Friday, December 13, 2013

New YouTube video

Check out our new YouTube video on using the Clinical Summaries.  DynaMed, UpToDate and Clinical Evidence are evidence-based summaries appraising healthcare topics and treatments.



Our RCSI Library YouTube channel now has a collection of seven videos:

  • An introduction to clinical summaries
  • Searching the library catalogue
  • How to place a hold on a book
  • Renewing your books and using your library account
  • Using the e-book collection
  • Using the Emerald e-journal collection
  • Finding a full text article using the E-journal Portal 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Open Access and The Cost of Knowledge

Joined up open access. Scholarly publishing for Ireland. Rip off academic publishers.

Open Access discussed by Jane Grimson TCD, Cormac O'Grada UCD, Eoin O'Reilly UCC and other Irish researchers at the Royal Irish Academy.  

PM

Monday, November 18, 2013

MyRI Measuring your research impact

MyRI  Measuring your research impact

Video created by the libraries of DCU, DIT, NUIM and UCD


Module 1  :   Bibliometrics

Introduction and definition

Research assessment and evaluation – stakeholders   
  • Government and funding agencies
  • Institutional management and administration
  • College, faculties, schools
  • Individual researchers
  • The main metrics 
Publication and citation counts
H-index
The main tools

  • Web of Science
  • Scopus
  • Google Scholar + Publish or Perish

Module 2 :  Track your research impact

Citation analysis tools

Citation searching
SWOT of Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar
Using citation analysis tools
Search for your publications

  • How many citations?
  • Most highly cited paper?
  • Setting citation alerts
Introduction to the H-index
Calculating your H-index (by database)

Other metrics

  • Metrics from institutional repositories
  • Publication and citation data for a group or department
  • Institutional affiliation
  • Benchmarking research performance
  • Essential Science Indicators

Module 3:  Journal ranking and analysis

Journal ranking and analysis
Journal Citation Reports
Journal Impact Factor calculations and high impact journals
Journal metrics by category
Individual journal metrics
Issues and limitations




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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Open Access Ireland

Irish researchers are advised or mandated by the main research funding bodies to make their work freely available by depositing publications in an open access repository. Major Irish healthcare related repositories include the HSE's Lenus and RCSI's e-publications.

The National Steering Committee on Open Access Policy promotes awareness of open access to research and data in Ireland and has launched a new website with news and resources about OA.

The Committee aims to
- inform the research community and the public about open access
- ensure all researchers in the country are able to make their make their work openly accessible, through at least one open access repository;
- support the evolution of a state-of-the-art and all-inclusive national open access infrastructure.


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Monday, November 4, 2013

Extended opening hours in the Mercer Library


We will now be open  0700 to 0100 from Monday November 11 through to the end of examinations in mid January. All details on the library website.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Statistical data on the web

Looking for statistical information on the web presented as graphs, tables and charts? Conventional search engines cannot easily distinguish data as charts or graphs. The Zanran search engine was developed to do exactly that. Zanran search results  - graphs, tables, etc. - can all be quickly previewed by mouse-hovering over the thumbnails.






Friday, September 6, 2013

New library website design

All the best healthcare resources - electronic books,
clinical summaries, databases and journals - in a new layout.




Friday, June 28, 2013

Applied Science and Technology Source

IRel, the Irish Research electronic Library, have arranged open access to the index and fulltext collection Applied Science & Technology Source  until December 2013.

This resource offers extensive coverage of research and development within the applied sciences and has full text for almost 1,200 journals with citations to millions of articles. The content derives from numerous sources, including leading trade journals, professional and technical society journals, and conference proceedings. 

 Chemistry
 Communication & Information Technology
 Computer Databases & Software
 Energy Resources & Research
 Engineering & Biomedical Materials
 Engineering Disciplines
 Food & Food Industry
 Metallurgy
 Neural Networks
 New Technologies
 Optical & Neural Computing


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Organizations, Management and Leadership: the grey literature



Research publications on leadership, management and organizations in healthcare are only partially indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed because MEDLINE only indexes journal articles proper.

The significant body of grey research literature, working papers and reports etc,  originating from premier business centres like INSEAD, Harvard and MIT are indexed in the Social Science Research Network database SSRN.   SSRN is an open access index and repository with a wide range of healthcare service related documents.    


Where do you file your digital content?

