The Rotation: A Himmelfarb Library Blog
Resources, tools & health news from GW Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library
As we begin the Fall 2020 semester, we know that this semester is going to be different than other semesters. With most classes moving online, and a very few operating via a hybrid model, we all have to adapt to a new way of learning, teaching, studying, and conducting research. While we’re all doing things a little bit differently these days, Himmelfarb Library wants you to know that we are still here for you!
Are you looking to publish your research, but need to find a journal in which to publish? Want to find a journal that will ensure your article will be widely read and cited? Choosing where to submit your manuscript can be a daunting task for any researcher. But don’t despair - Himmelfarb Library has resources that can help.
A great place to start is our Journal Selection webinar, part of Himmelfarb’s Get Yourself Published, Promote Your Research webinar series. In this webinar, Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Communications Librarian, provides an overview of tools and resources that can help you select an appropriate journal for your research. Learn about the difference between aggregation based journal selection tools and publisher based journal selection tools and utilize comparison rubrics to evaluate multiple publications. Additionally, you’ll have a chance to locate journals relevant to your field of study.
Want to explore some tools to help you choose a journal? Himmelfarb’s Scholarly Publishing Guide has links to numerous tools that can help you select the right journal for your research. Two useful tools to consider are the Cofactor Journal Selector and the Journal/Article Name Estimator (JANE). The Cofactor Journal Selector can help you identify a journal in which to publish based on subject, peer review, open access, speed of review and other considerations. JANE takes a different approach by allowing you to enter your article title and/or abstract and providing a list of potential journals that may be appropriate for your submission.
Another strategy is to search the Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC), Himmelfarb’s institutional repository. You can search the HSRC by discipline, collection, or school to see where your colleagues have published their research. You could also search for articles on your topic in PubMed and identify potential journals to consider for your research.
An important consideration to keep in mind when choosing a journal is whether or not the journal is predatory in nature. Predatory journals make false peer-review claims while collecting exorbitant fees from authors who publish in their journals. Because these journals do not actually provide peer-review services, your article could be published next to bogus research and will not be widely read or cited. If you’re going to publish, make sure you are choosing a legitimate, scholarly journal for your work! To learn more about predatory publishing, including how to evaluate a journal to determine whether or not it is predatory, check out our Predatory Publishing Guide.
While choosing a journal that’s right for your research isn’t an easy task, librarians can be a great resource for authors in selecting the right journal. If you are getting ready to publish, don’t fret - Himmelfarb has resources that can help!
Have you registered for your ORCID yet? Not sure what ORCID is? Open Researcher and Contributor IDs, or ORCIDs, are a unique digital identifier that distinguishes you from other researchers. ORCIDs are useful to make sure that all of your research is attributed to you personally and that your work can be differentiated from that of other researchers with similar names. Due to current and upcoming mandates from federal funding bodies as well as many journal publishers, the use of ORCIDs is becoming more widespread all the time.
Do you want to learn more about ORCIDs? Himmelfarb Library has a webinar that will help you do just that! In the ORCIDs: Maintaining Your Online Identity webinar, Tom Harrod, Research Support Librarian, explores what an ORCID is and how you can create and curate your own profile. You’ll also learn tips and tricks for easily keeping your ORCID up to date as your research advances.
For more information about ORCIDS, check out the ORCID@GW page of our Scholarly Publishing guide. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for upcoming tips on how to care for your ORCID starting in early August!
Do you want to utilize a diagram from a published article in your own publication, but are unsure whether you should do so? Do you have questions about fair use? Himmelfarb Library has developed a short webinar that explores many of the most common questions authors have while writing an article for publication.
In the Copyright for Authors webinar, Anne Linton, Himmelfarb Library Director, and Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian discuss tools that can help you determine whether something can be utilized under the fair use doctrine and how to approach items with various creative commons licenses. How to clear rights and respond to publisher questions related to rights are also covered.
