On October 23rd, Jefferson Libraries sponsored a panel discussion in celebration of Open Access Week moderated by Larissa Gordon, Scholarly Communications Librarian. The panel, Preprints Perspectives, was on the topic of preprints, and, in brief, a preprint is an early version of an academic article that has been made available for free online before it has been peer-reviewed or published. Preprints are designed to speed up access to scientific communication, as the process of formally publishing a journal article can take many months. According to Tim Mosca, Ph.D., preprints, “let discourse flow….more freely, and also a little bit closer to real-time, which is exactly what we want for science.”   

Dr. Mosca, principal investigator of The Mosca Lab at Thomas Jefferson University, was one of four panelists who answered questions and shared their perspectives about preprints during the talk on Friday. He started his comments by highlighting the benefits of posting preprints, reminding the audience that, “behind every paper is a student, or a trainee, or a postdoctoral fellow that needs to graduate, that needs a job.” Publishing a preprint can go a long way towards helping them on that journey. Speaking more specifically about the effect that publishing preprints has had on his own work, Dr. Mosca emphasized their importance because they help, “get scientific work out into the community so that people can see what labs are doing,” and so that a lab can “prove” itself to funders. “Now that places like….the NIH are starting to accept preprints as evidence of progress, this is really helping” labs as they apply for grants.

“As a new lab,” noted Dr. Mosca, “the fact that we could have a preprint on our very first RO1 application…I think went a long way to convincing the study section…that this is a lab that can actually do science and can put pen to paper where necessary.”  

Dr. Mosca was joined on the panel by three other speakers. First, was fellow Jeffersonian Heather Rose, Ph.D., JD, Vice President of Technology Licensing and Startups, from the university’s Innovation Pillar, who emphasized that preprints were not worrisome from an intellectual property standpoint, as “academic researchers have always had an obligation to share work beyond their laboratories.” Publishing preprints is just one more part of that process and it does not need to be a barrier to obtaining a patent if researchers remember to get in touch with her office early on in their process.  

Mosca and Dr. Rose were joined by two guests from outside the university, John Inglis, Ph.D., co-founder of the bioRxiv and medRxiv preprint servers, and Itratxe Puebla, an Associate Director with ASAPbio, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “promoting innovation and transparency in life sciences communications.” These speakers emphasized that preprints played an important part in both the research and education processes. First, preprints are an important part of the “grey literature” that is expected to be included in any comprehensive systematic review search. Preprint articles also make for excellent publications for students, and especially student journal clubs, to read and practice with as they learn more about evaluating academic articles and the scientific peer-review process. Ms. Puebla also reminded the audience that faculty and librarians who support the growth of preprints should also advocate for their inclusion at the university level in promotion and tenure documents. With the publication of The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), in 2012, the academic community has come to recognize the limits of traditional journal-level metrics, such as the Journal Impact Factor, and the importance of recognizing a variety of research outputs, which could include preprints. 

Towards the end of the panel discussion, the role of preprints in the Covid-19 pandemic became a topic for conversation. Dr. Inglis stated that “when you have a pressing need for the immediate sharing of new research, a preprint is an immensely valuable tool…however, it can still be a challenge for all of us to figure out how to get this across to the public without destroying public trust in science.” During the pandemic, the “media have had to come to terms…with what biomedical preprints actually mean, and what they don’t mean,” and organizations like ASAPbio and others are currently “working with journalists to try to develop some thoughts about best practices when it comes to reporting new results.” The image of the “brilliant individualist making white coated late night eureka moments in the lab is very highly embedded in our culture, and we have to try to alter that,” into a truer understanding of science as an ongoing community-based process.  

You can watch the full presentation on the Jefferson Digital Commons. For more background information about preprints and their role in scholarly publishing, please check out Scott Memorial Library’s guide to preprints.  

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we organized four digital resources that cover a range of sub-topics related to breast cancer. Check out the resources below.

Breast Cancer: A Guide to Clinical Practice

Life Interrupted: Telling Breast Cancer Stories [Video]

Male Breast Cancer

Management of Breast Cancer in Older Women

The Jefferson Center for Injury Research and Prevention has just published a new issue of Evanescent, a literary journal that provides a creative forum for people to explore and share stories about their personal experiences with injury.  

The Fall 2020 issue focuses on COVID-19 and racism in medicine. It was led by guest editors Danielle Snyderman, MD, CMD, a geriatrician and an assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and the medical director of The Hill at Whitemarsh continuing care retirement community, and Nick Safian, a member of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College class of 2022.  

