device, thanks to the iCloud synchronization…it works wonderfully! However, dozens of alternative applications exist for all possible operating systems and devices.

  2. Configure the program

    Once the feed is added, the program will periodically check for new publications, depending on your set update frequency. You can choose, for example, to update feeds every 10 minutes, every hour, or even once a day, or manually.

  3. Repeat the process for other journals

    You will need to repeat this simple process for each journal you want to monitor. Even though it initially requires a small effort to search for feeds and add them manually, this work will be handy in the long term because it will fully automate monitoring publications. You can also organize Feeds into folders for better research management (e.g., by thematic area or publisher). One of the minor advantages is that, unlike an email client, Feeds are automatically organized by source and not lumped together in a single stream of information.

  4. Managing the feeds

    After setting everything up, the program will work in the background to constantly update the Feeds. At the end of the day or any other time, you can view notifications of new publications and decide whether to read an article immediately or mark it as read. Like emails, new articles will appear until you mark them as read. This will allow you to have a history of publications, avoiding missing important and interesting articles.

  5. When the RSS feed is not visible

    Some journals and their publishers may not openly advertise their RSS Feed. Yes, it’s paradoxical, but this possibility exists. In this case, you’ll need to apply some elegant tricks, almost in hacker mode, to discover or generate them. Unfortunately, there’s a specific trick for every sneaky publisher, so the list I’ll show here will be limited to those I consult daily.

    Here’s the list of the main ones (as of 09-2024):

    • Springer (the most complicated):

      • go to the homepage of the journal of interest
      • find “Explore Articles”
      • search using “Search all Plant and Soil” articles
      • in the generated URL, set new-search=false
      • sort by “Sort by Newest first”
      • click on the RSS icon to generate the feed
      • OR, copy this link
      https://link.springer.com/search.rss?query=11104&sortOrder=newestFirst&showAll=true
      • change the journal ID in query=11104 to the one of interest. The journal’s ID is found in the URL of its homepage.

    • Frontiers:

      • simply add /rss to the URL of the journal’s homepage

    • APS Publications:

      • create a search by selecting a specific journal and choosing “Last”
      • the generated search results will also offer the option of having the RSS Feed (RSS icon present)

  6. Conclusion

    Once the RSS Feeds are set up, you will no longer need to open your browser bookmarks to check for new publications manually. The program will do everything automatically, leaving you only to decide which articles to dive deeper into and which to archive. If an article interests you, you can click directly on the title to access the full content.

Some of the main RSS Feeds I use

For illustrative purposes, here is a list of the results obtained for the Plant Science category (my background), ordered by h-index. Here, I have selected the top 30 journals with their respective RSS Feed (click on the icon) for 2023. Source: SCImago Journal Rank.

Other RSS Feeds I use (less specific to Plant Science) can be found on an old GitHub repository of mine: GitHub RSSFeed.

If you are exclusively interested in open-access (OA) journals, this open-access platform will become your primary reference point: Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

The top 30 journals by h-index on SCImago in the Plant Science category in 2023
Journal Feed RSS SJR h-index
#1 The Plant Cell 3.616 397
#2 Plant Physiology 2.101 362
#3 The Plant Journal 2.176 314
#4 Trends in Plant Science 3.201 310
#5 New Phytologist 3.007 305
#6 Annual Review of Plant Biology 7.555 298
#7 Journal of Experimental Botany 1.739 293
#8 Plant, Cell and Environment 2.03 237
#9 Current Opinion in Plant Biology 3.044 234
#10 Plant and Soil 1.135 225
#11 Frontiers in Plant Science 1.023 216
#12 Journal of Ecology 2.144 212
#13 Annals of Botany 1.078 205
#14 Phytochemistry 0.667 205
#15 Plant Molecular Biology 1.151 197
#16 Planta 0.944 197
#17 Annual Review of Phytopathology 2.76 184
#18 Plant Science 1.133 183
#19 Plant and Cell Physiology 1.375 181
#20 American Journal of Botany 0.841 172
#21 Physiologia Plantarum 1.27 170
#22 Environmental and Experimental Botany 1.066 167
#23 Molecular Plant 5.967 162
#24 Journal of Plant Physiology 0.947 159
#25 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 1.252 159
#26 Plant Biotechnology Journal 2.998 152
#27 BMC Plant Biology 1.103 150
#28 Phytopathology 0.783 150
#29 Annual Review of Pathology 11.748 147
#30 Tree Physiology 0.992 147

