In May 2025, researchers who are applying for or receiving federal funding will be required to use the Science Experts Network Curriculum Vitae (SciENcv) system to create and complete biographical sketches to attach to their applications for federal funding and support form.
Biographical sketches, also known as biosketches, are documents that capture a researcher's background, including their education and previous professional history, a personal statement that describes their research interests and background and their publication or research product history. SciENcv is intended to reduce the amount of administrative time required to update and format biosketches. The system interfaces with other systems, such as ORCiD, allowing for a seamless transfer of information, such as previous publications, from one system to SciENcv.
To prepare researchers for the change in policy and to help users learn more about SciENcv, Himmelfarb Library recently published the ‘SciENcv’ research guide.
The SciENcv guide is a tool for researchers who are navigating the system for the first time or those who would like step-by-step instructions as they complete their biographical sketches or supporting documents. Each tab on the guide covers a specific aspect of the biosketch process. Users may start at the beginning and follow the instructions to create their SciENcv profile. Or, they may click through the tabs as needed to see detailed instructions and accompanying images to help guide them through the entire process.
Himmelfarb staff are available to assist with navigating SciENcv. If you have questions about the SciENcv guide, contact Brittany Smith, the Scholarly Communications & Metadata Librarian, at bsmith91@gwu.edu.
Himmelfarb Library’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEI Committee) is proud to announce the release of the new LGBTQ+ Health Research Guide! The guide features resources that address LBGTQ+ healthcare in clinical and research settings and explores sexual orientation and gender identity barriers to accessing healthcare. You’ll also find general resources including links to LGBTQ+ health organizations at GW and in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Relevant books, e-books, and journals from Himmelfarb’s collection, educational resources about pronouns and preferred terminology, and podcasts to help you learn about LGBTQ+ healthcare are showcased in the guide.
Please note that some resources, such as e-books and journal collections, may require GW credentials to access.
The Researchers tab of the guide provides insight into useful MeSH search terms, links to helpful research-related guides, and information about conducting research. This tab also features published works related to LGBTQ+ health by GW authors in Himmelfarb’s Health Sciences Research Commons (HSRC).
The DEI Committee wants this guide to be a high-quality resource relevant to our community, and we encourage our users to share relevant resources for inclusion in the LGBTQ+ Health Guide through our Resource Suggestion Form. If you are a member of a GW organization and would like your organization to be featured in this guide, or if you’re interested in partnering with the DEI Committee, please contact the current committee chair, Brittany Smith, at bsmith91@gwu.edu.
Himmelfarb has more than books and articles! This article will highlight some of the exciting options available to you as SMHS, GWSPH, or GW Nursing students.
If you’ve stopped by the circulation desk, you may have noticed a slight scenery change: Himmelfarb has a new Bambu Lab 3-D printer! The Bambu Lab X-1 Carbon prints significantly faster than our older printers, greatly increasing our turnaround time and ability to process more jobs. Plus, it can print in multi-colors, leading to festive and interesting options.
You can print as many curricular prints as the queue allows and one non-curricular print a month (full policy here).
The applications for med students are vast: from stethoscope holders to molecular diagrams to model organs.
Or fun friends, like this poseable turtle.
VR:
Himmelfarb has two Oculus Quest VR headsets for checkout.
[Oculus headset on display at the Himmelfarb library - available for 4hr checkouts]
These are great for taking a study break with guided meditations or nature walks (although make sure you have the appropriate space) or, if you want to get serious with studies, you can take advantage of the preloaded Medicalholodeck Medical VR platform (which includes Anatomy Master XR, Medical Imaging XR, and Dissection Master XR). Somewhere between a textbook and a cadaver lab, Medicalholodeck allows you to inspect high-resolution dissections layer-by-layer alongside your research.
Check out the video below for a brief demonstration:
BodyViz
Like Medicalholodeck, BodyViz is an interactive anatomy visualization tool that lets users view, study, and manipulate 3D anatomical structures. Although there's a bit of a learning curve, once you get a handle on it, the BodyViz slicing software allows you to digitally dissect models with great precision, allowing for intensive inspection.
Unlike the VR headsets - which can be used anywhere you find the space - BodyViz is best used in the Levine lounge (Himmelfarb 305A), adjacent to the Bloedorn Technology Center. All of these materials are available at our circulation desk. To learn more, explore our BodyViz Guide.
We hope these help take your studies to the next level.