Demystifying Born Digital Reports
Researchers, clinicians and academics have by now all accumulated sometimes vast quanities of born digital information in a variety of formats and perhaps in a range of media. You can no longer put this data on a shelf or shove it into a filing cabinet. So how do you preserve, store and make this data accessible?

OCLC Research is an international information management provider and they are producing a series of reports on the management, archiving and preservation of born digital content.
  • You've Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received on Physical Media
  • Swatting the Long Tail of Digital Media: A Call for Collaboration
  • Walk This Way: Detailed Steps for Transferring Born-Digital Content from Media You Can Read In-house


Friday, June 7, 2013

Systematic reviews

Systematic Reviews  is an open access journal established in 2012. It is available on PubMedCentral and is now fully indexed in PubMed.

Systematic Reviews encompasses all aspects of the design, conduct and reporting of systematic reviews. The journal aims to publish high quality systematic review products including systematic review protocols, systematic reviews related to a very broad definition of health, rapid reviews, updates of already completed systematic reviews, and methods research related to the science of systematic reviews, such as decision modeling. The journal also aims to ensure that the results of all well-conducted systematic reviews are published, regardless of their outcome.
 


It is a long-term goal of the journal to ensure all systematic reviews are prospectively registered in an appropriate database, such as PROSPERO, as these resources for registration become available and are endorsed by the scientific community.
 

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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

New from Health Information and Quality Authority


Guiding Principles for National Health and Social Care Data Collections

This document provides those involved in national data collections with advice on the best way to collect and use healthcare generated data. It incorporates national and international evidence and promotes a practice that is up to date, effective and works towards greater consistency.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

How to get published - videos from a journal publisher


A series of videos from Taylor and Francis publishers aimed at postgraduate students and academics new to the complex world of getting published in international peer-reviewed journals.

•  How to get published
•  How to get your research read
•  How to referee
•  How to submit your article
•  How to publish your Ph.D.
•  How to promote your article
•  How to optimize citations to your article

Connect


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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Cochrane Collaboration joins the AllTrials campaign



                  






"The Cochrane Collaboration has become a lead partner in the AllTrials initiative, a campaign to ensure that all clinical trials are registered and results published........


....Around half of all the clinical trials that have been conducted have not yet been published and trials with positive results are twice as likely to be published as others."


Read the rest of the current Cochrane Library editorial.


Find out more about the AllTrials initiative


Friday, May 10, 2013








The College has recently taken out a subscription to the JUSTIS database.  JUSTIS is an online legal library containing full-text case law and legislation.

Legislation:
  • Irish legislation: acts and statutory instruments
  • EU Human Rights legislation

Case Law:
  • Irish case law
  • England & Wales judgements
  • EU Human Rights case law
Results can be emailed, downloaded or printed.

Find JUSTIS on the Library's database webpage

Any queries, contact Grainne McCabe

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

RCSI Research Authors 2012

SCOPUS from Elsevier is a huge multidisciplinary citation index which gives the institutional affiliation of each author in a publication. In the year Jan - Dec 2012 SCOPUS indexed 331 research articles or review articles where one or more authors had an RCSI affiliation.

Author affiliation searching in the citation databases gives a rapid overview of institutional publications and the data can be ranked by a variety of indicators.  

SCOPUS has a series of online tutorials linked from the front page.




RCSI users connect to SCOPUS 


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Monday, April 8, 2013

Mercer Library - Group Study Room online booking system

From Thursday 11 April 2013, RCSI Mercer Library will pilot an online Group Study Room booking system.
This system will allow students to book one of the 8 Group Study Rooms via the Library web pages, receive an email confirmation of this booking and to view or cancel the booking.
  • Manual booking at desk will continue up until 1pm on Saturday 13 April
  • From 10am on Thursday 11 April, students can use the online system to make Mercer Group Study Room bookings from Mon 15 April onwards. Go to Group Study Rooms on the Library web pages
  • To book the Beaumont Library Study Room please continue to call in or phone the Beaumont Library at 01-8092531.
For all questions on the online Group Study Room booking system, please contact the Mercer Library Service Desk at library@rcsi.ie or 4022407

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Smarter Citation Management


Students and researchers have come to rely on computer-based reference management software to organize their growing collections of reading material and to properly format citations and references in research papers, grant applications, and other documents. It is no longer adequate just to store these collections on a desktop or laptop computer. Users need access to their personal digital libraries on the go, on smartphones as well as tablets. This column in the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries provides an overview of mobile citation management software. Citation management applications and mobile-friendly websites are described.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

RCSI Library is on Facebook

Find us on Facebook

 

The value of information services in patient care


A new US study has surveyed over 16,000 physicians, residents and nurses about the value of information services for patient care.

