The books of the 2024 edition of the Literary Awards, jointly organised every year by the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, were presented yesterday, Thursday 7 November, at 1pm, at the Institut Pozas in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Calle del Águila, 65).

The winners were announced last May at the awards ceremony held at the UAB. Carla Clúa Alcón, with her work Pausa, sucre, Sevilla, was the winner of the 15th ‘Caterina Albert’ short story prize for young people. Josep Antoni Aguilar Àvila, with the work Ballar amb els espectres, and Josep Domènech Ponsatí, with the work Eixint de fer, were declared ex-aequo winners of the 29th ‘Miquel Martí i Pol’ poetry prize. Miquel Ribas Figueras, with his work Ilha do Farol, became the winner of the XXX ‘Valldaura-Memorial Pere Calders’ novel prize.

The event was attended by the Mayor of Cerdanyola del Vallès, Carlos Cordón; the Councillor for Education of Cerdanyola del Vallès, Pilar Adell; the Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Rosa María Sebastián; and the authors Josep Domènech Ponsatí and Miquel Ribas. Carla Clúa Alcón (Tarragona) and Josep Antoni Aguilar Àvila (València) were present, through videos with a few words of gratitude for the publication of their books.

The final part of the event included the presentation of the terms and conditions of the Literary Awards 2025, which will open for submissions on 13 December.

In the framework of the International Open Access Week, the Publications Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) will celebrate the UAB Scientific Journals Day 2024 on Tuesday 23 October, from 10 am to 2 pm, in the Journals Room of the Humanities Library of the University. The meeting is open to all those who participate or collaborate in the publication of UAB journals and who have previously registered via the registration form.

A total of 28 people have registered and the program will be as follows:

PROGRAM

10.00 h Presentation and dynamics of the Day 

Topics
New features of OJS version 3.3
Journal mail management
Indexing a journal
Open Peer Review
Managing notices
 
11.30 h Coffee break
 
12.00 h Management of review forms
Indexing (tips and tricks)
Gender parity in the contents of journals
Monographic issues. Do they count in databases?
Managing communication with authors

One hundred and ninety-two works have been accepted for this year's short story, poetry, and novel competition. The jury's decision will be announced on May 28.

Participation in this year's literary awards has increased at a very high level. The deadline for entries closed last February and a total of 192 original works were submitted, 82 of them for the novel prize, 85 for the poetry prize and 25 for the short story prize. These figures are the highest since 2002, when the organizers -the City Council and the University- decided to merge their respective contests and start the competition together.

This year, the 15th “Caterina Albert” Short Narrative Prize for Young People, worth 500 euros; the 29th “Miquel Martí i Pol” Poetry Prize, worth 1,000 euros; and the 30th “Valldaura - Pere Calders Memorial” Novel Prize, worth 3,000 euros.

Currently, the members of the juries of each category are reviewing the works and the verdict will be announced on May 28, at 4 pm, at the awards ceremony to be held at the Auditorium of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB. The event will be attended by: Javier Lafuente Sancho, Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Rosa María Sebastián, Vice-rector of Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship of the UAB; and Margarita Freixas i Alás, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB. Regarding the City Council, the event will be attended by: Carlos Cordón, Mayor of the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council; and David González Chanca, Councilor of Culture, Communication and EMD of Bellater.

The event will be recorded and can be followed live on the UAB YouTube Channel.

Tributes to Àngel Guimerà and Maria-Mercè Marçal

The organization of the awards wishes to pay tribute in this edition to Àngel Guimerà (1845-1924), the Catalan playwright who has enjoyed the greatest international projection and one of the great poets of the Catalan 19th century, coinciding with the centenary of his death and the commemoration of the Guimerà Year by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In fact, the City Council of Cerdanyola already paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of the death of Àngel Guimerà to the 23rd Marathon of reading, which organized last April 23 for St. George. In this line, the assistants to the awards ceremony will be able to enjoy a performance dedicated to Guimerà's work, by the UAB Chamber Choir, conducted by Poire Vallvé.

On the other hand, the event will also recognize the work of the poet and feminist activist, Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952-1998), through the poetic recital Marçal sentida, which will be given by Sofia Oliva Sabater and Laia Solé Moreno, predoctoral researcher in Greek Philology at the UAB and student of Fine Arts at the UB, respectively.

Alexandre Planas Ballet is the author of the book Projeccions, which won the XVIII Poetry Prize "Miquel Martí i Pol", awarded by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès in 2023.

On the occasion of Sant Jordi's Day 2024, on Tuesday, April 23, the writer will sign copies of Projeccions, from 12 pm to 2 pm, at the Francesc Layret square in Cerdanyola del Vallès. The author will share a literary space with other authors of the city, where they will also read and recommend their works. From 4 pm in the afternoon, Planas will move to Corberà de Llobregat, his home town, to finish his book signing and give a live interview to Radio Corbera, in the Plaza del Mil·lenari.