View of my current setup with NetNewsWire

View of my current setup with NetNewsWire
Back to top

Footnotes

  1. Wikipedia - RSS Feed↩︎

  2. The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator is a measure of the prestige of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the prestige of the journals where the citations come from.↩︎

Citation

BibTeX citation:
@online{maver2024,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  title = {Going Beyond the {State} of the {Art:} Between Scientific
    Literature and {RSS} {Feeds}},
  date = {2024-09-24},
  url = {https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss_eng/},
  langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Maver, Mauro. 2024. “Going Beyond the State of the Art: Between Scientific Literature and RSS Feeds.” September 24. https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss_eng/.
]]> publications science RSS state of the art EN 🇬🇧 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss_eng/ Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:00:00 GMT Oltrepassare lo Stato dell’Arte: tra letteratura scientifica e Feed RSS Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss/

Introduzione

Rimanere aggiornati sulle ultime pubblicazioni scientifiche è fondamentale, soprattutto quando si lavora in ambiti di ricerca specifici. Tuttavia, il problema principale è l’enorme vastità di articoli e giornali scientifici disponibili, rendendo difficile tenere sempre traccia delle novità. Spesso, non si ha il tempo materiale di consultare manualmente ogni rivista per verificare le più recenti pubblicazioni. Se si aggiunge che tale processo dovrà essere ripetuto per ogni rivista di interesse, beh, di conseguenza il tempo necessario dovrà essere moltiplicato.

Per ovviare a questi problemi, una soluzione pratica e accessibile, da me convalidata da ormai 3 anni, è l’uso dei Feed RSS, che permettono di monitorare in modo semplice e automatico le pubblicazioni di interesse. I Feed RSS1 sono file che contengono aggiornamenti continui su nuovi contenuti pubblicati, come articoli o notizie. Per utilizzarli, basta cercare il Feed RSS sul sito delle riviste scientifiche e inserirlo in un programma dedicato che li aggiorna automaticamente, un Feed RSS Reader per l’appunto. E cosa non poco trascurabile al giorno d’oggi, questo processo è privo di algoritmi, profilazione, pubblicità, tracciamento, ecc. Saremo noi al 100% a decidere cosa voler monitorare e cosa leggere.

Questi programmi consentono di organizzare i feed per argomenti o riviste, lavorando in background per controllare periodicamente se ci sono nuove pubblicazioni, proprio come un classico client di posta elettronica. Il grande vantaggio che ne deriva è che le pubblicazioni non lette rimarranno disponibili fino a quando non verranno consultate, anche a distanza di giorni, evitando che si perdano articoli importanti o che semplicemente non si abbia il tempo di consultarli in quel preciso momento. I feed offrono anche metadati utili, come il titolo dell’articolo, gli autori e l’abstract. Inoltre, cliccando direttamente sul titolo, è possibile accedere alla pagina originale della pubblicazione presente sul sito web del giornale. Comodo no?

Questo metodo è estremamente vantaggioso rispetto alla gestione manuale dei segnalibri nei browser, risparmiando tempo e rendendo il processo di consultazione delle riviste molto più rapido ed efficiente, oltre che svincolato da motori di ricerca e database. La ricerca bibliografica è di conseguenza velocizzata, e si evita la confusione tipica del dover ricordare manualmente quali articoli siano già stati letti o meno. In breve, i Feed RSS offrono un metodo automatizzato, rapido e discreto per gestire le proprie fonti scientifiche, mantenendo un archivio storico delle pubblicazioni e consentendo di accedere ai contenuti con pochisimi clic.

Ovviamente i Feed RSS non sono limitati alle sole riviste scientifiche, ma possono essere utilizzati anche per tenere traccia di notizie, video o contenuti di altre piattaforme come YouTube o Reddit, rendendoli uno strumento versatile per rimanere sempre aggiornati su qualsiasi tipo di informazione.