Snyderman and Safian drew the contributions for the special issue from Jefferson COVID Stories, an online project that they launched in the early days of the pandemic based on the idea that “a sense of purpose is the antidote to fear and worry,” Snyderman says in her letter from the editor.  

Over a series of many months, they sent emails to members of the Jefferson community asking them to answer different questions about how the virus was affecting them. The focus eventually expanded to address racism in medicine because, as Safian says in his letter from the editor, “it was clear that our story would not comprise the whole truth if it did not address the racism so plainly exposed in our country over the past few months.” This truth, he adds, “cannot be uncoupled from our nation’s story of COVID-19, and, by extension, Jefferson’s story of COVID-19.” 

Read the Fall 2020 issue here: https://jdc.jefferson.edu/evanescent/vol2/iss1/1/ 

Evanescent seeks to widen perspectives and contribute to the societal conversation around injury and is led by editor-in-chief Stanton B. Miller, MD, MPH, FACS, a clinical assistant professor of surgery and emergency medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and executive director of the Jefferson Center for Injury Research and Prevention. It was founded by physician-writers and medical students with first-hand experience regarding the impact of injury on people’s lives, including their own.  

The Jefferson Center for Injury Research and Prevention is part of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia. In addition to Evanescent, it also hosts writing events through the Eakins Writers’ Workshop.  

Writing for Evanescent: The journal seeks to publish high-quality writing on themes related to injury and accepts submissions from all members of the Jefferson community on an ongoing basis for upcoming issues. All submissions will be reviewed by an editorial committee of Jefferson faculty members and students.

The Textile & Costume Collection is now easier than ever to explore! Follow the Thread, a new blog managed by The Design Center, highlights the remarkable holdings of the university’s Textile & Costume Collection.

With Follow the Thread, pieces of the collection come off the hangers and onto your computer screen! With each post, you’ll get an in-depth look at the holdings, learning about the designers and makers, the cultural significance of objects, the technological advances they represent, and of course, the person who might have worn, used, or kept the item.     

Follow the Thread will be updated weekly. To subscribe, navigate to the blog where you’ll find the “Subscribe” box on the right-hand side of any of the pages. 

To learn more about the Textile & Costume Collection and Design Center, check out this Q&A with the curator, Jade Papa.

Starting a new job in the middle of a pandemic is not easy. But Rebecca Miller isn’t letting that slow her down. The new Senior Librarian is embracing our new normal and using virtual tools to meet colleagues, serve students, and settle into life at Thomas Jefferson University.

Keep reading to learn a bit about what brings Rebecca to Jefferson, how she can help you with library-related questions, and what she likes to do in her free time. If you’re looking for a horror movie to watch this Halloween, Rebecca can give a good recommendation!

Welcome to Thomas Jefferson University! Tell us a little bit about your role. What’s your title, and on which campus will you be working?
Thank you for the warm welcome, everyone has been so friendly and helpful! A little about my role, my formal title is Senior Librarian, I am part of the Information Services group in the Academic Commons at Scott Memorial Library. I am here to help with reference services, database searching, citation management, information literacy, collaborative projects with faculty, and many more hats as librarianship continues to evolve. My desk and the campus library space where you can find me will be at the new Dixon Campus in Horsham, Pennsylvania.                                                                             

What interests you about academic librarianship, and what inspired you to pursue a career working at a medical college and institution?
Academic librarianship and working at a medical college were never separate thoughts in my mind. I started my Master’s degree with the end goal of becoming a medical librarian in an academic institution right from the very start. I previously worked in both a clinical hospital setting and a clinical research setting, so I paired that with my life-long passion for reading and learning to find a job I love. I am incredibly grateful to have such an awesome opportunity to help others and be a part of the Jefferson community. To be able to start work virtually and still continue to do what makes me happy despite the current Covid-19 restrictions was an amazing gift.

What groups at Jefferson will you be working with and supporting?
I am based at Dixon Campus, and will therefore be of course supporting the nursing students, staff, and faculty at the Dixon Campus. In addition to my services at Dixon, I will also be working with the myriad of other clinical and academic populations that the Information Services group supports as part of the services we provide.

What do you want the nursing students, staff, and faculty to know about how you can and plan to help them? What should they come to you for?
Students, nursing or otherwise, can come to me for help with all library-related inquiries such as library materials, literature search strategies, citation management, formatting styles like APA, data visualization, troubleshooting off-campus access, etc.  My door is always open; if there’s a question I don’t know the answer to, I will find the right person or source that does!

