October 2025 Issue

Open Access Week takes place October 20-26, 2025, which gives us an opportunity to reflect on this year’s theme, Who Owns Our Knowledge? While the theme covers a lot of important ground that we encourage you to read, this HSLS Update article will focus on how “communities can reassert control over the knowledge they produce” by highlighting ways to openly share your work through non-commercial venues.

Posting a preprint of your work on a preprint server can be an effective way of quickly disseminating research results openly and retaining the rights of your work. While for-profit publishers have their own preprint servers, many other servers are established and maintained by non-profit organizations. ASAPbio’s List of Preprint Servers provides information on who owns preprint servers and other information that can help you select the right server to meet your needs. Continue reading →

HSLS Data Scientist Alexis Cenname has been recognized with the PAIR Professionalism Accolade from the Associate Dean for the Learning Environment, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, for her exceptional teaching in MSTP 5973—the seven-week summer course for Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program students.

This year’s class focused on the All of Us Research Program (AoU) data analysis with hands-on labs in R and Python. Alexis led the programming sessions, helping trainees develop research-ready notebooks and pipelines customized for AoU datasets—covering data wrangling, visualization, reproducible workflows, and transparent reporting. Continue reading →

Take the HSLS Know Your Library 30-min intro module to jumpstart your school year.

One thing we commonly hear from students is that they wish they knew about library services earlier, to take full advantage of them. Even students we see in the library are not always aware of the many ways we can support both their academic pursuits and their study break times.

Our new Learn @ HSLS self-paced learning module is geared towards all health sciences students – whether you are new or returning, undergrad or graduate. If you are in the Schools of the Health Sciences (Dental, SHRS, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health), this module is for you! Continue reading →

Update as of October 7, 2025: The University of Pittsburgh’s Open Access Agreement with Wiley has reached its annual limit on the number of articles eligible for APC-free (article processing charge-free) open access publishing.

For questions or alternative open access options, please contact us.

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The University of Pittsburgh’s Open Access Agreement with Wiley is very close to its annual limit on the number of articles eligible for APC-free (article processing charge-free) open access publishing. As stated on the library’s Open Access Publishing Agreements page and in the conditional funding communications from Wiley, once this limit is reached, newly accepted articles, no matter the submission date, will NOT be covered under the agreement and corresponding authors will be responsible for any invoice received from the publisher. The library’s Open Access Publishing Agreements page has noted the annual limit since the announcement of our agreement in 2024. Continue reading →

HSLS welcomes Jody Wozar Larkin to our leadership team as the Associate Director for Research, Instruction, and Clinical Information Services. Jody joins us from the RAND Corporation, where she led the Library Research Services Division.

Jody began her career as a clinical nurse before transitioning into library and information services. With over 30 years of combined clinical and research experience, coupled with a record of leadership, she brings a valuable perspective to HSLS. Continue reading →

Since the launch of our HSLS Digital Exhibits & Collections website in February, we’ve been busy adding new materials to the site for you to explore, including:

• An exhibit exploring how a book published in 1562, Galen’s Works, traveled around the world to reach its current home in Falk Library’s Rare Book Room.
• Transcriptions and high-resolution scans of Falk Library’s two original letters written by Florence Nightingale.
• Full-text scans of the Rare Book Room’s two smallest books, Hitchcock’s Teeth Almanacs from 1843 and 1844. The 1844 edition is just 3.5 inches tall!

New exhibits and collections are added to the site regularly. Continue reading →

Join us for this class:
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, noon-1:00 p.m., Online
Taught by Stephen Gabrielson
Register for Using ORCID and SciENcv to Create an NIH Biosketch*

This interactive workshop incorporates live demonstrations and hands-on activities that walk attendees through the process of quickly creating an NIH Biosketch using data from ORCID, a unique and persistent author identifier. Attendees will gain practical experience adding scholarly works and other information to their ORCID records, connecting their ORCIDs to My NCBI, and then using SciENcv to pull ORCID data to prepopulate several sections of a Biosketch. Continue reading →

Visitors to Falk Library, located in Alan Magee Scaife Hall, are encouraged to check out these opportunities and displays:

All Treats, No Tricks

Friday, October 31, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

We’re bringing out all the treats for Halloween at Falk Library. Dive into our classic candy bowls with a delightful selection of chocolates and colorful sweets that cater to every craving. But the real magic happens with our themed test tubes—each one filled with decadent chocolate candy, resembling mysterious potions from a haunted laboratory. For additional thrills, our popular Historical Collection stickers are back! Grab a sticker that features a spooky figure from our History of Medicine books, some of which will be on display. Candy and stickers are provided while supplies last.

Creative Corner

New this semester! Busy with classes, presentations, reading, and studying? Visit the Creative Corner, located next to the Leisure Books section, and take a few minutes to unwind, de-stress, and explore your creative self. We offer a rotating selection of coloring supplies, puzzles, fidgets, and games to use in the study spaces throughout the library. Take them to your seat in the library and return them to the shelves when finished. Loose paper with word searches and crosswords can be taken with you. Supplies are limited and are available during all regular library hours. Continue reading →