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/