Scopus now includes preprints posted since 2017 in its author profiles. At present, it includes preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, and ChemRxiv. They plan to add SSRN and medRxiv by early 2021. 

Scopus states that it is making this change because it views preprints as an important part of the research lifecycle, one that allows other scholars to “identify potential collaboration partners” who are “performing cutting edge” research. The addition of preprints will also help provide a more “comprehensive” overview of a researcher’s portfolio as it allows them to share the early stages of their scholarship. 

Scopus is careful to note they will not use preprints for any impact metric calculations.  The final published version will be included in metric calculations, and it will be listed in the author profile as a separate document from its earlier preprint. They are currently evaluating the possibility of linking preprints to their published versions. 

Please note that preprints are not included in the Scopus document search. This addition is just occurring in the Scopus author profiles. 

More about Author Profiles: Every author of a paper published in Scopus has an author profile automatically created. You can view your author profile, or the profile of other researchers, by using their limited, freely accessible author profile search, or by using the author search in Scopus via Scott Library or Scopus via Gutman Library. While authors may request edits to their profile using the Scopus Author Feedback Wizard, preprints cannot be corrected using that tool. Authors can, however, contact the Scopus Support Center with questions or feedback. 

Learn more about Scopus’s decision to add preprints to its author profiles in their support center. 

For more general information on preprints, including a definition and description of the role of preprints in the scholarly communications lifecycle, please visit: 

• Preprint Perspectives: A panel discussion 
• Scott Library preprint guide 

Clarivate has released a new version of EndNote for Windows. The new version, called EndNote 20 is an update to the X9 version that has been in use for the past several years. A Mac version will be released later this year.

The primary goal of the update was to create a new interface design that would be more intuitive for users to operate. In making changes to their interface, EndNote modernized the look and feel of the tool and reorganized many of the menus. They have also worked to improve and simplify their reference editing interface.

While these changes do mean that experienced users will need to take a bit of time to get used to the new system, as many commonly used buttons and menu options have been relocated, overall, the interface has the potential to be a substantial improvement to the product.

In addition to the interface update, EndNote 20 has also focused on making it easier to read and annotate PDFs and they have improved the search functionality to help users find references with more ease, both from within their reference library and from online databases, such as PubMed. Finally, EndNote has made deduplication of references easier by allowing users to search by DOI and PMCID during the deduplication process.

Upgrading from EndNote X9 to EndNote 20

If you’re in the middle of a paper or project, consider waiting to upgrade until you have time to learn the new version.

Before upgrading to EndNote 20, make sure to save a backup copy of your reference library. You can do this by opening EndNote X9, clicking on “File” on the top left menu, and then choosing the option to create a Compressed Library.

It is not required to delete the older version to install EndNote 20. You can have both versions on the same computer. However, once you have decided to use the new version, uninstalling the old one is recommended.

Visit our library guide for more detailed installation instructions, including how to obtain a product key that you will need to gain access to the new version of EndNote. Instructional materials and information about how to access help with EndNote are also available.

Research writers: Join us on Thursday, November 12, for “How to Write An Abstract,” an online workshop where you’ll learn how to create the perfect scientific abstract.

What do you look for when you are researching abstracts? What barriers prevent you from finding what you need? Have you scratched your head wondering what journal editors look for in an abstract?

How to Write an Abstract
Thursday, November 12
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. via Zoom
Register here

The purpose of this workshop is to offer research writers a tool and process for writing abstracts that make it easier for readers to find your published work and for editors to say yes. This course focuses on unpacking the elements that define a well-crafted abstract and helping you write one. 

Participants will:

• Explain why abstracts are important
• Define what makes abstracts helpful
• Examine journal and conference guidelines
• Use simple tools to design better abstracts

Facilitators

Nikita Nikita, MD, Postdoctoral Fellow at SKCC
Pamela Walter, MFA, Writer at the Office for Professional Writing, Publishing, and Communication

For the 3-point deliverable after the workshop, you can submit an abstract summarizing your own work or an assigned research paper and get feedback from reviewers.

Attendance will grant you 1 point toward the Science Communication Certificate. Completing the abstract will grant you 3 additional points. Submitting an assignment late will grant you 2 points instead of 3. 

See this flyer for more details on this workshop and learn more about the Science Communications Series Certificate program here.

Public Health Management Corporation’s (PHMC) Research & Evaluation Group is hosting a webinar, Understanding Health Disparities in Philadelphia, that will highlight findings from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey (HHS). This webinar will describe health disparities among Philadelphians with a focus on inequities by race, ethnicity, and poverty. The discussion will review findings about chronic health conditions, access to health care, access to safe parks, and social capital.

Date and time: November 24, 2020, 2-3 p.m.

Register for the webinar.

Learn more about the Household Health survey.

Access the Community Health Data Base (CHDB) including the HHS.

This November, we’re adding 27 eBooks to our collection. The topics this month cover a range of important diversity and inclusion issues, including recognizing and combating racism in healthcare, supporting LGBTQ mental health, and understanding gender boundaries and stereotypes in fashion.

Advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy

AWHONN Compendium of Postpartum Care

Case Studies in Population and Community Health Management

Cases in Pediatric Acute Care: Strengthening Clinical Decision Making

Clinical Immunodiagnostics: Laboratory Principles and Practices

Connecting Care for Patients: Interdisciplinary Care Transitions and Collaboration

Crossing Gender Boundaries: Fashion to Create, Disrupt and Transcend

Cultural Competence Now: 56 Exercises to Help Educators Understand and Challenge Bias, Racism, and Privilege

Davis’s Comprehensive Handbook of Laboratory & Diagnostic Tests with Nursing Implications

Diversity on the Executive Path: Wisdom and Insights for Navigating to the Highest Levels of Healthcare Leadership

Dreaming the Graphic Novel: The Novelization of Comics

Ethics in Health Administration: A Practical Approach for Decision Makers

Evidence-informed Health Policy: Using EBP to Transform Policy in Nursing and Healthcare

Five Disciplines for Zero Patient Harm: How High Reliability Happens

Global Health 101

Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Context, Controversies, and Solutions

Incidental Findings in Neuroimaging and Their Management: A Guide for Radiologists, Neurosurgeons, and Neurologists

Introduction to Public Health

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

Multicultural Perspectives in Working with Families: A Handbook for the Helping Professions

Neuro-ophthalmology Illustrated

A Pocket Guide to Clinical Midwifery

Pocket Guide to LGBTQ Mental Health: Understanding the Spectrum of Gender and Sexuality

Radiologic Physics Taught Through Cases

Rationing and Resource Allocation in Healthcare

Synopsis of Orthopaedic Trauma Management

Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics

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.