WUSM Scholarly Communications Initiative Blog

The Blog for the WUSM Scholarly Communications Initiative


Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research

February 22nd, 2013 by Cathy

Policy Memorandum

In a policy memorandum released today, OSTP Director John Holdren has directed Federal agencies with more than $100M in R&D expenditures to develop plans to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication and requiring researchers to better account for and manage the digital data resulting from federally funded scientific research. The final policy reflects substantial inputs from scientists and scientific organizations, publishers, members of Congress, and other members of the public—over 65 thousand of whom recently signed a We the People petition asking for expanded public access to the results of taxpayer-funded research.

 

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Assessing research impact in academic clinical medicine: a study using Research Excellence Framework pilot impact indicators

February 8th, 2013 by Cathy

For an outstanding article on research impact, read:

Ovseiko PV, Oancea A, Buchan AM. Assessing research impact in academic clinical medicine: a study using Research Excellence Framework pilot impact indicators. BMC Health Services Research 2012, 12:478. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-12-478

From the conclusions:

“It is suggested that the public funding agencies, medical research charities, universities, and the wider medical research community work together to develop more robust methodologies for capturing and describing impact, including more valid and reliable impact indicators.”

 

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Need NIH or NSF Grant Proposal Tips? Read the Sociobiology Blog

January 24th, 2013 by Cathy

Are you in need of tips for NIH or NSF grant proposals? Do you need inspiration for framing your proposal and outcomes?

If so, check out Dr. Joan E. Strassmann’s Blog, Sociobiology.

Dr. Strassmann’s postings include:

 

Dr. Strassmann’s blog is chock-full of other helpful topics and is a highly recommended resource for all scholars and investigators.

Wikipedia page for Joan Strassmann

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Visualization Table

January 2nd, 2013 by Cathy

Check this out: A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.

Visualization examples for various concepts such as data, information, concepts, strategies, metaphors, and compounds are available by mousing over each concept as noted on the table. The example below is a semantic network.

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My Bibliography: Award Compliance Reports in PDF for eRA Commons Users

December 31st, 2012 by Cathy

The National Library of Medicine released a new feature in My Bibliography:

“My Bibliography has been enhanced to include an option to generate a PDF format report. The PDF option is a continuation page of form PHS 2590 to help eRA Commons users report publications. In conjunction with the PDF option, a new filter “Linked to my Awards” was developed for My Bibliography to assist researchers in limiting results to publications directly linked to their awards, in accordance with NIH guidance.”

My Bibliography: Award Compliance Reports in PDF for eRA Commons Users

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Metrics for Young Investigators: Where’s the Data?

December 17th, 2012 by Cathy

The blog post of “Metrics for Young Investigators” focused on identifying examples of outputs and activities for young investigators (see the new list of additional metrics). Why track outputs and activities of young investigators? Many investigators are funded by specific grant programs that offer support to develop research skills for young investigators to become independent researchers.  Some funding agencies require annual reports, often longitudinal in nature, in order to demonstrate success in meeting program goals. On-campus groups may want to determine the effectiveness of special mentoring programs based on specific criteria for young investigators.

How can outputs and activities of investigators be tracked? What data sources are available? Elsevier SciVal Scopus, Thomson Reuters Web of Science or MEDLINE/PubMed are examples of databases to use for monitoring publications. These databases can also be used to document collaboration and authorship patterns of young investigators. The NIH RePORTER database can be used to track funded NIH grant proposals. Google Scholar is an excellent resource to track gray literature or technical reports or other materials authored by young investigators that are not typically indexed by databases. A large catalog such as WorldCat or Amazon can be used to locate books authored by investigators. The United States Patent and Trademark Office provides patent application information. Search alerts for individual investigators can be created using Google to keep tabs on new content on the web that pertain to an investigator.

Some activities such as service on community boards, special awards or membership in professional organizations may be more difficult to track and may require self-reporting via annual questionnaires/surveys from investigators for reporting purposes.

Examples of impact based on metrics for investigators are forthcoming.

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Metrics for Young Investigators

December 6th, 2012 by Cathy

As follows are examples of metrics that can be used to track progress of young investigators. This list does not include citations to publications or examples of outcomes related to research productivity.

Ideas for other metrics? Please post ideas for other metrics using the Comments section.

Publication History Range
Number of  Publications per Year
Journal Articles (animal vs. human)
Research Articles
Review Articles
Systematic Review
Other Publications/Gray Literature

  • Clinical Guidelines
  • Policy Documents
  • Trade Publication
  • White Paper
  • Curriculum
First Author Status on Journal Articles
Last Author Status on Journal Articles
Number of Unique Institutions Represented
Number of Unique Countries Represented by Co-Authors
Collaborations

  • Community
  • Foundation
  • Industry
  • University
  • Government
  • Domestic (within the United States)
  • International (within the United States)
Co-authorship Patterns