A questo punto la domanda sorge spontanea: come fare ad utilizzare questi fantastici Feed RSS?

Come iniziare a utilizzare i Feed RSS

  1. Identifica le riviste di interesse

    Il primo passo è sapere quali riviste scientifiche si desidera monitorare. Se hai già in mente delle riviste specifiche, vai direttamente sui loro siti web ufficiali. Se non conosci molte riviste nel tuo campo o semplicemente vuoi ampliare la tua lista, puoi utilizzare dei siti che forniscono elenchi di giornali scientifici, ordinati per categoria, rank o h-index. Questi strumenti possono aiutarti a scoprire nuove riviste di interesse, e di conseguenza ottenere nuovi Feed RSS. Tra i miei suggerimenti vi è la piattaforma Scimago Journal & Country Rank2, completamente gratuita e ricca di ogni info e metriche. Trovate altre fonti in questa sezione.

  2. Trova il feed RSS

    Una volta sul sito della rivista, cerca l’icona tipica del Feed RSS: un quadrato con tre onde che si irradiano da un angolo (vedi logo). Se non la trovi subito, cerca una sezione chiamata “Last Issues” o “Feed RSS”. In alcuni casi, il Feed RSS potrebbe non essere facilmente accessibile (se non volontariamente nascosto dal publisher), ma è comunque consigliabile controllare nelle pagine di supporto o nel piè pagina del sito.

Tipico logo per i Feed RSS

  1. Aggiungi il feed RSS al tuo programma

    Dopo aver trovato l’icona o il link RSS, cliccaci sopra. Se hai già installato un programma o un’app che gestisce i Feed RSS sul tuo dispositivo (sia esso un computer, smartphone o tablet), il link verrà automaticamente aggiunto al programma; in alternativa, è anche possibile inserirlo manualmente. Da quel momento in poi, il programma inizierà a raccogliere tutte (generalmente le ultime 50) le nuove pubblicazioni relative a quella rivista. Nel caso foste in possesso di un dispositivo Apple, consiglio il programma gratuito NetNewsWire; io lo utilizzo praticamente su ogni mio dispositivo, grazie anche alla sincronizzazione dei feed via iCloud…funziona a meraviglia! Esistono tuttavia decine e decine di applicazioni alternative, e per tutti i sistemi operativi e dispositivi possibili.

  2. Configura il programma

    Una volta aggiunto il feed, il programma controllerà periodicamente se ci sono nuove pubblicazioni, a seconda della frequenza di aggiornamento che hai impostato. Puoi scegliere, ad esempio, di aggiornare i feed ogni 10 minuti, ogni ora o anche una volta al giorno, oppure manualmente.

  3. Ripeti il processo per altre riviste

    Dovrai ripetere questo semplice processo per ogni rivista che vuoi monitorare. Anche se inizialmente richiede un piccolo sforzo per cercare manualmente i feed e aggiungerli, questo lavoro sarà utililissimo nel lungo periodo, perché automatizzerà completamente il monitoraggio delle pubblicazioni. Puoi inoltre organizzare i Feed in cartelle per gestire meglio le tue ricerche (ad esempio, per area tematica o per publisher). Uno dei piccoli vantaggi è che, al contrario di un client di posta, i Feed saranno automaticamente organizzati per fonte e non ammucchiati in un unico flusso di informazioni.

  4. Gestione dei feed

    Dopo aver configurato il tutto, il programma lavorerà in background per aggiornare costantemente i Feed. A fine giornata o in qualsiasi altro momento, potrai vedere le notifiche delle nuove pubblicazioni e decidere se leggere subito un articolo o segnarlo come già letto. Come per le e-mail, i nuovi articoli appariranno finché non li segni come letti. Questo ti permetterà di avere uno storico delle pubblicazioni, evitando di perdere articoli importanti e interessanti.