April is Stress Awareness Month. Himmelfarb Library’s Oculus Virtual Reality (VR) headsets now include healthy living apps that can help you manage your stress! These new apps help users meditate, alleviate anxiety, and generally relax. Take a few minutes to unwind and get recentered in virtual reality so you’ll feel refreshed and rejuvenated in actual reality!
Our Oculus headsets can be checked out from the circulation desk on Himmelfarb’s first floor for four hours at a time. You’ll need some unobstructed space to use the headset since the apps allow you to move around within a virtual space. Our VR Headset Overview page includes recommended spaces within Himmelfarb to use the headsets that can accommodate the space needed to use these apps comfortably.
Guided Meditation VR
The Guided Meditation VR app helps users detach and relax with guided or unguided meditation sessions with calming music and ambient noises from more than 40 digitally-generated environments. This app has over 30 hours of meditations geared toward alleviating anxiety, finding resilience, improving sleep, and even maternity meditations. If you’re unsure about VR but want to experience some of the sessions, you can try them out for free online! This app is available on both of Himmelfarb’s Oculus headsets.
Nature Treks VR
The Nature Treks VR app lets users choose between nine different natural environments and lets them explore and play. You can choose to explore forests, beaches, or even outer space! You even get to choose your preferred weather and time of day and can summon animals. These individually designed spaces can be used as places to meditate or perform breathing exercises. This app is available on Himmelfarb’s “Walter” headset so that you can ask for it by name at the Circulation Desk.
National Geographic Explore VR
The National Geographic Explore VR app lets users choose between two different ecosystems to explore: Machu Picchu and Antarctica! In Antarctica, you’ll get to navigate around icebergs in a kayak, climb a massive ice shelf, and survive a raging snowstorm while searching for a lost emperor penguin colony. Or you can visit Machu Picchu, Peru, and explore digital reconstructions of the ancient Inca citadel, raise a cup of sacred chicha, and encounter alpacas while you match Hiram Bingham’s photographs from when he rediscovered the Inca citadel. Not only can you experience the landscape, but you’ll get to take photographs as well. This app is a bit more physically strenuous and can need some additional room to navigate. This app is available on Himmelfarb’s “Paul” headset.
While the noises generated by all three of these apps are gentle and soothing, they are audible outside of the Oculus headset, so it’s best to use these apps in a quiet space away from others who may be studying or trying to concentrate. Himmelfarb study rooms are a great option for using this app and can be reserved in advance!
Other Stress Relief Resources at Himmelfarb
If Virtual Reality isn’t of interest to you, Himmelfarb’s healthy living collection has other stress relief resources that may suit your style. Take a look at our Healthy Living @ Himmelfarb Guide for a full list of resources. Check out the Wellness Apps page of this guide to find useful meditation and stress relief apps. Our healthy living collection also includes books on stress reduction including Stress, Cognition, and Health by Tony Cassidy, The Psychology of Meditation by Peter Sedlmeier, and Managing Stress by Brian Luke Seaward. As always, feel free to stop by the healthy living collection on Himmelfarb’s first floor to make use of our exercise equipment if you’d prefer to manage your stress with some physical activity and use our exercise balls, hand weights, hula hoops, or yoga mats. We also have plenty of games including chess, Sorry, Scrabble, Blokus, and Pandemic. As always, a jigsaw puzzle is in progress on our puzzle table, and we are waiting for your contributions!
Want more resources to help you manage your stress? Check out the GW Resiliency and Well-Being Center’s Stress Management page for resources related to mindfulness practice, well-being, physical activity, healthy lifestyle tips, and student resources related to stress management.
Himmelfarb Library recently purchased nine new anatomy models that are available and on display in the Bloedorn Technology Center on Himmelfarb’s third floor. These new additions to our physical anatomical model collection are available for in-library use (they cannot be checked out of the library). These new models are 3D-printed, lifelike replicas of human cadavers.
The pictures below will give you an idea of what these models look like, but pictures can’t do these models justice. Next time you’re in the library, head to Himmelfarb’s 3rd floor and take a look at these models for yourself!
In addition to these new models, Himmelfarb also has several other anatomy materials available for in-library use, including bone boxes! Bloedorn is a great place to study in groups and work with these models. Collaborative tables are available so you can move bones and models to use them for study in a way that works best for you!
Want to learn more about Himmelfarb’s anatomy resources?
