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Author: Sara Hoover

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Fall means more than pumpkin spice. Fall grant application season is also here with October submission deadlines for both NIH and NSF. Both organizations have modified the grant application process and here’s what you need to know:

  • NIH: NIH has rescinded the single budget line item requirement for data management and sharing costs.
    • Applications with a due date of October 5, 2023, or later will not be required to include a single line item for Data Management and Sharing Plan activities in the budget. These costs should be placed in other appropriate categories, such as personnel, equipment, supplies, and other expenses. Read the full announcement on the NIH website.
  • NSF: NSF now requires the use of the SciENcv or the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae for biographical information.
    • The mandate to use SciENcv only for preparation of the biographical sketch and current and pending (other) support will go into effect for new proposals submitted or due on or after October 23, 2023. Read more on the NSF website. 

Need additional resources to help you with the grant application process? 

For additional information reach out to Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Communications Librarian at shoover@gwu.edu or Himmelfarb at himmelfarb@gwu.edu.

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"Invoice payment button" by recreahq is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

It’s a familiar scenario. You’ve completed your research, written up your findings, and selected a target journal  - which has sent your article out for review and accepted your work for publication!  You decide that you want to publish your research in an Open Access format to ensure that your findings are widely and equitably accessible. You convey your intentions to your publisher only to discover that they want you to pay a hefty Article Processing Charge (APC) in order to publish in an Open Access format. Shocked by the price, you go to your department chair with fingers crossed and request the funds to cover the fee. If you’re lucky, there are funds to cover the APC, but if not, you may find yourself having to reconsider publishing in an OA format. 

How can you be better prepared for the next time you try to publish in an Open Access format? Article processing charges frequently range from $2,000-$5,000 or more. Therefore, knowing how to identify these fees early in your research process may help you to better explore publishing options and account for costs. But finding exact costs on publisher websites can be challenging - many are located on supplemental spreadsheets that can be difficult to find. The following list can help you locate APCs for many prominent science journal publishers:

Looking for an APC not included on the lists above? Reach out to Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian at shoover@gwu.edu for assistance. 

For more information on this topic, see Himmelfarb’s video tutorials:

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Flow chart of research lifecycle: plan & design; collect & capture; collaborate & analyse; manage, store & preserve; share & publish; discover, reuse & cite

Do you have a question about some aspect of the research lifecycle? Perhaps you need help putting together a systematic review or are looking for tools that will help you select a journal for your manuscript. Or maybe you want help tracking citations for your published research. The Himmelfarb Library’s Scholarly Communications Short Video Series can help you with these questions. These brief (~5 minute) tutorials cover topics related to all aspects of the research lifecycle from project planning to publishing to promotion and preservation. The series currently includes 15 video tutorials that cover the following topics: 

Project Planning and Development Tutorials: 

Publishing Related Tutorials: 

Project Promotion and Preservation Tutorials: 

Look for more video tutorials in January 2022 on topics including post-publication promotion tips, advanced literature searches using the MeSH search builder, open access publishing, and more. Have a suggestion for a video tutorial? Complete this brief survey. 

Image citation: Pinnock, G. (2018). The Research Data Management (RDM) lifecycle at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UCT_RDM_lifecycle_(all_icons).svg

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Dimensions part of DIGITALscience

There’s a new database in town with the potential to help with publication analysis, grant tracking questions, and more. GW has recently secured an institutional subscription to Dimensions from DigitalScience which was launched in 2018 to compete with Elsevier’s Scopus database. Like Scopus, the Dimensions database allows you to search for information based on researcher and institutional profiles. But unlike Scopus in its current form, Dimensions aims to track the full research lifecycle including not only publications related data, but also information about grants, datasets, patents, and more. Dimensions also includes an “Analytical Views” dashboard designed to help you see information about trends for publication source titles, citations, and funders. 

To access the Dimensions database from off-campus locations, use the VPN so that you can create groups and save dashboards. Next, access the Himmelfarb Library website and click on All Databases. From there, navigate to the link for Dimensions Analytics to get started. Use the “Log in” button in the top right hand corner of the screen to login with your NetID and password (reminder: to login use VPN from off-campus locations). From there, use the left hand navigation filters to search for information about specific researchers, funders, or organizations. 

Like many systems that strive to aggregate vast amounts of data, Dimensions in its current form does have some limitations. Underlying data is at times incomplete and the user interface can be less than intuitive for some functionality. However, Dimensions can still be a valuable tool for creating groups and tracking research trends. Have specific questions or want to learn more about using Dimensions? Check out this Dimensions toolkit or reach out to the Himmelfarb Library. 

Questions? Please contact Sara Hoover (shoover@gwu.edu) or Tom Harrod (tph@gwu.edu)!