Do you struggle with keeping your citations organized for papers or articles that you are writing? One of the most challenging aspects of the publication process can be documenting and organizing references and citations. Himmelfarb Library has a short webinar that can help you choose the right citation management tool.
In this Citation Organization for Beginners webinar, Reference and Instruction Librarian Paul Levett, explores how bibliographic management tools can simplify the process of documenting and organizing references and citations. These tools also ensure that you adhere to formatting styles such as APA or AMA. Paul examines bibliographic management tools such as RefWorks, EndNote and more to show you how to use these resources quickly and effectively. This webinar compares the features of bibliographic management tools, and provides considerations to think about when deciding which tool is best suited to your needs.
Check out all eight sessions of Himmelfarb’s Get Yourself Published, Promote Your Research series to learn more about a range of scholarly communication topics!
Himmelfarb Library would like to welcome all of our new users! Whether you are a new resident, fellow, physician assistant or public health student, we welcome you to the GW community! Himmelfarb is ready to serve you and help make your experience here a positive one. You may be curious about what Himmelfarb has to offer and how you can make the most of our resources and services. Here are the top five things we’d like you to know about Himmelfarb:
1) Getting Research Help is Easy!
Our reference librarians are available to answer your questions and provide research support when and where you need help. Get your research and library-related questions answered right from your computer by using the Ask a Librarian service! Reference librarians are available to answer your texts and instant message questions Monday-Thursday from 8:30am-8:00pm, and Friday from 8:30am-5:00pm.
2) Himmelfarb Resources are Available Anytime, Anywhere.
Himmelfarb’s 100 databases, 4,100 journals, and 4,500 e-books are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our e-book collection includes most major textbooks from most fields. Install the LibKey Nomad Google Chrome browser extension for seamless and speedy access to full-text articles available through Himmelfarb. After installing the extension, choose ‘George Washington University - Himmelfarb Library’ as your institution, and you’ll be all set. For more information about accessing Himmelfarb’s online resources including tips for navigating articles, check out our E-Resources FAQs page.
To access our electronic resources from off-campus, we recommend connecting to the GW VPN. The Himmelfarb off-campus access page provides additional information about installing the VPN and accessing electronic resources with your GW NetID. Many of our resources are also available as mobile apps for download on your mobile devices.
3) 3D Printing is Available!
Himmelfarb has a 3D printer available for use by faculty, staff and students in SMHS, SON, GWSPH, the GW Hospital and the MFA. 3D printing will be available once the library opens its doors again. For more information about 3D printing at Himmelfarb, check out our 3D Printing Guide.
4) If We Don’t Have It, We’ll Do Our Best To Get It For You.
While we attempt to make our collection as robust as possible, we don’t have access to everything. In the event that we don’t have access to a resource that you need, you can place a request through our Interlibrary Loan/Documents2Go service. Through this service, we are able to work with a nationwide network of libraries to obtain a copy of a needed resource on your behalf. Articles are normally delivered within 24-72 hours. Interested in learning more about this service? Check our in-depth Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery guide.
5) The Health Sciences Research Commons Can Expand the Reach of Your Research!
Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC) is Himmelfarb’s institutional repository, and is a perfect place for you to share your research output during your time at GW. All faculty, researchers, students (with the sponsorship of a faculty member), and staff affiliated with SMHS, SON, GWSPH at GW are eligible to submit their scholarly works to HSRC. By placing your work in HSRC, your work will be easily shareable and discoverable via Google Scholar and other search engines. If you have questions about the HSRC, take a look at the FAQ page or contact Sara Hoover (shoover@gwu.edu), Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian, for more information.
This top five list is just a glimpse into all that Himmelfarb has to offer! In addition to the resources mentioned above, we have numerous research guides on a wide variety of topics. Tutorials are also available on a variety of topics. Himmelfarb welcomes you to the GW community!
