Journal Metrics - CiteSource and Journal Impact Factor

A new service has appeared to help judge the impact of a journal in the world of scientific publishing. CiteScore metrics from the publisher Elsevier is a new tool to compare with the well known JIF, Journal Impact Factor.

Similar to the Journal Impact Factor, the CiteScore is “a measure reflecting the yearly average number of citations to recent articles published in that journal.” CiteScore uses 3 years and JIF uses 2 previous years. Limiting the number of years included helps eliminate bias towards journals that have been published a long time.

Another difference is that whereas JIF is available only to Journal Citation Reports™ subscribers, the CiteScore is free online. CiteScore is based on the Elsevier Scopus database, and the JIF uses the journals in Web Of Science, which is not owned by a publisher.  

The concept of an impact factor was initially devised by Eugene Garfield, founder of ISI, the Institute for Scientific Information, and creator of Science Citation Index. An impact factor is a calculation that can be used along with many other factors to evaluate journals within a field. However, a single article can greatly affect the rankings.

For more information on impact factors see the JIF video. For more information on the new CiteScore, check the recent article in Nature.

Websites Referenced

https://journalmetrics.scopus.com/

http://ipscience.thomsonreuters.com/product/journal-citation-reports (see video)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor

http://www.nature.com/news/controversial-impact-factor-gets-a-heavyweight-rival-1.21131?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews

HealthReach - Health Information for Non-English and Second Language Speakers

HealthReach started as a resource for refugees ("RHIN") but is now expanded to meet the needs of the broader non-English speaking and second-language audience. It offers multilingual consumer health and patient education materials on individual topics and in a few special collections. Some material is in English, aimed at those who serve a specific population. 

MedlinePlus remains a valuable consumer health resource that focuses more on specific conditions and offers information in multiple languages. Entering a search term such as "Asian health" there will also result in a list of resources. Both databases are services of the National Library of Medicine.

Websites Referenced

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/History-of-RHIN

https://medlineplus.gov/

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/

Systematic Review Series in AJN

"Systematic Reviews, Step by Step" is a series offered in AJN, American Journal of Nursing. It comes from the Joanna Briggs Institute, an international collaborative supporting evidence-based practice in nursing, medicine and allied health.

The initial March, 2014, article provided an overview. "A systematic review does not seek to create new knowledge but rather to synthesize and summarize existing knowledge, and therefore relevant research must already exist on the topic."

Articles in the series:

1st The Systematic Review: An Overview
2nd Developing the Review Question and Inclusion Criteria (PICO)
3rd Constructing a Search Strategy and Searching for Evidence: a Guide to the Literature Search for a Systematic Review
4th Study Selection and Critical Appraisal
5th Data Extraction and Synthesis
6th (final) Presenting and Interpreting Findings

Series authors include Edoardo Aromataris, director of synthesis science at the Joanna Briggs Institute in the School of Translational Health Science, University of Adelaide, South Australia; and Alan Pearson, former executive director and founder of the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Websites Referenced
http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&CSC=Y&NEWS=N&PAGE=toc&SEARCH=00000446-201403000-00000.kc&LINKTYPE=asBody&LINKPOS=1&D=ovft
http://joannabriggs.org/jbi-approach.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24572533
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24681476
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24759479
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24869584
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25742352
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25075699

Originally published 2-27-2014, updated 10-27-2016mp

Surgical Stapling Pioneer Dr. Mark M. Ravitch

"His surgical legacy as a founder of pediatric surgery as a specialty, as a surgical innovator, and for introducing the concept of surgical stapling in the U.S. is paralleled by his simultaneous contributions to surgical education and knowledge." The Mark M. Ravitch Papers, 1932-1989, is the latest collection featured in the History of Medicine section of the National Library of Medicine for those interested in the history of surgery, surgical techniques, and pediatrics.

Websites Referenced
https://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/101083015
https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2016/10/25/mark-m-ravitch-a-surgeons-surgeon/

Predatory Publishers Now Have Worthy Adversary, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Predatory publishers now have an adversary - the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For years scientific and medical authors have been lured in to submit their articles and pay high “open access” fees without realizing the publisher was not the authoritative one they thought it was. Now the FTC has taken on a major participant. As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education (by Paul Basken, 8-30-2016), the FTC “filed a civil complaint this month in federal court in Nevada against one of the largest publishers of online science journals, OMICS Group, Inc.”

Jeffrey Beall, an academic librarian in Denver, has long tracked these publishers and records them at Beall’s List on his website, Scholarly Open Access.

For more, see my earlier post.
3-2-2018: Beall's List accessible again.  