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New Publication from GW Researchers Highlights Link Between Aspirin use and Decreased COVID-19 Severity in Hospitalized Patients

A recent clinical research report led by Jonathan H. Chow, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the George Washington University, found that the use of aspirin may be associated with improved outcomes for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The study entitled Aspirin Use Is Associated With Decreased Mechanical Ventilation, Intensive Care Unit Admission, and In-Hospital Mortality in Hospitalized Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 was published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia tracked 412 adult patients with COVID-19 and suggests that aspirin may provide lung-protective effects that help reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and ICU admissions. The article was featured in a recent news release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A randomized control trial is now needed to assess whether there is a causal relationship between aspirin use and a reduction in lung injury among COVID-19 patents. 

Interested in learning more about COVID-19 related research at GW? Check out our COVID-19 Publications by GW Authors collection in our institutional repository Health Sciences Research Commons.

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Press ReleaseHow to read a news release:  Tips from the editors of JAMA

Two recent opinion pieces in JAMA address the issue of evaluating and communicating scientific information in the constantly changing era of Covid-19.  Journal editors need to maintain standards of scientific integrity as they rapidly process high numbers of time-critical articles.  Readers are faced with a deluge of additional information in the form of news releases, pre-prints, and blog posts – most disseminated with little review.

How should a reader approach news releases?  Unlike peer reviewed articles, news releases are short and designed to grab attention.  They often lack the details to conduct a traditional critical appraisal.  Readers therefore might want to ask the following questions to make a quick assessment of the information reported in a news release:

  • Does the news release report on a single study? 
  • Are main outcomes, absolute risks and patient population reported?
  • How does the information reported relate to other studies?
  • What is the context of the news release? (i.e. from a federal agency or a pharmaceutical company, designed to influence public opinion or report to stockholders)
  • Are the opinions of any independent experts included?
  • Have study results been reported elsewhere? (i.e. preprint, journals)

To learn more about critically reading a news release, check out the 10 review criteria for news stories listed at HealthNewsReview.org.

 

Saitz R, Schwitzer G. Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic. JAMA. Published online July 13, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.12535

Bauchner H, Fontanarosa PB, Golub RM. Editorial Evaluation and Peer Review During a Pandemic: How Journals Maintain Standards. JAMA. Published online June 26, 2020. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.11764

HealthNewsReview.org (n.d.) Our Review Criteria. https://www.healthnewsreview.org/about-us/review-criteria

Image: Youngson, N. (no date). Press Release.  Retrieved from: https://www.thebluediamondgallery.com/typewriter/p/press-release.html

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Left image: key hole. Right image: person walking through open door.
Illustration by The Project Twins.

While there are still many unknowns about what the post-pandemic world will look like, there is a general consensus that the effects on scholarly output are likely to be lasting and far reaching. 

In a recent article from Nature entitled “Will the pandemic permanently alter scientific publishing?” Ewen Callaway explores the impact of Covid-19 on publication timeframes and methodologies. The article looks at the accelerated use of preprint archives such as bioRxiv and the increasing push towards Open Access publishing models in recent months. For publishers, the looming question continues to be whether they will be able to devise a business model that both supports faster, open publishing while likewise ensuring financial solvency. For researchers new publication models and timeframes engender many new questions about how best to publish their research. 

If you have questions about preprint archives or open access models and your research, please reach out to Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian at the Himmelfarb Library (shoover@gwu.edu).

Written by Sara Hoover, Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian.

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The journal Academic Medicine is soliciting original submissions from medical students, residents, and fellows related to COVID-19 for their Letters to the Editor feature. Editors are looking for pieces that emphasize courage and connection in light of the global pandemic. More specifically, editors want to hear how COVID-19 might be contributing to health care and healthcare education in a positive manner. 

More information related to the call for papers can be found here in a blog post from Academic Medicine. Letters of 400 words or less should come from students, residents, and fellows and should be submitted here by 5pm EST on Monday, June 1st, 2020. 

If you need writing support, the Himmelfarb Library has tools to help. Make a distance appointment with the Writing Center or utilize RefWorks to manage citations. 

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Journal of the American College of CardiologyGeorge Washington University Research Professor Toshimitsu Hamasaki has recently earned a new publication distinction from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Hamasaki is a Research Professor with the Milken Institute School of Public Health’s GWU Biostatistics Center and the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics whose research focuses on biopharmaceutical statistics and clinical trials.  He is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Hamasaki is the co-author of a 2019 paper from the Journal of the American College of Cardiology entitled “Antenatal Therapy for Fetal Supraventricular Tachyarrhythmias: Multicenter Trial.” Hamasaki’s publication has recently been selected as one of the JACC Editor-in Chief’s Top Papers of 2019.  Hamasaki was the lead statistician in the paper which  reported results from the first prospective multicenter trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of protocol-defined transplacental treatment in fetal with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and atrial flutter. For more information, see Publication Co-authored by Toshimitsu Hamasaki Selected as JACC Editor-in-Chief’s Selected the Top 100 Papers in 2019. 

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