The medical matters wiki: building a library Web site 2.0

New and innovative information technologies drive the ever-evolving library profession. From clay tablet to parchment scroll to manufactured paper to computer screen pixel, information storage, retrieval, and delivery methods continue to evolve, and each advance irrevocably affects the way libraries, and librarians, work. The Internet has forever altered information and library science, both in theory and practice, but even within this context the progression continues. Though ambiguously defined, Web 2.0 offers a new outlook and new software, presenting librarians with potentially invaluable new tools and methods. This paper discusses the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a Web 2.0 technology, the wiki, as a resource tool for an academic biomedical library.     

A medical society trustee looks at his library

Speculative expression has been given to the idea that physicians should prove their continuing education by periodic examinations. With this thought in mind, it was decided that the Denver Medical Society Library should be continued and supported for at least ten years and, that at the end of this time, the entire situation would be re-evaluated in connection with the changing trends in medicine.     

Implementing crowdsourcing-based relevance experimentation: an industrial perspective

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a viable platform for conducting different types of relevance evaluation. The main reason behind this trend is that it makes possible to conduct experiments extremely fast, with good results at a low cost. However, like in any experiment, there are several implementation details that would make an experiment work or fail. To gather useful results, clear instructions, user interface guidelines, content quality, inter-rater agreement metrics, work quality, and worker feedback are important characteristics of a successful crowdsourcing experiment. Furthermore, designing and implementing experiments that require thousands or millions of labels is different than conducting small scale research investigations. In this paper we outline a framework for conducting continuous crowdsourcing experiments, emphasizing aspects that should be of importance for all sorts of tasks. We illustrate the value of characteristics that can impact the overall outcome using examples based on TREC, INEX, and Wikipedia data sets.     

Case study: library usage at an Indian medical college

This issue's feature column reports on the findings of a small survey of library users carried out in an Indian medical college with a traditional curriculum. The study found that the main reason a student visited the library was to consult text books. Although the majority of students were satisfied with the library facilities, the study suggests that more needs to be done to promote self-directed learning. JM.     

The effect of publishing a highly cited paper on a journal's impact factor: A case study of the Review of Particle Physics

Key points

• A more general and continuous form of ‘A short history of SHELX’ phenomenon has been found.
• The Review of Particle Physics (RPP) series, which is called the bible in the particle physics field, is highly cited by other research papers.
• The RPP phenomenon is found in different journals and is affected by the host journal's impact factor and publication size.
• The RPP phenomenon provides a big or small, but temporary, boost to its host journal's impact factor.

     

Public relations practices at medical journals

Many publishers of medical journals actively court coverage by the news media. However, the extent and effect of these practices are poorly understood. After reviewing prior literature regarding the impact of news coverage on the citation rate of journal articles, this paper seeks to measure the extent to which medical journals with clinical significance use public relations practices to encourage news coverage of their articles, and the success that those practices had in increasing coverage by newspapers. Editors of 120 medical journals published worldwide with clinical relevance were surveyed; the response rate was 54%. Eighty per cent of respondents reported that their journal offered journalists at least one of press releases, access to full‐text articles, or press conferences. Editors whose journals used the practices in conjunction with an embargo reported higher‐quality news coverage than editors of journals that did not, but editors and journalists held differing views about the justifications for the specific practice known as an embargo.     

微信推广:让“枯燥”的学术期刊生动起来——以《航空学报》微信公众号为例

根据《航空学报》微信推广实践,介绍利用微信扩大学术期刊影响力可以采取的措施,包括合理精准定位,实现期刊品牌延伸;推送专业化、个性化内容,形成独特风格;重视编发技巧,吸引用户眼球;等等,力求让枯燥的学术期刊生动起来,通过微信推广实现期刊品牌效应的延续,促进学科发展.     

Training at the postgraduate level for medical librarians: a review.

Postgraduate education for medical librarians is approachable from several perspectives, including internships, certificate programs, and continuing education programs. The diverse population of medical library personnel calls for a varied yet coordinated system of postgraduate education involving the Medical Library Association, regional medical libraries, library schools, and the National Library of Medical, in addition to active participation by all librarians in the health sciences field. Basic philosophies for each of the major types of programs are discussed and recommendations for future training of health sciences librarians are provided.     