Coinciding with the celebration of Sant Jordi, the website Lletresbàrbares.cat has published a review of the book, which can be consulted at the following link: https://www.lletresbarbares.cat/articles/versos-a-24-fotogrames-per-segon

On June 5, the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences interviewed Julio Mario Hoyos and Juan Carlos Moreno, Biologist and Philosopher, respectively, and authors of the book Las claves de la investigación Científica, recently published by the Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcleona (UAB).

The interview was included in the project “Diàlegs amb la ciència a Colòmbia”, to answer some of the questions that Hoyos and Moreno unveil in their book: How does science work; what are the main methods used in scientific research; how is knowledge organized and administered in the field of science? The conversation, in a non-specialized language and with a pedagogical purpose, offered useful orientations for scientists in their research work, for educators in the training of research skills and for science administrators in the management of research projects.

The program was broadcasted live and can be heard in its entirety at the following link: https://radio.unal.edu.co/detalle/claves-para-entender-la-investigacion-cientifica

Yesterday, Thursday, the certificates of the CEA-APQ Seal of Quality in Academic Publishing for the evaluation of scientific monographs were delivered to Madrid. This is the first time that the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation (ANECA), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE) have announced the award.

Thirty-five monographs, belonging to different universities and research centres, have been accredited for their quality and transparency of information, quality of editorial policy and quality of the editorial process and scientific evaluation.

Among the accredited monographs is El Papus (1973-1987). Contrapoder informativo en la Transición española, a work by Maria Iranzo Cabrera, and included in the collection on communication and communication technologies, "Aldea Global", which is co-published by the Universitat Jaume I, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Universitat de València and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

The event was attended by Susana Quicios, director of the ANECA Teacher Evaluation Division, Imma Aguilar, director general of the FECYT, and María Isabel Cabrera, president of the UNE, who handed out the certificates.

Joan Carles Marset, director of the UAB Publications Service, was in charge of collecting the certificate for El Papus (1973-1987). Contrapoder informativo en la Transición española, on behalf of the UAB. During his speech, Marset stressed "the importance of inter-university co-publications as a way of promoting knowledge transfer, reinforcing cooperation between universities and adding synergies to make scientific publications viable that would otherwise be difficult for a single institution to undertake". Even so, the editor called for co-publishing to be valued as a factor of collaboration, which contributes to enriching the ecosystem of university publishing in our country.

Since its creation in 2017, the CEA-APQ Seal has been recognised as an indication of the quality of publications in the evaluation of research activity, a recognition carried out by the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI), and in the evaluation criteria of the research merits claimed for the different figures of accreditation of teaching staff carried out by ANECA. Until 2023, the Seal was only awarded for collections. With the new call for monographs, this evaluation criterion is consolidated and enhances the importance of this certification for the authors of the works, the publishers, the evaluation system of research activity and Spanish science.

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Publications Service will soon be present at three events in the publishing sector: the 42nd Granada Book Fair, the 59th edition of the Valencia Book Fair and the 36th Bogotá International Book Fair. The first will take place from April 19 to 28, the second from April 25 to May 5 and the third from April 17 to May 2.

The UAB publishing house will be exhibiting some of its new titles for the 2023-2024 academic year at the stand of the Spanish University Publishers Union (UNE). It will be possible to purchase titles, aimed at all audiences, such as El hechizo del tren, by Johari Gautier; Innovación y liderazgo. El nacimiento del código de barras, by Gabriel Izard; Las claves de la investigación científica, of Julio Mario Hoyos and Juan Carlos Moreno; or Legislación y derecho digital para no juristas, by Cristina Blasi i Josep Cañabate.

The professors of Science Didactics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Víctor López-Simó and Digna Couso, held a seminar about their latest book Didáctica de la física para la educación secundaria obligatoria, last Friday, April 5, at the Faculty of Education Sciences of the UAB.

The presentation was attended by Marta Bertran, dean of the Faculty, and the authors of the book themselves. The presentation was a success, with an attendance of almost one hundred people. In fact, the presentation was initially planned to be held in the Faculty's Board Room but, thanks to the good forecasts of the registrations prior to the event, it was moved to a room with a larger capacity.

The event was open and free for the entire UAB community and the attendees, among which were students, teachers and professionals in the world of popular science, were able to enjoy a coffee break during the event. In addition, the Abacus bookstore of the UAB campus was in charge of managing the sale of copies, on site.

Didáctica de la física para la educación secundaria obligatoria has been published by the Publications Service of the UAB, within the collection "Materiales" and is already available in bookstores in paper format (for a fee) and in open access electronic format.