Himmelfarb’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEI Committee) is pleased to announce the release of the new Antiracism in Healthcare research guide! This guide is one of many ways Himmelfarb Library is showing its commitment to cultivating an inclusive and welcoming environment within the library. The guide features healthcare organizations, journal collections, virtual tutorials and more to help you learn about antiracism and racial biases in healthcare. Some of the resources listed include:
Please note that some of the resources, such as ebooks and journal collections, may require GW credentials to access.
The DEI Committee envisions this guide growing over time and we are interested in community feedback and being transparent about the selection process. To show our commitment to community building and transparency, the resource selection criteria is featured on the guide’s homepage and the Committee will evaluate suggested resources based on the five listed categories and evaluation questions. Students, staff and faculty members are invited to submit resources they believe will make an excellent addition to the guide. If there is a book, documentary, podcast show/episode, online training, healthcare organization or other valuable resource that you believe should be included, please fill out the ‘Resource Suggestion Google Form’.
Additionally, if you are a member of a GWU organization and would like for your organization to be featured on the research guide or if you’re interested in partnering with the DEI Committee, please contact the current committee chair, Rachel Brill, at rgbrill@gwu.edu!
Himmelfarb Library recently expanded our collection of suicide and suicidology books with the help of a generous gift from Dr.Seymour Perlin, MD, and his wife Ruth Perlin. Dr. Perlin was a professor of psychiatry and the director of GW’s psychiatry residency program from 1977 to 1998. Two books included in this collection were written by Dr. Perlin and were donated by Dr. Perlin.
A Handbook for the Understanding of Suicide, written and donated by Dr. Perlin, is available in the book stacks on the basement level (call number: HV6545 .H27 1994). This book reviews a wide range of information from a variety of disciplines on suicide. It offers historical, literary, philosophical, and social science points of view in addition to a psychiatric discussion of suicidal behavior. A Handbook for the Study of Suicide, also written and donated by Dr. Perlin, is available in the books stacks (HV6545 .H27 1979).
A full list of the items purchased for this collection is available on our New Books collection page. Here’s a brief overview of the available titles:
Advancing Suicide Research (Kairi Kõlves, Merike Sisask, Peeter Värnik, Airi Värnik, and Diego DeLeo): Written by leading researchers in the field, this is a comprehensive toolbox of current best practices in suicide research, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research in suicide prevention from a public health perspective. Proper use of epidemiological measures and study designs, definitional issues, historical background, and ethical aspects of suicide research are also discussed. Location: Book stacks. Call number: HV6545 .A38 2021
Alternatives to Suicide: Beyond Risk and Toward a Life Worth Living (Andrew C. Page and Werner Stritzke): This book illustrates how fostering resilience and a desire for life can broaden and advance an understanding of suicide. Summarizing the existing literature, this book outlines a new focus on the interplay of risk and resilience that leads to a life-focus approach to suicide prevention. Emerging technologies and advances in data analytics using real-time monitoring of suicide dynamics and their use in suicide research and prevention are also covered. Location: Book stacks. Call Number: HV6545 .A48 2020.
The American Psychiatric Association Publishing Textbook of Suicide Risk Assessment and Management (written by Liza Gold, and Richard Frierson): This e-book offers new perspectives on suicide including medical and social use of destigmatizing and more precise language and covers issues related to suicide including suicide risk factors and their clinical implications, nonfatal, self-injurious behavior, physician-assisted suicide, and teaching suicide risk assessment and management as part of psychiatric residency programs. Increased suicide rates among specific populations are also examined.
Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir (Marsha Lienhan): In this memoir, author Marsha Lienhan details her journey from a suicidal teenager to a world-renowned developer of life-saving behavioral therapy dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), using her own struggle to develop life skills for others. Location: Book stacks. Call Number: RJ506.S9 L56 2020.
Community Interventions to Prevent Veteran Suicide: The role of Social Determinants (Laura Yoder, rapporteur): This electronic conference proceeding summarizes the presentations and discussion of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine March 2022 symposium with the same title. Relevant social, cultural, and economic factors that influence suicide risk among veterans are discussed. Applications for applying current suicide prevention best practices and treatment at a community level are also explored.
Managing Suicidal Risk: A Collaborative Approach (David A. Jobes and Marsha Linehan, foreward): This e-book provides essential tools and guidance for assessing and treating a suicidal patient. Step-by-step instructions and forms for evaluating suicidal risk, developing a suicide-specific outpatient treatment plan, and tracking clinical progress and outcomes are provided.
