- The World Health Organization (WHO) released two reports informing that a popular artificial sweetener, Aspartame, may cause cancer. Aspartame is used as a sweetener in diet sodas, chewing gums, and other food products. While occasional consumption of products containing Aspartame can hardly do any damage, the harm can come from consuming the substance in large doses, Children are more likely to be at risk as they use products containing Aspartame more often than adults, and the implication is that it would be best to limit such products consumption. The article related to the issue was published in Lancet Oncology. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disagreed with the conclusion that the studies on Aspartame support classifying Aspartame as a possible carcinogen.
- Scientists from Scotland discovered the exact mechanism of how bowel cancer evades immune system surveillance, which was a mystery to the biomedical community for quite a long time. This discovery paves the way to “potentially reversing or preventing this process”. The study was published in Cancer Immunology Research.
- Scientists from Harvard and several other institutions in the U.S. created an AI tool that could decode a brain tumor’s DNA to determine its molecular type during surgery. This information could otherwise take days to weeks to obtain. This information enables neurosurgeons to decide how to proceed best in the Operating Room. The tool, called CHARM (Cryosection Histopathology Assessment and Review Machine), while freely available to other researchers, must be clinically validated and cleared by the FDA before being used in hospitals. The report on this tool was published in the journal Med.
- A new observational study contributed to the body of evidence linking obesity to cancer. The study was led by researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in collaboration with researchers from Spain and Germany. The study followed up 2.6 million Catalan adults for the median period of 9 years, it “showed that longer duration of, greater degree of, and younger age of onset of overweight and obesity during early adulthood (ages 18–40 years) are positively associated with the risk of developing 18 cancer types.” The study was published in Nature Communications.
- Scientists from Yale University conducted research that can “help predict, treat, or even prevent side effects” of immunotherapy. So far, predicting which patients are susceptible to developing side effects from immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors and which healthy organs will take the toll is impossible. Side effects may lead to either suspending immunotherapy treatment or prescribing immunosuppressants, which could negatively interfere with immunotherapy. The study was published in Nature.
Author Archives: Marina
The 2023 Journal Citation Report is Here!
In June of 2023, the latest update of Journal Citation Reports (JCR) was released by Clarivate. As each year’s JCR release offers the previous year’s data, this latest release provides 2022 data.
The JCR (sourced from Web of Science Core Collection) is a database that offers journal metrics which are helpful for comparing journal rankings, or relative standing of journals, within a field/discipline. As such, this database, along with other resources, is often used by the authors for determining the most appropriate journal for submitting their manuscript.
Clarivate has made the following changes in this year’s release (they only impact the 2022 data released in June 2023 and were not retroactively applied to previous years):
- Expanded JIF coverage
The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is now extended to all Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection journals, including those indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) and the multidisciplinary Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). Thus, JIF is now applied to all editorially selected, quality journals, including open access, niche, and regional journals - Altered JIF presentation
The JIF has been reduced to one decimal place rather than the previously used three decimal places. According to Clarivate, the change has been made to encourage users to consider other indicators and descriptive data in the JCR when comparing journals.
This year’s release allows researchers to quickly identify which journals in over 250 disciplines were cited most often, explore citing journals, affiliations and geographic locations of contributing authors, and other analytics.
To access the Library’s JCR subscription, use MSK Library’s A-Z Database list. If you need more information about this resource, please don’t hesitate to ASK US.
Pubmed Filters that are MeSH
In PubMed you can use Filters (sometimes referred to as Limits), located on the left hand side of the search results screen to limit your search by certain criteria. The Filters fall into several categories, such as Article Types, Article Language, etc. Some are visible on the search results screen by default, and some can be found and made visible for the future use when clicking Additional Filters button.
The Filters are efficient and handy tools for refining a search, adding desired criteria to your search terms, thus significantly increasing search precision.
However, users may not be aware of the fact that most of the Filters are, in fact, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms set up as clickable Filters but functioning as MeSH terms behind the scenes. For example, if you apply a Clinical Trial Filter, your move will be translated by PubMed as adding a search term “clinical trial”[Publication Type] to your search strategy with an “AND” Boolean Operator, e.g. cancer AND “clinical trial”[Publication Type], Publication Type is a category in the MeSH tree.
Of course, if you are a proficient searcher you can type “clinical trial”[pt], instead of clicking the Filter button which just supports refining your search in an easy and visual way.
Filters are a great feature, however there is a caveat. When you apply a Filter that is a MeSH, your search will automatically be limited to Medline portion of Pubmed. Pubmed is comprised of Medline, as well as many open access articles (mostly coming from Pubmed Central) not indexed for Medline.
To efficiently search Pubmed in it’s entirety, you must construct your search strategy as a combination of MeSH and keywords. MeSH are assigned only to Medline references and there is some lag time in this process. When applying Filters that are based on MeSH to your search it will not retrieve these references only found outside of Medline, as well as some recent Medline references not yet assigned MeSH.
In other words, by using such Filters you limit your search results to Medline only (excluding some very recent references not yet assigned MeSH) instead of getting all Pubmed search results.
The Filter categories that are MeSH terms include:
- Article Type (publication type)
- Species
- Sex
- Age
These filters should be used with caution.
The non-MeSH Filters are safe to use in any search, including:
- Text Availability
- Associated Data
- Publication Date
- Article Language
In conclusion, it is possible to combine applying Filters with using appropriate search terms if you aim at limiting your search by some criteria, yet searching all of PubMed, but as this requires search proficiency it would be best to get assistance at your Library.