Websites Referenced

http://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Prosecutors-Join-Fight/237615?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=e61b66a87ab44902ad009401675a86f4&elq=d5fef21b4193461dae71b6a7fe2f6262&elqaid=10475&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=3932

https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

https://scholarlyoa.com/

http://boneuponlibrarynews.blogspot.com/search/label/predatory%20publishers

https://beallslist.weebly.com/  

Harry Potter's World - an NLM Exhibit

In the first Harry Potter book Harry references La Metallique Transformation (1618) by Nicholas Flamel -- a real book owned by the National Library of Medicine! That realization sparked the development of a traveling NLM exhibit called Do Mandrakes Really Scream? Magic and Medicine in Harry Potter, which opened in 2007.

"The magic in J. K. Rowling’s series of Harry Potter novels is partially based on Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science, including alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy." The current exhibit, "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance, Science, Magic, and Medicine explores the intersection of these worlds, featuring highlights from the collections of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine." Much of the exhibit can be enjoyed online.

Happy birthday, Harry! Born on July 31 (same date as creator J.K.Rowling), 1980.

Websites Referenced
https://infocus.nlm.nih.gov/2016/07/31/harry-potter-magic-myth-and-happy-birthday/
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/harrypottersworld/

Open Access "Pay It Forward" Report Released

Open Access continues to be a hot topic in the scholarly publishing world. The big question is how to pay for it. In open access, once an article has been accepted through the peer review process, the author (or the author’s institution) pays an upfront fee to be published. Then the publisher offers that article online at no charge to readers. Currently, access to articles in journals usually requires users to buy a subscription or pay to purchase single articles as needed. Some of this is transparent when people are making use of library subscriptions, but these often comprise the largest segment of a library’s budget.

The report of the University of California Pay It Forward Project has just been released. This distinguished group has been studying the future budgetary implications of the OA trend on major research institutions. If a publisher changes a journal from the paid subscription model to a fully open access funded model, institutions need to plan ahead. Library budgets, grants and author allotments are all possible funding sources, but none are straightforward. The study reported a current average article processing cost (APC), or publication fee, of $1500-2000, but this can run $2100-2400, depending on the subject and journal (p.126).

8-16-2016 update: the recently released OA2020 Initiative FAQs include useful tips.
5-31-2017 update: OASPA graphs illustrate steady growth in open access publishing 

Websites Referenced

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access

http://icis.ucdavis.edu/?page_id=713

http://icis.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/UC-Pay-It-Forward-Final-Report.rev_.7.18.16.pdf
http://oa2020.org/faq/

https://oaspa.org/steady-growth-fully-oa-journals-ccby-license/ 

AAOS eBook Collection now available

Now you can find the latest volume of Orthopaedic Knowledge Update (OKU) or Instructional Course Lectures online from a hospital computer! Our recent purchase of the AAOS eBook Collection includes those and many more, over 100 titles. Their Monographs and Advanced Reconstruction series are also included. Instructional Course Lectures begins with v.51, 2002.

Remote access via OpenAthens is not yet available, but please contact the librarian if you are interested in that.

Websites Referenced

http://bookshelf.aaos.org/ebooks/

Isabel Healthcare Symptom Checker Free for Limited Time

Isabel Healthcare uses the symptoms you enter to suggest a list of medical diagnosis possibilities. While it does not provide medical advice, from the list you can read a Wikipedia article on each topic to narrow it down. For a limited time a version is free to individuals with no account needed. It covers about 6000 conditions. 

Isabel was designed by a dad with the intensive care doctors who treated his daughter Isabel during a health crisis. The system can help consumers “make sense of the vast amounts of medical knowledge out there, become better informed and work constructively with your doctor to find the right diagnosis as soon as possible.”

Although no account setup is required, a help manual is linked on the registration page. 

Websites Referenced

http://symptomchecker.isabelhealthcare.com/     

http://symptomchecker.isabelhealthcare.com/suggest_diagnoses_advanced/landing_page   

http://symptomchecker.isabelhealthcare.com/home/ourmission 

http://symptomchecker.isabelhealthcare.com/home/products    

http://symptomchecker.isabelhealthcare.com/home/register

Finding Tachdjian’s

Question – how do I reach Tachdjian’s online at the hospital?

1. On the main Intranet portal in the pink column on the left, a direct link near the Medical Library website listing.

2. On the Medical Library home page.

3. On the "Online Catalog" linking page, top line.

4. On the "Links" page, more information about Tachdjian's.

5. Once you’ve found it, you can save the link to your desktop.

6. For remote users see the Athens home page. Contact the Medical Library for an account. However, there is currently a problem with accessing that title and others from the vendor.

Tips -- a limited number of users can be on at any one time, so be sure to close the page (there's no real "log out" button). If you see an EBSCOhost page, do not try to sign in. Look for the OpenAthens link in tiny print.