The medical information needs of internists and pediatricians at an academic medical center

Medical information needs were examined in a survey of sixty-seven physicians selected from the faculty and housestaff at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A standardized questionnaire was administered personally by a medical informatics physician to collect data on information needs, attitudes, and previous experience with computers. The types of information most frequently required by both faculty and housestaff were treatment recommendations and differential diagnosis. The sources of reference information most commonly used were textbooks and colleagues. The information needs of housestaff differed significantly in several categories from those of faculty physicians. Housestaff more frequently needed information for patient care (P less than 0.05), and preferred the use of textbooks (P less than 0.01) and handbooks (P less than 0.001) as information sources. Faculty more frequently needed information for activities unrelated to patient care (P less than 0.01) and placed greater importance on basic science information (P less than 0.01). When asked to suggest references for online access, the respondents named 143 journals and textbooks, with journals overwhelmingly preferred over textbooks. Only one reference, the New England Journal of Medicine, was requested by a majority of the respondents. The importance of a broad understanding of physician information needs through improved data-collection techniques is discussed as a means of increasing the use of medical information systems.     

医学期刊稿约中动物实验伦理标准的现状及完善建议

本文旨在提出适应我国医学期刊发展要求和特点、操作性较强的稿约基本细则.本次调查发现我国医学期刊编辑部对动物实验伦理的意识有所提高,但稿约中的动物实验伦理标准存在表述不规范、可参考性低等现象.稿约是作者和审者对实验动物伦理认知的主要途径之一,医学期刊编辑应树立伦理的底线意识,传播负责任的医学研究成果.在学术期刊高质量发展...     

Research data management at an African medical university: Implications for academic librarianship

The study investigates and provides results on the current status of research data management at a medical school in a developing African country. The study focusses on four aspects of research data management: generation; preservation and backup; competencies; and challenges. Quantitative data collected using a questionnaire from 84 health researchers and 16 librarians was complemented by qualitative data gathered through conducting structured interviews with the Director of Research of the university. The study results provide the research community with a better understanding of research data management perspectives amongst health researchers in a developing country. This could help research data management stakeholders to adopt better strategies for championing research data management activities in this particular country and in other developing countries. The study notes that the current research data management status creates an opportunity for an academic library to consolidate and fortify its widely viewed natural role in research data management. In view of the findings, the study proposes that the adoption of research data management policies is essential in inspiring the conceptualisation, popularisation, adoption, and operationalisation of various research data management activities within the African university environment.     

Behind the Web site: An inside look at the production of Web-based textual government information

This paper describes an exploratory, multisite case study of the production of textual content for state agency Web sites. The qualitative field study explored internal agency Web staff characterizations of textual Web content and staff perceptions of factors affecting the production of content. Study results suggest that staff characterize content in terms of its format, its style age, its rate of change, its degree of change, its owner, and the degree to which it is sensitive. Staff described nine factors affecting content production including information intensity, public education mission, public inquiry burden, top-down directives, existing maintenance burden, review and approval process, resources, management interest and goals, and support from other program staff. A better understanding of how internal agency staff perceive and treat content is important because staff play a large role in determining what content is produced and what characteristics the content contains. The inclusion or exclusion of certain characteristics in content has important implications for information usability, costs, citizen participation in agency policymaking, government transparency, and public trust in government.     

青年编辑依托期刊发展平台的成长之路探析 ——以《中国天然药物》编辑部为例

以《中国天然药物》为例,探讨青年编辑如何在工作实践基础上,依托期刊发展平台,不断提高自身业务素质,包括:依托期刊国际化平台,提高英语水平,拓宽知识面;通过定期组稿和召开学术会议,培养跟踪学科前沿的能力;借助期刊主办大型学术活动,锻炼组织沟通能力;以给编委提供检索情报为契机,开展文献计量学课题研究;总结期刊发展经验,提高撰写编辑学论文的能力。期望本文能为青年编辑的成长提供借鉴。     

A study in usability: redesigning a health sciences library's mobile site

A mobile site redesign was conducted at a medium-sized academic health sciences library with the goal of creating a site that meets the mobile information needs of its users. The redesign phases included (1) needs assessment, (2) usability testing, and (3) site design. The survey results showed that Apple devices were the most prevalent; the most desirable activities performed on a mobile site were searching for articles, accessing full-text articles and e-books, searching databases, and searching the catalog. These activities guided the development of the usability testing tasks and the redesign. All phases were completed within six months, and the total project cost was $50 for incentive purchases.     

Information needs of academic medical scientists at Chulalongkorn University

The information needs of scientists in English-speaking countries have been studied and reported in the library literature. However, few studies exist on the information-seeking patterns of scientists in developing countries, and no study has examined the information needs of medical scientists in developing Asian countries. This study investigated the information needs of academic medical scientists at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicate that medical scientists have three types of information needs: identifying up-to-date information, obtaining relevant studies and data, and developing research topics. Thai scientists' information-seeking behavior was different from that of scientists in developed countries. The study shows a high use of libraries as information providers; Thai medical scientists rely heavily on information from abroad.