Teaching online can pose its share of challenges. Finding clinical cases to include in your online instruction doesn’t have to be one of them. Using clinical case studies, especially during a time when students are not able to have first hand clinical experiences, can help your students hone their clinical decision making, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning skills. Himmelfarb Library provides access to cases with supporting text and multimedia materials. All materials are licensed for use in instruction.
AccessMedicine Cases provides access to more than 900 basic sciences and plus selected clinical cases drawn from the Case Files series. AccessMedicine’s clinical case collections include:
Himmelfarb also provides access to the complete Case Files Collection which includes more than 1,150 cases, explanations, and quizzes. In addition to basic science cases, the Case Files Collection provides full access to clinical rotation cases for anesthesiology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, medical ethics & professionalism, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery. Case Files Collection also provides additional cases at the post-graduate level on cardiology, geriatrics, gynecologic surgery, and orthopaedic surgery. The Case Files Collection ebooks are also available through Himmelfarb’s catalog.
To integrate cases into your online instruction, start with a relevant patient case. Students can use cases to practice taking a patient history using Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing. Students can expand their physical exam skills in an online instruction setting through physical exam videos. Students can then do additional research by looking up current recommendations and reading article summaries on relevant topics. Students can then decide on appropriate next steps for the patient case including diagnostic tests to be ordered, and creating a treatment plan by looking through mini-textbooks, and the provided drug monograph library. Quizzes are available at the end of cases and can be emailed to instructors when completed.
Do you want to explore topics beyond specific medical conditions? Cases in Medical Ethics and Professionalism include opportunities to explore communication, conflict resolution, ethics, and professionalism skills in addition to the medical case at hand.
Himmelfarb provides full-access to both AccessMedicine and Case Files collection although some features are accessible only after users create a free personal MyAccess Profile. To create a MyAccess Profile, click on Sign In in the upper right corner of AccessMedicine or Case Files Collection.
During the week of March 16, Himmelfarb Library's hours have been changed:
All electronic collections are available: 24/7. For instructions on remote access, please refer to our off-campus access page.
Consortium Loan Service will have normal operations; Documents2Go service will provide normal services for electronic holdings; services for print items will not be available. If the status of these services changes, we will provide updated information.
Have you ever wanted to include demographic, income, housing, or educational level data as part of your research? Himmelfarb Library has a resource that can help! PolicyMap is an easy-to-use data and mapping tool that allows you to access data about communities across the United States.
PolicyMap provides data on demographics, real-estate, health, jobs, broadband infrastructure, and more that you can use to create maps of specific regions, states, cities and communities. Health data (including obesity rates, infectious diseases, uninsured populations, and births), as well as quality of life information (such as crime, transit access, length of commute to work and access to libraries) can also be mapped. By combining comprehensive data with mapping and analytics tools, you can visualize data and create a deeper understanding specific profiles for the community of your choosing.
PolicyMap has more than just maps. You can view data in charts or graphs, run reports for specific areas, and create maps of areas using up to three layers of criteria. You can even download data to use in your own tools. Already have your own data that you’d like to use? Use the data loader to upload your data from a spreadsheet to view in PolicyMap.
PolicyMap collects data from a wide range of data sources including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Census Bureau, and even Zillow. If you are new to this database, numerous tutorials and videos are available to help you learn how to use this PolicyMap to its fullest potential to meet your research needs.
Give PolicyMap a try today and see what it can do for your research!
Are you interested in pathology? Do you want to read current articles published in a highly ranked pathology journal? Himmelfarb Library provides access to the Journal of Pathology.
Published by the Pathological Society, the Journal of Pathology focuses on pathophysiological and pathogenetic mechanisms of human disease. Started in 1893 as the Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, today the journal is ranked among the top ten journals pathology journals in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) with a 5 year impact factor of 6.424.
Recent popularly accessed articles include:
Take a look at the most recent issue and discover what this journal has to offer!