  5. Quando il feed RSS non è visibile

    Alcuni giornali, e relativi publisher, potrebbero non pubblicizzare apertamente il loro Feed RSS. Sì, è alquanto paradossale ma esiste questa possibilità. In tal caso, bisognerà applicare degli eleganti stratagemmi, quasi in modalità hacker informatico, per poterli scovare o generare. Purtroppo per noi, per ogni publisher furbetto esiste uno specifico stratagemma e quindi l’elenco che mostrerò qui sarà conseguentemente limitato a quelli che consulto quotidianamente.

    Qui l’elenco dei principali (in data 09-2024):

    • Springer (il più contorto):

      • andare su home page del giornale di interesse
      • trovare “Explore Articles”
      • cercare con “Search all Plant and Soil” articles
      • nell’url generato, impostare new-search=false
      • ordinare con “Sort by Newest first”
      • click su icona RSS per generare il feed
      • OPPURE, copiare questo link
      https://link.springer.com/search.rss?query=11104&sortOrder=newestFirst&showAll=true
      • cambiare ID giornale in query=11104 con quello di vostro interesse. L’ID di un giornale si trova nell’url della homepage del giornale.

    • Frontiers:

      • semplice aggiunta di /rss all’url della home del giornale d’interesse

    • APS Publications:

      • creare ricerca selezionando uno specifico giornale e selezionando “Last”.
      • i risultati della ricerca generati, offriranno anche la possibilità di avere il feed RSS (icona RSS presente)

  6. Conclusione

    Una volta impostati i Feed RSS, non dovrai più aprire manualmente i segnalibri del browser per verificare le nuove pubblicazioni. Il programma farà tutto in automatico, lasciandoti solo il compito di decidere quali articoli approfondire e quali archiviare. In caso di articoli di tuo interesse, potrai cliccare direttamente sul titolo per accedere al contenuto completo.

Alcuni dei principali Feed RSS che utilizzo

A puro scopo esemplificativo, riporto un elenco generato a partire dai risultati ottenuti per la categoria Plant Science (il mio background), e ordinati per h-index. Qui ho selezionato i primi 30 giornali, con relativo Feed RSS (click sull’icona) relativi all’anno 2023. Fonte: SCImago Journal Rank.

Altri Feed RSS che utilizzo (meno specifici per Plant Science) possono essere trovati su un mio vecchio GitHub repository: GitHub Feed RSS.

Se invece vi interessano esclusivamente giornali open-access (OA Journal), questa piattaforma in pieno spirito open-access diventerà il vostro principale punto di riferimento: Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

I primi 30 giornali per h-index su SCImago sotto la categoria Plant Science nel 2023
Giornale Feed RSS SJR h-index
#1 The Plant Cell 3.616 397
#2 Plant Physiology 2.101 362
#3 The Plant Journal 2.176 314
#4 Trends in Plant Science 3.201 310
#5 New Phytologist 3.007 305
#6 Annual Review of Plant Biology 7.555 298
#7 Journal of Experimental Botany 1.739 293
#8 Plant, Cell and Environment 2.03 237
#9 Current Opinion in Plant Biology 3.044 234
#10 Plant and Soil 1.135 225
#11 Frontiers in Plant Science 1.023 216
#12 Journal of Ecology 2.144 212
#13 Annals of Botany 1.078 205
#14 Phytochemistry 0.667 205
#15 Plant Molecular Biology 1.151 197
#16 Planta 0.944 197
#17 Annual Review of Phytopathology 2.76 184
#18 Plant Science 1.133 183
#19 Plant and Cell Physiology 1.375 181
#20 American Journal of Botany 0.841 172
#21 Physiologia Plantarum 1.27 170
#22 Environmental and Experimental Botany 1.066 167
#23 Molecular Plant 5.967 162
#24 Journal of Plant Physiology 0.947 159
#25 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 1.252 159
#26 Plant Biotechnology Journal 2.998 152
#27 BMC Plant Biology 1.103 150
#28 Phytopathology 0.783 150
#29 Annual Review of Pathology 11.748 147
#30 Tree Physiology 0.992 147

Vista del mio attuale setup con NetNewsWire

Vista del mio attuale setup con NetNewsWire
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Note