The videos are only available in a folder on the public access Medical Library computers. Eventually they will be accessible on the network, and for those who purchase a copy, the scratch off link does include the videos.

Please contact the Medical Library with any questions or suggestions.

Websites Referenced

http://tsrhkids/intranet/#  (many of these are internal only)

http://tsrhkids/mlibrary/

http://tsrhkids/mlibrary/online_catalog.htm

http://tsrhkids/mlibrary/links.htm

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=ip,uid&db=nlebk&site=ehost-live&scope=site&AN=652362

http://auth.athensams.net/my

Statistics, Cartoons and Clinical Effectiveness

If “statistically significant,” “p-values,” “research spin” and “Cochrane” spark your interest you may like the Absolutely Maybe and Statistically Funny blogs by HildaBastian. A founding member of the Cochrane Collaboration, she currently “works at making clinical effectiveness research accessible as lead for the PubMedHealth team” at the National Institutes of Health. Cartooning has become an effective consumer advocacy tool for Hilda, who describes herself as “scientist, blogger, cartoonist.” A recent interview in NLM In Focus talks about her very interesting background.

Websites Referenced

http://blogs.plos.org/absolutely-maybe/author/hbastian/

http://statistically-funny.blogspot.com/

http://hildabastian.net/

http://www.cochrane.org/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/

https://infocus.nlm.nih.gov/2016/05/16/hilda-bastian-she-speaks-and-draws-truth-to-scientific-power/

New eBooks Available

Several new eBooks have been added lately by request. Links are accessible in the hospital or via your OpenAthens remote access account. There are limits on how many users can be active at one time, so close when you are done and try later if you cannot get in. If you have any problems with them, please let the librarian know.

Basic Principles of External Skeletal Fixation Using Ilizarov and OtherDevices

Rosenberg's Molecular and Genetic Basis of Neurological and PsychiatricDisease

Atlas of Neuromuscular Diseases: A Practical Guideline

Coming soon – full AAOS eBook collection! For remote access contact the library.

Websites Referenced

OpenAthens http://auth.athensams.net/my/

Ilizarov http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=ip,uid&db=nlebk&site=ehost-live&scope=site&AN=576399

Rosenberg http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=ip,uid&db=nlebk&site=ehost-live&scope=site&AN=593413

Atlas http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=ip,uid&db=nlebk&site=ehost-live&scope=site&AN=816873
AAOS  http://bookshelf.aaos.org/ebooks/  

New Online Journals for 2016

Online access is now available for even more of your favorite journals! Use the library’s A to Z list, find links when you search MEDLINE or for remote access many are listed on OpenAthens. Please contact the library if you have any questions or problems with these titles or would like to receive table of contents alerts.

Orthopaedics titles

Clinical Spine Surgery (Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques has changed its focus and name)

JAAOS: Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

J ISAKOS: Journal of the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery & Orthopaedic Spots Medicine

Nursing titles

Evidence-based Nursing

Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing

Journal for Nurses in Professional Development

Journal of Pediatric Health Care

Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing

Orthopaedic Nursing

Neurology titles

Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology

Administration titles

Journal for Healthcare Quality

Pediatrics titles

Child Development

Child Development Perspectives  

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

Websites Referenced

http://tsrhkids/mlibrary/web-based.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?holding=txudtslib

http://auth.athensams.net/my/

Digital Tools Affect Reading Comprehension

Use of digital tools can affect our understanding of what we read. Researchers Geoff Kaufman and Mary Flanagan found that those who read an article on a computer answered concrete questions better while those who read it from a printout were better able to answer abstract questions. More of those who studied a printed spreadsheet could analyze the statistics to make a decision than those who used the laptop. By specifically adding a task to a written document it was also possible to encourage more abstract or critical thinking in readers. Kaufman said "If I catch myself reading a journal article in a PDF, and I start to get stuck on the details of the methodology, I’ll just go ahead and print it out.” The authors presented at the recent ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Websites Referenced

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/05/09/researcher-say-computer-screens-change-how-you-think-about-what-you-read/

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2858036.2858550

Health Literacy - Please Help Me Understand!

Take a look at this video (and a short version) from the American Medical Association to understand why “health literacy” is such an important topic in good patient care. Patients face challenges and a big one might be communicating with you and the pharmacy. Identify the 2 or 3 most important bits of information they must understand and use “living room language.” The American College of Physicians film will also give you valuable insight.

Always use the Teach-Back method to be sure you have explained clearly – ask them to tell you what they will tell their family, what they need to know and do. If they cannot do this then you have a chance to re-explain while they are still with you.

Websites referenced

AMA YouTube video 23 minutes:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtTZ_vxjyA

Or in 4 minutes:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPkdpGHWAQ

American College of Physicians 6-1/2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImnlptxIMXs

Teach Back:   http://www.teachbacktraining.org/