The Oxford Handbook of Suicide and Self-Injury (Matthew Nock): This book is available in print and electronically. This comprehensive handbook provides a summary of the most important and exciting advances in suicide and self-injury and the ability to predict and prevent it. Print Copy Location: New Book Shelf (Himmelfarb 1st Floor). Call Number: HV6545 .O9394 2014.
Physician Suicide: Cases and Commentaries (Peter Yellowlees): Available in print and electronically, this book explores the culture of medical training and practice, burnout, anxiety, depression, and addiction can lead to suicide among physicians through fictional cases. Ways to mitigate these factors and improve physician health and well-being are explored and case studies are accompanied by literature reviews with resources for further reading. Print Copy Location: New Book Shelf. Call Number: R690 .Y45 2019.
Preventing Suicide: The Solution Focused Approach (John Henden): This e-book explores secondary suicide prevention, evidence-based solution-focused brief therapy, risk assessment, management, and medication. This new edition takes an empathetic and validating approach to work with individuals considering suicide.
Suicidal Behavior (Richard T. McKeon): This new edition explores the latest approaches to the assessment and treatment of suicidal behavior. Topics covered include epidemiological data, the role of opioid use problems, personality disorders, and trauma play in suicide. Location: Book Stacks. Call Number: RC569 .M41 2022
Suicide Assessment and Treatment Planning: A Strengths-Based Approach (John Sommers-Flanagan, Rita Sommers-Flanagan): This e-book provides a holistic, wellness-oriented approach to understanding suicide and working effectively with individuals who are suicidal. A culturally sensitive, seven-dimension model offers methods to collaboratively integrate solution-focused and strengths-based strategies into clinical interactions and treatment planning. Case studies, practitioner guidance, personal and professional self-care techniques, ethical issues, and counselor competencies are included.
Suicide Prevention: An Ethically and Scientifically Informed Approach (Samuel Knapp): Offering essential information about assessing, managing, and providing mental health treatment for suicidal adult outpatients, this book guides the reader through the process of treating suicidal patients, from screening to relapse prevention. Location: Book stacks. Call Number: HV6545 .K537 2020.
Why People Die by Suicide (Thomas Joiner Jr.): Following a suicide, the most troubling questions are often the most difficult to answer. How could we have known? What could we have done? Why? Written by a clinical psychologist whose own life has been touched by suicide, this book offers a clear account of why some people choose to die. Location: Book stacks. Call Number: HV6545 .J65 2007.
LibKey Nomad is a free browser plug-in that will alert you to the availability of full-text content from Himmelfarb Library and provide buttons to immediately download a PDF version or view the content on the publisher site. Previously Nomad only worked for scholarly articles. Now Nomad also works for e-books!
LibKey Nomad alert and link for a Himmelfarb Library e-book in a publisher website.
When Himmelfarb has the e-book, LibKey Nomad will alert you when viewing books on Amazon, Google Books and publisher websites including Wiley, Elsevier, Cambridge, Thieme, Wolters-Kluwer, Springer, SAGE, Taylor and Francis and many others. If you need a book for academic, patient care, research or personal needs, LibKey Nomad will pop up with a notification and a link if you already have access to it for free from the library.
LibKey Nomad works in a variety of web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Vivaldi) and websites. If you’re searching Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science and even Wikipedia, LibKey Nomad integrates full-text access directly from where you find the content. LibKey Nomad will even tell you if an article has been retracted.
To use LibKey Nomad, install it as a browser plug-in and choose ‘George Washington University - Himmelfarb Library’ as your home library when prompted. If you already have it installed, you will now be alerted to e-book content when searching.
Have questions about Nomad or other ways to find and view full-text content? Contact Himmelfarb’s Information desk at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or chat with us during business hours.
Himmelfarb Library’s Scholarly Communications Committee is pleased to announce five new short video tutorials have been added to our video library! This video library now includes 30 short 3-7 minute videos on a variety of scholarly publishing topics, perfect for microlearning! This round of new videos covers topics including human participant research support, addressing health misinformation and disinformation, using Dimensions Analytics, Cabells Journalytics, and finding an author’s H-Index using Google Scholar and Scopus.
Are you interested in learning more about the resources available to support human participant research at George Washington University? This video includes information about the Office of Human Research (OHR), Institutional Review Boards (IRB), and CITI Training available through GW in this short three and half minute video.