Most of us are working remotely at the moment. If someone needs your assistance now, how can they best contact you?
I am working remotely 99% of the time right now and the best way to reach me is by email: Rebecca.Miller@Jefferson.edu.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to return to work soon because the new Dixon campus is gorgeous! Have you had a chance to visit and meet any colleagues in-person yet?
I cannot say enough about the beautiful new Dixon Campus. The atheistic is bright, innovative, and a vision that mimics the forward-thinking energy that the Jefferson Nursing programs offer. I also really love the beautifully curated display cases that proudly showcase the various nursing school historical materials and artifacts. The library itself is in a quiet nook with a wall of sunny windows, perfect for studying and reading. Did I mention I love all library-themed things because my favorite part of the library design is the neat wallpaper in the pattern of words in the shape of books on shelves.

When it comes to meet and greets, I was fortunate to meet with many library colleagues in the first two weeks of my arrival at Jefferson via Zoom. I am now working on trying to get involved with the nursing faculty and students and giving the library there a face and some visibility. I was able to be on campus this week and meet some faculty and students in person. It was awesome to the see excitement on everyone’s faces, happy to be able to be on campus and have a sense of the physical learning environment.

When you’re not helping students and clinicians, how do you like to spend your time?
Some of my hobbies are: reading (I think that was a given); visiting museums, attending nerdy Cons, watching horror movies and stand-up comedy, going to punk, metal, ska, and rock concerts; frequenting local arcades (if there’s pinball, count me in); recharging at any beach (I just need sand and waves), and going to classic/ antique car shows to name a few.

Is there anything you wish we would have asked you that we missed?
What was it like starting virtually? I had some virtual work practice with the end of my internship being remote over the spring and summer, and I obtained my Master’s degree through distance learning. I think starting in a virtual setting had more positives than negatives for me personally. I am introverted, and being able to meet most new people one-on-one was really a nice change of pace to the normal meet and greet first-week bustle of events with large groups of faces and names. It gave both parties a chance to ask any questions they had and get to know each other. It also helped me to retain those names and faces.

A treasure of the East Falls Campus is the university’s Textile & Costume Collection. The collection, housed in The Design Center, consists of remarkably diverse, museum-quality holdings used for teaching, research, and scholarship. The collection includes Coptic textiles dating to the 4th century A.D., Pre-Columbian textiles from the 12th to 14th centuries, European textile fragments from the 15th to 17th centuries – just to name a few!

Jade Papa, Curator and Adjunct Professor, runs the Textile & Costume Collection and Design Center. We sat down with Jade to discuss the collection, find out which pieces she admires most, and learn how people can enjoy the collection remotely.

What is your title and role at Thomas Jefferson University?
I’m an adjunct professor and the Curator of the Textile and Costume Collection.

What interests you about textiles and costumes and what inspired you to pursue a career in higher education?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved learning about history.  When I was young, I watched Indiana Jones over and over again and dreamed about being an archaeologist.  My mother was a dressmaker and taught me how to sew, so in a way, you might say I combined those two loves and became a clothing archaeologist.

My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in theatre and I worked as a costume designer and maker for twelve years.  I was drawn to the theatre because I was able to bring history to life onstage.  Through a character’s costume, I was able to tell their story and the story of a particular place in time.

It’s an object’s story that really interests me.  When I look at an object in the Textile and Costume Collection, I immediately want to know more – more about the person who made or designed it, its cultural significance, the technology needed to make it, and of course, the person who might have worn it, used it, or kept it.  It’s my hope that in this search for clues, I can re-connect those of us looking at them now to these stories.   

Your courses span a range of topics, with titles including, “20^th Century Fashion Designers,” and “History of Costumes & Textiles.” How do you incorporate the Textile & Costume Collection and Design Center into your teaching? What types of unique learning opportunities are awarded to your students because of the collection?
Students have the rare opportunity in these classes to interact directly with the objects.  I get to share with them things they would typically only see in photos or behind glass at a museum. For instance, my class was studying the Byzantine period and we’d been speaking not only about particular types of garments, but also natural dyes, weaving techniques, and technology. Instead of just taking my word for it, I was able to bring out a few of our Byzantine textile fragments and a tunic that we’re fortunate to have and show them first-hand the amazing vibrancy of the dyes, the intricate woven figures, and the cut and construction of textiles that are around 1500 years old. That always blows their minds! 