  1. Wikipedia - RSS Feed↩︎

  2. Lo SCImago Journal Rank o SJR indicator è un indicatore che misura la presunta influenza scientifica delle riviste accademiche; esso utilizza il numero di citazioni ricevute da una rivista e l’importanza o il prestigio delle riviste da cui tali citazioni provengono. Utilizza un algoritmo simile a PageRank e fornisce un’alternativa all’impact factor (IF), che si basa sui dati del Science Citation Index.↩︎

Citazione

BibTeX
@online{maver2024,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  title = {Oltrepassare lo Stato dell’Arte: tra letteratura scientifica
    e Feed RSS},
  date = {2024-09-20},
  url = {https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss/},
  langid = {it}
}
Per favore citare questo lavoro come:
Maver, Mauro. 2024. “Oltrepassare lo Stato dell’Arte: tra letteratura scientifica e Feed RSS.” September 20. https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss/.
]]> pubblicazioni scienza RSS stato arte IT 🇮🇹 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/feed_rss/ Thu, 19 Sep 2024 22:00:00 GMT Il Potere delle Audio Trascrizioni Mauro Maver https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/potere_audio_trascrizioni/ Questo post lo sto scrivendo mentre cammino avanti e indietro, parlando ad alta voce e registrando il tutto con un iPad.

Personalmente trovo molto difficile sedermi e fermarmi davanti una pagina, prendere una penna e scrivere ciò che mi passa per la mente; semplicemente non riesco ad acchiappare quello che voglio dire nel gigantesco turbinio di pensieri. Questo ostacolo non mi ha mai reso facile esprimermi facilmente.

Forse per altre persone è più semplice, ma io ho sempre avuto difficoltà nel mettere per iscritto le mie idee, pensieri o parole in modo chiaro e coerente, senza perdermi in mille diramazioni o flussi di coscienza, specie quando la libera associazione di idee fa da padrone.

C’è tuttavia speranza…forse! Viviamo in un’epoca in cui parlare a voce alta, registrare e trascrivere le proprie parole è ora sempre più alla portata di tutti e sempre più affidabile, una cosa quasi inimmaginabile fino a pochi anni fa.

Riflettendo su questo, mi rendo conto di quanto questi strumenti possano essere potenti se utilizzati a modo. Offrono infatti la possibilità di esprimere concetti, riflettere, discutere con se stessi ed eventualmente arrivare a conclusioni. Per persone come me, che trovano difficile organizzare i propri pensieri per iscritto, parlare ad alta voce è una soluzione efficace. Non poche volte, il semplice esternare a voce il progredire di un ragionamento mi ha condotto più rapidamente ad una conclusione, sebbene il tutto rimanesse volatile ed etereo.

Il semplice trascrivere dunque ci permette di dare concretezza a ciò che diciamo, trasformando le parole in qualcosa di tangibile e duraturo, e come direbbe qualcuno, non a caso, Verbo volant, scripta manent !

Il mio più grande blocco nel pubblicare pensieri o idee nasceva dal fatto che, nonostante avessi un’idea chiara in testa, nel momento di scriverla incontravo un ostacolo difficile da superare, inibendomi completamente. Ora, grazie a questi strumenti, non sento più di avere questo enorme limite. Posso parlare liberamente e trascrivere ciò che dico, ottenendo così un testo di partenza, una bozza, cui posso ritoccare e scolpire a mio piacimento.

Questo post è una prima dimostrazione del fatto che l’intero processo di creazione è possibile e conto di approfondire meglio come adattarlo alle mie esigenze.

A presto!

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Citazione

BibTeX
@online{maver2024,
  author = {Maver, Mauro},
  title = {Il Potere delle Audio Trascrizioni},
  date = {2024-09-16},
  url = {https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/potere_audio_trascrizioni/},
  langid = {it}
}
Per favore citare questo lavoro come:
Maver, Mauro. 2024. “Il Potere delle Audio Trascrizioni.” September 16. https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/potere_audio_trascrizioni/.
]]> audio-trascrizioni flusso di coscienza IT 🇮🇹 https://www.mauromaver.eu/posts/rebelot/potere_audio_trascrizioni/ Sun, 15 Sep 2024 22:00:00 GMT