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Major Publishers Requiring ORCID iD in 2016

An ORCID iD from the Open Researcher and Contributor ID registry is the new permanent, universal digital identifier for authors. This uniquely identifies and accurately connects you to your scholarly works throughout your lifetime, no matter how your name or institution may vary. The University of Pittsburgh is now an institutional member of ORCID; Pitt authors are encouraged to register now for an ORCID iD as this will increasingly become a required part of the academic publishing environment.

On January 7, 2016, ORCID announced that eight publishers, including Science, Public Library of Science (PLoS), IEEE, eLife, EMBO and Hindawi are making the 16-digit ORCID iD a requirement for manuscript submission starting in 2016. Nature Publishing Group (NPG) was a launch partner of the ORCID registry, and along with Wiley and Elsevier, has been accepting ORCID iDs since 2012, but has not yet made it a requirement. ORCID hosted an open letter to publishers outlining reasons for integrating the ORCID iD into the publishing workflow. A table indicating commitments and date of initiation is included.

ORCID iDs create greater efficiencies for authors, publishers, funders, and other entities in the academic scholarly communication universe. When authors enter their ORCID iD during manuscript submission, fields are automatically completed. No more repetitive data entry! No more name ambiguity!

HSLS invites all current or potential researchers and authors to register for a free ORCID iD through Pitt’s custom registration portal. For more information, visit the HSLS ORCID LibGuide, or contact Andrea Ketchum at ketchum@pitt.edu or 412-648-9757.

~Andrea Ketchum

This information is over 2 years old. Information was current at time of publication. This information is over 2 years old. Information was current at time of publication.

Photoshop Elements: A Solution for Every Image

Adobe Photoshop Elements 14 is now available on the Falk Library upper floor computers, for use by University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff of the schools of the health sciences.

Photoshop Elements is ideal for both novice and expert users for image editing and enhancement. This software can work with many types of pictures, from selfies on your phone, to professional images captured in RAW, to everything in between. Continue reading →

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Did I Write a Systematic Review?

Systematic reviews are time- and labor-intensive to produce. Even if the authors start with a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)1 compliant protocol, and knowledge of current standards for producing systematic reviews,2 over the course of the project circumstances may lead to cutting corners in the review methods. The questions then are “Did I write a systematic review?” and “Have I met the standards to publish it as a systematic review?” To answer these questions, apply a tool for critical appraisal of systematic reviews to your article.

AMSTAR (A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews)3 is a widely-used 11-item checklist for critically appraising systematic reviews. Potential for bias is considered as well as quality factors. A newer instrument, ROBIS (Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews),4 focuses only on assessing risk of bias in systematic reviews. Risk of bias is assessed in four domains—study eligibility for inclusion, identification and selection of studies for inclusion, data collection and study appraisal, and synthesis and findings—along with the overall risk of bias.

If your assessment reveals a significant risk of bias in your methods, you may want to consider publishing it as a review article rather than a systematic review, or investing more time in your review to raise its quality. If you decide to publish it as a review, state this clearly in your article. You may still include elements associated with systematic reviews in your article, such as the search strategy used, tables summarizing the included articles and a PRISMA flowchart of the process, but be sure to indicate that you have produced a review article incorporating some systematic review methods into the process. This will save you from having to explain to a peer reviewer what type of article you have written.

For more assistance on publication standards and systematic reviews, please contact the HSLS Main desk at 412-648-8866 or Ask a Librarian.

References are available upon request by sending an e-mail to Barbara Folb.

~Barbara Folb

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ClinicalKey App Now Available

The ClinicalKey App provides evidence-based answers at the point of care. The app is available to Pitt and UPMC users through the HSLS subscription to the full ClinicalKey database.

Content and Features

The ClinicalKey App provides access to over 1,400 medical topics, MEDLINE abstracts, 600 full text journals, 1,000 textbooks, 4,500 practice guidelines, 2 million images, and 17,000 videos. Among the many evidence-based resources are First Consult and Goldman-Cecil Medicine. Continue reading →

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PubMed Tutorial for Nurses

Nurses: do you need a quick brush up on your PubMed skills? A new PubMed tutorial, developed specifically for nurses, is now available from the National Library of Medicine. Created in consultation with nurses and nursing librarians from around the United States, this series of five videos can be watched in less than 30 minutes and includes several interactive exercises to reinforce learning of basic concepts. Continue reading →

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Treasures from the Rare Book Room: What about Vesalius?

Last year, 2015, marked the 500th anniversary of the birth of the great anatomist Andreas Vesalius. This was celebrated around the world by many events and writings lauding his famous work, Humani corporis fabrica libri septem (1543). This book is arguably the greatest treasure in Falk Library’s Rare Book Collections. Our contribution to the festivities is more practical than spectacular in nature, but it still shows our appreciation and the care with which we look after the De Fabrica. We upgraded the five-line description, which for years served to identify the work in our public catalog, to “full cataloging.” It may seem like a minor step, but to have a record describing the details of the volume, which precisely identify the copy that we have in our collection, is a matter of increased security. It is nearly as important as our physical safekeeping of the book behind a locked door in a climate-controlled environment.

The new description reveals the details specific to our copy. It traces the provenance to the 1914 purchase of the volume from a German bookseller by Dr. James D. Heard. He later donated 147 books from his collection (including the Vesalius) to our library. The enhanced description identifies all pages with handwritten annotations. It also describes the original 16th century binding and the remnants of its closures, and relates the physical state of the volume. These details characterize elements that are unique to our copy, and that are helpful in identifying variants, e.g., noticeable differences between copies of the same edition due to the manual process of printing and binding. It gives detailed information on pagination and numbering errors. Also provided are notes about large folded plates and their placement.

Alternate link for catalog record animation.

The record for the second edition of Vesalius’ De Fabrica (1555), also held in Falk Library’s Rare Book Collection, received the same “anniversary upgrade” as the 1543 edition.

These materials can be viewed in the Rare Book Room by appointment.

~Gosia Fort

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HSLS Staff News

The HSLS Staff News section includes recent HSLS presentations, publications, staff changes, staff promotions, degrees earned, etc.

Publications

Author names in bold are HSLS-affiliated

Barbara Epstein, HSLS director, published “In Their Own Words: Oral Histories of MLA Past Presidents” in the Journal of the Medical Library Association, January 2016, 104(1): 3-14. This is the published version of her Janet Doe Lecture on the history or philosophy of medical librarianship, presented at the 115th Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association in Austin, Texas, on May 18, 2015.

Jonathon Erlen, history of medicine librarian, along with co-author Megan Conway, published “Disability Studies: Disabilities Abstracts” in The Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal, 2016, 11(4).

J. Rodakowski, E. Saghafi, reference librarian, M.A. Butters, and E.R. Skidmore, published “Non-pharmacological Interventions for Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Stage Dementia: An Updated Scoping Review” in Molecular Aspects of Medicine, June-October 2015, 43-44: 38-53.

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Classes February 2016

HSLS offers classes on database searching, software applications such as Prezi, bibliographic management, molecular biology and genetics, and library orientations. For more information, visit the online course descriptions.

Classes are held on the first floor of Falk Library (200 Scaife Hall) in Classroom 1 and on the upper floor of the library in Classroom 2. All classes are open to faculty, staff, and students of the schools of the health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, who will need a valid Pitt ID or e-mail account. They are also open to UPMC residents and fellows, who will need to show their UPMC IDs. Continue reading →