Seeing an object in front of you makes your interaction with history so much more real.  I teach textile and fashion design students. They’re visual and tactile learners and so handling an 18th century brocade is so much more impactful than just seeing it onscreen.        

Are there any specific pieces or materials within the Textile and Costume Collection that you find most interesting to teach? What items within the collection are most inspiring to you?
I feel like the objects that are most inspiring to me change weekly as we’re in an inventory phase and constantly finding new things.  However, I always find myself coming back to a woman’s dress that dates from around the 1850s.  It’s not lavishly embellished and is made from a rougher brown, floral printed cotton.  But it’s in the ordinariness of it that lies its fascination.  So many of the objects preserved in museum collections are someone’s best dress – a wedding dress or a special occasion dress – something that was worn once or infrequently and was kept because of the occasion it marked.  This brown floral dress is an everyday dress worn by an everyday woman.  The type of dress that would have been worn and worn until it was threadbare and possibly ended its life as scraps for a quilt.  The dress of everyday people is much rarer in collections and that’s why I find this particular dress so fascinating.  

Most of us are working remotely at the moment. If people are interested in the Textile and Costume Collection and want to visit the Design Center, are they able to? What types of online resources are available?
Absolutely!  It’s not only students in my class that have access to the objects in the Textile and Costume Collection.  I’m happy to welcome any Jefferson student or faculty member through our doors.  All it takes is an email to me to set up an appointment. I’d love to show you some of our treasures.     

There are a number of ways you can access the Collection online.  Many of our objects are available digitally through ArtStor, where we are continually adding new objects.  Our woodblock collection is available through Jefferson Digital Commons as is an online lecture I did earlier this spring with Woodmere Art Museum about our Collection’s holdings of African textiles and objects.

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, where we post about specific objects and give a behind-the-scenes look at the collection. And, we just launched a blog called Follow the Thread that everyone should check out.

Tell us about Follow the Thread! When did it launch? What can people expect to find on the blog?
We’ve been hard at work on this project for a number of months and I’m happy to say that our blog officially launched on October 8. People can expect to find the hidden stories of these objects featured on the blog. This platform really allows us to delve into these objects in ways that go beyond simply representing them visually through photos.  Our current posts focus on two dressmakers working in Pittsburg in the last decade of the 19^th century, the history of the Textile Color Card Association, and the inclusion of one of our pieces in a show up now at the Cooper Hewitt Museum.  And, if you subscribe to the blog (which you can do from the blog itself), you’ll be alerted to the weekly updates and won’t miss hearing about the new discoveries we’re making every day.     

When you’re not teaching students or curating the collection, how do you like to spend your time? 
Recently I’ve been taking the time to watch old movies from the 1930s and 40s that I’ve never seen.  I’m on a real film noir kick right now. I’m also continuing to try to learn French.  Il est très dificile!

Learn more about Jade’s background, publications, and exhibits on her website.

If you spend time finding, building, and sharing genomic datasets, the National Library of Medicine just saved you a ton of time!

Check out NCBI Datasets, an experimental resource that helps you to easily download eukaryotic genome sequence and annotation data. Browse by categories, build custom data tables, and even download coronavirus datasets. Datasets can be easily downloaded and shared.

This initial release allows users to retrieve genome sequence and annotation data by taxonomic name (common and scientific), taxonomy ID or assembly accession. They plan to expand NCBI Datasets include additional assemblies and other genome datasets, including alternate loci and genomic patch sequence for the Genome Reference Consortium assemblies.

For more information and instructions to use the website and share datasets, visit the NCBI Insights blog.

The Jefferson Digital Commons (JDC) quarterly report for July – September 2020 is now available. Check out the full report to see a list of what was added and what people are saying about the JDC!

Included in this Report

• Abington Health Articles
• Articles
• Collaborative Healthcare: Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Evaluation (JCIPE)
• Collaborative Research and Evidence shared Among Therapists and Educators (CREATE Day)
• Covid 19-: Spread the Science, Not the Virus
• Department of Family and Community Medicine Presentations and Grand Rounds
• Master of Population Health Program Thesis and Capstone Presentations
• Master of Public Health Thesis and Capstone Presentations
• Jefferson Surgical Solutions
• The Medicine Forum
• Sex and Gender Health Education Summit 2020
• Student Papers and Posters
• Misc. Uploads
• What people are saying about the Jefferson Digital Repository

Join us for Preprints Perspectives, where you’ll hear from four experienced panelists as they discuss issues related to preprints and open access from various perspectives. Topics will include: how publishing preprints can benefit authors, current best practices for preprint servers, ethical and legal considerations regarding the use of preprints, and the intersection of preprints and Covid-19 scholarship. 