Objective:  The research conducted a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library and information services on patient care.

Results:  Of the 16,122 survey respondents (physicians, residents, nurses), 3/4 said that they had definitely or probably handled aspects of the patient care situation differently as a result of the information. Among the reported changes were advice given to the patient, diagnosis and choice of drugs, other treatment, and tests . Almost all of the respondents said the information resulted in a better informed clinical decision. Respondents reported that the information allowed them to avoid the following adverse events: patient misunderstanding of the disease, additional tests, misdiagnosis, adverse drug reactions, medication errors, and patient mortality.

Conclusions:  Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.

The value of library and information services in patient care: results of a multisite study.  J
oanne Gard Marshall et al    J Med Libr Assoc. 2013 January; 101(1): 38–46. 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543128/

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

How doctors use UpToDate


How doctors make use of online, point-of-care clinical decision support systems: a case study of UpToDate©. Addison J, Whitcombe J, William Glover S.  Health Info Libr J. 2013 Mar;30(1):13-22. doi: 10.1111/hir.12002.  PMID: 23413790    RCSI Users Link

This recent study conducted in the UK NHS discovered doctors use UpToDate at the point of care to:

  • To find information about new treatments
  • To make correct treatment decisions
  • To reduce delays in starting treatment
  • To avoid unnecessary diagnostic tests
  • To reach a final diagnosis faster
  • To reassure the clinician that the intended action is appropriate
  • As a reference tool
  • To give immediate feedback to patients
  • To avoid unnecessary consulting of senior colleagues
  • To deliver cost-saving benefits


PM


Friday, February 1, 2013

ERIC the Educational Resources Information Centre

ERIC is a specialist education research resource, an open access  bibliographic database of general education research. It indexes many specialist publications including valuable reports and similar grey literature, research not easily found elsewhere.

ERIC indexes education journals, the majority of which are peer-reviewed. Most of these journals are indexed comprehensively - that is, a record for every article in each issue is included in ERIC. Some journals are indexed selectively - that is, only those articles that are education-related are selected for indexing.

Reports and grey literature:  ERIC indexes education-related materials from a variety of sources, including scholarly organizations, professional associations, research centers, policy organizations, university presses, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies, and state and local agencies. Individual contributors submit conference papers, research papers, dissertations, and theses.

Link via RCSI Library                 Direct link


PM





Medical searches: PubMed and Google Scholar

Medical literature searches: a comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar    Nourbakhsh E, Nugent R, Wang H, Cevik C, Nugent K. Health Information Libraries Journal  2012 Sep;29(3):214-22.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22925384


Background:
Medical literature searches provide critical information for clinicians. However, the best strategy for identifying relevant high-quality literature is unknown.


Objectives:
We compared search results using PubMed and Google Scholar on four clinical questions and analysed these results with respect to article relevance and quality.


Conclusions:
PubMed searches and Google Scholar searches often identify different articles. In this study, Google Scholar articles were more likely to be classified as relevant, had higher numbers of citations and were published in higher impact factor journals. The identification of frequently cited articles using Google Scholar for searches probably has value for initial literature searches.



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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Updates on UpToDate



See What's New in UpToDate

UpToDate is updated regularly based on a continuous comprehensive review of over 450 peer-reviewed journals, clinical databases and other resources. Updates are integrated carefully, with specific recommendations as to how they should be applied clinically. The most important updates are highlighted in the "What's New" tab located on the toolbar.

In some cases, new findings can have important and immediate implications for how clinicians practice. This information is highlighted in "Practice Changing UpDates" at the top of the list. These recommendations are also included in the specialty-specific "What's New" updates, and are discussed in greater detail in the full-length topic identified.


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Monday, January 7, 2013

Social Science Research Network

The Social Science Resarch Network SSRN is a major repository of social science research developed by a number of collaborating US, European and Asian universities.

It is “devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences”.  It has an elibrary consisting of an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 444,700 scholarly working papers and an Electronic Paper Collection of downloadable full text documents. Of particular interest are collections in Health, Healthcare Economics, Business and Corporate Governance.

SSRN was ranked Number 1 repository in the World Ranking of Web Repositories


 PM