  • Interdisciplinary
  • Cross-Sector
  • Basic and Clinical
  • Inter vs. Intra institution
Disciplines Represented by Journal Titles
Journal Citation Reports: Journal Impact Factor
SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) for Journal Titles
eigenFACTOR for Journal Titles
Meeting Abstracts Presented (Papers or Posters)
Continuing Education Programs Presented at Professional Meetings
Books and Textbooks
Book Chapters
Patents
Licenses
Material Transfer Agreements
Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications
Inventions
Biological Materials
Pharmaceuticals
Medical Devices
Grant Awards: Dollar Amount (Total)
Grant Awards: Type of Award (federal, state, private, industry, foundation)
Grant Awards: Submitted
Grant Awards: Current
Grant Awards: Renewed
Grant Awards: Principal Investigator
Grant Awards: Co-Investigator
Grant Awards: Key Personnel
Length of Time from Trainee Status to NIH R01 award
Academic/Professional Status
Tenure Status
Journal Reviewer
Journal Editor
Editor-In-Chief of a Journal
Journal Advisory Board
Editor of a Special Journal Issue
Book Reviewer
Book Editor
Invited Book Editor
Community Advisory Boards
Funding Agency Councils
Contributed Presentations
Invited Presentations
Invited Systematic Review
Invited Article
Invited Letter
Honorific Lectures
Membership in Professional Organizations
Membership to an Elected Society
Mentoring Activities
National Award or Prize
National Committee Service
Scientific Advisory Board
Teaching Activities
Training Programs
Consultancy Efforts
Testimony/Expert Witness
Task Force Participation
Curricula Development

 

New Examples of Metrics Attribution
Grant Reviewer Natalie Clairoux, University of Montreal
Technical Reports Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Reference Works Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Creative Works Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Software/Algorithms Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Legal Activities Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Legal Proceedings and Briefs Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Awards Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Internet Communications Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Civic Engagement Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Curated Datasets Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier
Course Evaluations Holly J Falk-Krzesinski, PhD, Vice President, Global Academic & Research Relations, Elsevier

 

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The Current Health and Future Well-being of the American Research University

November 20th, 2012 by Cathy

The Current Health and Future Well-being of the American Research University: A Report by The Research Universities Futures Consortium. June 2012.

As noted on pages 35 and 37 of the report:

“Innovation requires diversity of high quality research and development of standardized performance metrics that reliably reflect the complexity and societal expectations of today’s research. . . Current measures of outcomes are of limited value and, in the absence of measures of productivity and quality, reward size over organizational or individual efficacy or effectiveness.”

What are examples of standardized performance metrics to assess the impact of research?

Readings:

Capturing Research Impacts: A Review of International Practice. Rand Europe, 2010.

Measuring the Impact of Research—The Context for Metric Development. The Group of Eight Backgrounder, 2011.

 

 

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NIH-funded Investigators: Take Note of Enforcement of the NIH Public Access Policy

November 19th, 2012 by Cathy

Per Notice NOT-OD-12-160: Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements and Related NIH Efforts to Enhance Compliance:

NIH informs grantees that in Spring, 2013, at the earliest, NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from that award are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy. The award will not be processed until recipients have demonstrated compliance.

This change will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards in the Spring of 2013 (see NIH NOT-OD-12-142).NIH will simultaneously implement the procedural change outlined below to facilitate public access reporting in paper progress reports (PHS 2590) submitted on or after this ‘to be announced’ spring date.

Follow-up Notice (NOT-OD-13-042) released 14 February 2013 :

Changes to Public Access Policy Compliance Efforts Apply to All Awards with Anticipated Start Dates on or after July 1, 2013

For non-competing continuation grant awards with a start date of July 1, 2013 or beyond:

1) NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.

2) Investigators will need to use My NCBI to enter papers onto progress reports. Papers can be associated electronically using the RPPR, or included in the PHS 2590 using the My NCBI generated PDF report.

Related Readings:

NIH Steps Up Enforcement of Public Access Policy

NIH Gets Tough on Public Access Policy

NIH to Begin Enforcing its Open Access Policy

Improving Public Access to Research Results

 

Need help? See: NIH Public Access Policy information or contact Cathy Sarli.

 

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Establishing Your Author Name

October 30th, 2012 by Cathy

Why is an “Author Name” Important?

Your name as an author is key to establishing a unique public profile for dissemination and promotion of your research. Authors should use the same variation of their name consistently throughout their academic and research careers.

Consistency of an author name enhances the discoverability of research.
Uniqueness of an author name helps establishes a presence for an author.

 

How can authors find out if other authors have similar names? One tip is to do an author search in several databases such as PubMed, Scopus or Web of Science.

  • How many name variants are there for your name?
  • How many authors share your name?
  • How many authors with a similar name have publications in the same subject area?
  • Is it possible to distinguish publications from authors with similar names?

If you find similarities in author names, consider adding your full middle name or using your middle initial to distinguish it from other authors.

There are several resources to help authors manage unique and consistent author names to ensure that their publications are associated with the correct author: ORCID, Scopus Author Identifier and ResearcherID.

See Tools for Authors: Establishing Your Author Name for more information on ORCID, Scopus Author Identifier and ResearcherID.

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