Friday, October 23
12-1 pm EST
Online (Zoom)
Register here

PANELISTS
John Inglis, Ph.D., Co-founder of bioRxiv and medRxiv  
Timothy Mosca, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Thomas Jefferson University 
Iratxe Puebla, Associate Director, ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology)  
Heather Rose, Ph.D., J.D. Vice President of Technology Licensing & Startups, Thomas Jefferson University 

Download the flyer for more details. This event is open to the public, so feel free to share with colleagues outside of the Jefferson community.

Questions? Email Larissa Gordon, Scholarly Communications Librarian, Scott Memorial Library.

Check out additional events hosted by the Jefferson Libraries to celebrate Open Access Week 2020.

Celebrate Open Access Week 2020 (October 19 – 25) with the Jefferson Libraries! We’ll host two workshops and one panel discussion (all virtual) to celebrate the annual week-long event focused on open access and related topics. We hope you’ll join us to hear from experts about how to protect your scholarship rights and navigate the world of academic publishing.

Open Access Overview and the Business of Scholarship (workshop)
Tuesday, October 20
12:45 – 2 p.m.
Register for the virtual workshop

Attend our viewing of Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, a documentary that discusses the multi-billion-dollar business of for-profit academic publishers. After viewing the documentary, we’ll discuss ways to protect your scholarship rights.

Preprints: Accelerating Scholarly Communication (workshop)
Wednesday, October 21
12-1 p.m.
Register for the virtual workshop

Preprint servers allow authors to share articles that they have written with the academic community before the journal peer review process has been completed. Preprints developed as a response to the often lengthy journal publication process, which can slow down the dissemination of new information. At the end of the session, you’ll be able to search the preprint literature, discuss considerations for publishing your work as a preprint, and describe the importance of this type of publishing.

Preprint Perspectives: A Panel Discussion 
Friday, October 23
12-1 p.m.
Register for this virtual event

Join our four diverse and experienced panelists to discuss issues such as: how publishing preprints can benefit authors, current best practices for preprint servers, ethical and legal considerations regarding the use of preprints, and the intersection of preprints and Covid-19 scholarship. 

Panelists:  
John Inglis, PhD., Co-founder of bioRxiv and medRxiv  
Timothy Mosca, PhD, Assistant Professor, Thomas Jefferson University 
Iratxe Puebla, Associate Director, ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in Biology)  
Heather Rose, Ph.D., J.D. Vice President of Technology Licensing & Startups, Thomas Jefferson University 

Read about open access and the benefits of preprints on the Scott Memorial Library’s Open Access LibGuide.

The classroom as we know it has changed! As faculty adjust to the new environment, we’re providing a space to discuss online course design.

Join our Faculty Learning Community to spend time with like-minded faculty in these virtual weekly sessions every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Sessions start Tuesday, October 6 and run until November 10, 2020.

Explore online course design concepts through reading, discussion, and reflection and put best practices to use in your courses. This community will use the book Minds Online to discuss aspects of online course design. Participants will work to design or revise an online course module.

Visit the registration page to sign up for this community and access Minds Online via the Gutman Library or Scott Memorial Library online catalogs.

September marks Cancer Awareness Month and to honor that we’re highlighting some of our digital resources focused on cancer treatments, oncology, and how things like social justice, climate change, and artificial intelligence are connected to cancer. Check out the resources below:

Cancer and Society: A Multidisciplinary Assessment and Strategies for Action

Encyclopedia of Cancer

Herbs for Cancer Treatment

Oncology in the Precision Medicine Era: Value-based Medicine

Kennedie and Zebrafish Fight Cancer Together [Video]

Pivot, the funding database, has upgraded its look and feel. Beginning September 9, when you log into Pivot (via Gutman Library or Scott Library), you will see a new “home dashboard” page that looks like the screenshot below. The site is now mobile-friendly. “Papers Invited” was re-named “Conferences.” The “Active” list was retired; any opportunities saved there are now in “Tracked Opps” with a tag to help you identify them.

New user interface benefits:

• User friendly – more intuitive access to the most important and most used features.
• More helpful – additional on-screen links to guide users to available help and resources.
• Responsive – designed to be used and displayed fully across any device, desktop, or mobile.
• Accessibility – provides a database that is accessible for all users.

For help making the best use of Pivot, please schedule an appointment with a librarian at Gutman or Scott.