This five-minute video discusses how to address health mis- and disinformation. Learn the difference between mis- and disinformation, the different types of mis- and disinformation, why this matters in relation to healthcare providers and health literacy, and how to address mis- and disinformation with patients.
Dimensions, a database from Digital Science, tracks research output and has information about grants, publications, datasets, clinical trials, policy documents, and more. This tutorial provides a brief overview of Dimensions Analytics, which allows you to track and visualize research output trends, and allows for more comprehensive functionality. Several examples of use cases are also included.
This five-minute tutorial provides an overview of Cabells Journalytics, a tool that can be used to evaluate and compare journals in which to publish a manuscript. Learn how to access Cabells Journalytics, and see example journal records to see the depth of information provided about each journal. You’ll also learn how to compare up to five journals.
In this five-minute tutorial, you’ll learn more about what the H-Index is (a measure of both quantity and quality of research output) and how it is used to track researcher productivity. This tutorial will then walk you through how to find an H-Index using both Google Scholar and Scopus, and why there is sometimes a difference in the H-Index value between these two sources.
This newest installment of videos is part of the Scholarly Communications Committee’s Short Video Series, which covers a wide range of scholarly communications-related topics and covers all phases of the research life cycle. Have a scholarly publishing topic that you’d like us to discuss? We’d love to hear from you! To suggest a topic for an upcoming video, please contact Sara Hoover at shoover@gwu.edu.
To learn more about scholarly publishing, check out our Scholarly Publishing Guide. This guide includes resources to help scholars find an appropriate journal in which to publish their research, tips on how to spot and avoid predatory publishers, and information on how to promote and increase the visibility of your published research.
The end of 2022 is only a few days away and before the year ends, Himmelfarb Library staff would like to reflect and recognize the many accomplishments and positive changes that occurred during these twelve months.
In 2022, Himmelfarb Library welcomed a new library director and several new staff members. In the summer, Laura Abate was officially named the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library Director, filling that position after the retirement of Anne Linton. In the July 11th Himmelfarb Library News article, Laura stated that she is “excited to continue to rebuild and hone our collections, and want to explore new ways that we can support teaching and learning, research and scholarly publishing, and clinical care.” Along with a new director, Himmelfarb Library welcomed Rachel Brill (Reference and Instruction Librarian), Temitayo Wolff (Daytime Reference Specialist), Nat Curtin (Evening and Weekend Library Assistant), and most recently Deborah Wassertzug (Reference and Instruction Librarian) to the team!
Himmelfarb Library continues to meet the evolving needs of our users and in 2022 our collection expanded in exciting ways! During the summer, we acquired two Quest VR Headsets that were preloaded with the Medicalholodeck medical virtual reality platform. During the August orientation, students were able to test the VR headsets and both headsets are currently available for checkout.
Library staff developed several new research guides for the Himmelfarb community. Our Borrow from Other Libraries guide breakdowns the Consortium Loan Service, Documents2Go and how to acquire materials from other libraries. The Correcting Misinformation with Patients guide is a useful tool when engaging with patients and provides techniques to assist you during complex health conversations. The NIH Data Management & Sharing Plan (DMSP) guide discusses the new NIH Data Management plan that is scheduled to go into effect early 2023. The DMSP guide explains the new policy, how it will impact researchers and what researchers can do to ensure they comply with the policy.
Lastly, Read by QxMD is an application that allows users to stay up to date on current health sciences research. The app provides full text PDFs to research and users can curate their feed to receive up to date articles tailored to their specific research interests.By selecting GW as your institution’s affiliation on the app, users will have access to Himmelfarb’s full-text collection on their smart device. To learn more about any of the listed resources, please contact Himmelfarb Library at himmelfarb@gwu.edu or (202)-994-2850.
The HSRC also reached its one millionth download recently! The repository shares GW authored research with readers around the country and new research is added on a monthly basis. Sara Hoover, Himmelfarb’s Metadata and Scholarly Publishing Librarian, co-authored with Karen S. Kesten of the GW School of Nursing on the paper ‘Doctor of nursing practice scholarship dissemination through open access repository’ which discussed the Doctor of Nursing Practice collection in the HSRC.
As we wrap up this year and prepare for the winter break, we would like to extend our gratitude to all of our users. We look forward to returning in 2023 and offering more exciting resources and services to assist you with your information, research and education needs!
