Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library Blog

From the 11/17/2009 issue of Chronicle of Higher Education:

Top public and private universities teamed up with members of Congress today to launch a new Web site and related efforts to highlight the role of the multibillion-dollar economic-stimulus legislation in fostering research both on and off campus. The centerpiece of the program is a Web site, ScienceWorksforUs, which uses a map and other means to draw attention to research in all 50 states that is being supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was enacted last February and directed $21.5-billion toward scientific research. The initiative is being sponsored by the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, and the Science Coalition.

This year ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) is sponsoring THREE competitions – two for undergraduates and a new competition for Master’s level students!

The purpose of these competitions is to highlight the best student research papers using quantitative data.  The objective is to encourage students to explore the social sciences by means of critical analysis of a topic supported by quantitative analysis of a dataset(s) held within the ICPSR archive and presented in written form.

• The winner of each competition receives $1,000 cash and the paper will be published.
• Deadline for submission is January 31, 2010.

More information, submission guidelines, and promotional posters are found by visiting the competition website.

The NIH Manuscript System (NIHMS) web site will be unavailable beginning Friday, November 13 at 12:00 p.m. until Monday, November 16 at 7:00 a.m. (PST) due to scheduled maintenance. During this time previously-submitted manuscripts will be processed, although users will not be able to make new submissions, give approvals, or check the status of current submissions via the NIHS web site.

<submitted by Janet Carter>

It appears that the problems with PubMed have been resolved.

From the PUBMED-ALERTS service of the National Library of Medicine:

PubMed is unavailable due to a problem in the NLM computer room. We hope to have this resolved as soon as possible.

<submitted by Paul Camp>

Daming Su, Visiting Librarian, from the Institute of Information on Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS) is replacing Dr. Weiyu Fan on the UCLA-CACMS Information Center for East-West Medicine project beginning on November 4, 2009. Join us in welcoming Daming to the Biomedical Library.

<submitted by Tania Bardyn>

Yesterday, MedlinePlus released a new version of the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia that includes approximately 400 new Patient Instruction pages, covering pre-operative information and instructions, discharge instructions, self-care instructions, and questions to ask your doctor.

The Patient Instruction pages are available in both English and Spanish, and you will be able to find them in the MedlinePlus search engine and A-Z index pages for the encyclopedia. Additionally, you will see links to related Patient Instructions in the side-bar of many encyclopedia articles.

This change may not be apparent at first glance. For a good example of this feature and the new look of the Encyclopedia pages, take a look at the entry for knee joint replacement. If there are such pages related to a topic, they will be clearly marked as Patient Instructions on the right side of the Encyclopedia page. To see how these pages are listed, go to the Encyclopedia in MedlinePlus.gov, and choose one of the letters in the A-Z list. Scroll down, and take note of the topics. Now you will see topics that include new wording such as “what to ask your doctor”, “self-care” and “discharge”.

<submitted by Kelli Ham>

The CRISP database which provided a searchable database of biomedical research projects funded by NIH was retired on October 31, 2009. For many years, CRISP was one of the most common ways for the public, faculty, and researchers to find information on NIH research programs. The CRISP system has been replaced by the RePORT Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) tool.

<submitted by Tania Bardyn>

SHERPA (Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access) was founded in 2002 at the Centre for Research Communications in an effort to support the establishment of open access repositories in UK universities. Since then, it has expanded to facilitate the rapid and efficient worldwide dissemination of research.
Their RoMEO service is a definitive color-coded listing of over 600 publisher’s copyright agreements and retained author rights.  The major upgrade gives:

• an extra category for the self-archiving of the publisher’s version/pdf

• expanded journal coverage

• extra search options for journal abbreviations and electronic ISSNs

• new tabular browse view for publishers

• selective display of publishers’ compliance with funding agencies’ mandates

<submitted by Cathy Brown>

In celebration of Open Access Week, October 19-24, 2009, the Electronic Green Journal, which recently published its 28th issue, will debut a new interface on the California Digital Library’s eScholarship.

The new interface helps readers discover related content on the eScholarship platform and includes Web 2.0 functionality like creating RSS feeds for articles or journals. Readers will be able to fully take advantage of this new interface when the next issue of the Electronic Green Journal (EGJ) is published in December 2009.

The EGJ is academically sponsored and published semiannually by the UCLA Library and is one of the first peer-reviewed international journals promoting an open access publishing model as presented in Peter Suber’s Open-Access Timeline. Since its inception in July of 1994, the main goal of the Electronic Green Journal has been to assist in international scholarly environmental communication by providing a quality, unbiased, and freely accessible forum for the exchange of environmental information as an alternative to costly, commercially produced scientific journals.

For more information contact:
Maria Anna Jankowska, General Editor, UCLA, Charles E. Young Research Library, Los Angeles, CA, majankowska@library.ucla.edu
Amy J. Chatfield, Book Review Editor, UCLA, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, Los Angeles, California, achatfie@library.ucla.edu

<originally posted to the blog, Open Access Week by Amy Chatfield>