Author Archives: Marina

Narrowing Down Google Results

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Once you run a Google search, you have several options to narrow your search results.

One way is searching Google using its general search box and then limiting the search results to News, Images, Videos or other common material formats. You can then further refine your search by format:

  • Type your search terms in the Google search box
  • Once you get the search results, click on the format icon of your choice (e.g. News, Images, Videos) located under the Google search box
  • Click on Tools (also located under the Google search box) to see drop down menus with options that allow refining your chosen format search

These options are sensitive to each format. For example, you can refine your Images search by Size, Color, Usage Rights, etc., while your Videos search can be refined by Duration, Source, etc.

Predicting Immunotherapy Response, Cancer Relapse and More

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  • The researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center discovered that cancer cells express DUX4, a gene responsible for certain muscular dystrophies, to protect themselves from the effects of immunotherapy, in particular – from immune checkpoint inhibitors. The implications of this research would be development of therapies that would target DUX4 and thus make treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors more efficient. The study is due to be published in Developmental Cell.
  • Researchers from the University of Western Australia in collaboration with Telethon Kids Institute and 13 health research organizations looked into the genes in cancer samples and devised a way of using cancer samples to identify potential response to immune checkpoint inhibitors therapy before initiating immunotherapy treatment. This could help identify drugs that improve response to checkpoint inhibitors. The study was published in Science Translational Medicine.
  • Researchers from the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center have come close to developing a blood test, based on a patient’s immune response, which may predict relapse of breast cancer. The study was published in Nature Immunology.
  • It is known that cancer cells spread in the body by feeding on sugar. British researchers discovered that if deprived of sugar, cancer cells switch, with the help of a protein called AKR1B10, to fatty acids as a source of energy to boost their spread. The implications could be for diagnosis, as increased levels AKR1B10 may predict metastatic spread; and for management, which means development of new treatments that would prevent cancer cells from using fatty acids. This preclinical study was published in Nature Communications.

How to Identify Peer Reviewed Articles

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Peer review, a process of evaluating a manuscript by the authors’ professional or academic peers in the same subject area and making recommendations on its acceptance by a journal, is an important practice for ensuring the quality of published literature. Because peer review provides a level of vetting to ensure that the research and research conclusions are sound, it’s important to understand and be able to identify peer reviewed articles when you’re searching the literature for an evidence-based practice project or question, or to answer a patient care question.

Peer-reviewed journals are the best place to be sure that the articles you are looking at are peer-reviewed. However, please keep in mind that some content types published in a journal are never peer-reviewed, such as editorials and letters to the editor.

When searching a database, you may want to narrow down your search to peer-reviewed articles. In some databases, such as PubMed or Web of Science, most articles are peer reviewed. Other databases, such as CINAHL, allow for filtering search results by peer reviewed status.

You may also want to ensure that an article was published in a peer reviewed journal by looking the journal up in a specialized source, such as Ulrich’s Global Serials Directory (Ulrichsweb).

Ulrichsweb offers a wealth of information on individual journals in multiple disciplines. It has separate records for print and online versions of the same journal and offers multiple details, such as the list of databases in which the journal is indexed. It also tells you whether the journal is refereed (another word for ‘peer-reviewed’).

On the search results list you can always tell the refereed status by the presence or the absence of the referee shirt icon to the left of the journal name.

Once you click on a journal title you’re interested in, the journal record will display the Refereed field and the refereed icon (see highlighted field below).

Keep in mind that it’s always advisable to verify the journal’s peer review status directly on the journal’s website (typically linked from the journal’s Ulrich’s record), especially when Ulrich’s does not display the refereed icon and does not have the Referred field in the record.

If you have any questions about peer review or the peer review status of a specific journal, please don’t hesitate to Ask Us!