The 2018 Highly Cited Researchers Report from Clarivate Analytics (the company behind Web of Science) is an annual list recognizing leading researchers in the sciences and social sciences from all over the world. This year the report includes approximately 6,000 highly cited researchers (last year’s report included 3,400).  In addition, Clarivate Analytics has introduced a new “Cross-Field” category to identify researchers with substantial influence across several fields during 2006-2016.

To learn how a researcher makes this list, take a moment to review their methodology.

I am delighted to share that the following 23 MSK researchers have made the list this year:

On behalf of the library staff, congratulations to these researchers and to all of our distinguished authors, who through their work contribute daily to the ever-growing body of medical and scientific research.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services

International Open Access Week has been observed around the World since 2008. It is an important week which draws attention to scholarly communication initiatives and brings like-minded individuals together.

This year’s theme reflects a scholarly system in transition.  As stakeholders in this process, there is still a need to ensure that research is made available to a diverse international community. As such, the MSK Library continues to supports the principles of open access to scholarly research literature as a means to accelerate scientific discovery, potentially increase research collaborations, and ultimately share knowledge that enhances patient care.

In honor of International Open Access Week, we will be featuring five open access publications by MSK authors and will showcase one each day as a Today’s Science Sparks on the library website. You can also browse the Today’s Science Sparks’ archives to find other open access articles. Continue reading →

For those of you who haven’t heard of Sci-Hub, this website was founded by Alexandra Elbakyan and her intent for developing this site was to remove barriers that would hinder progress in science. The reality is that Sci-Hub does much more than allow visitors to illegally access published journal articles and download scientific papers. What researchers should understand is how Sci-Hub uses an individual’s personal login credentials. While a small number of credentials are donated to Sci-Hub, the majority are taken, often without the knowledge of the individual.

In a recent post from the Scholarly Kitchen (09/18/2018), guest author, Andrew Pitts provides collected evidence and real examples of how Sci-Hub is using personal credentials to get into academic institutions  — “While illegal access to published content is the most obvious target, this is just the tip of an iceberg concealing underlying efforts to steal multiple streams of personal and research data from the world’s academic institutions.”

In June 2016, I published a post entitled, “Sci-Hub: Serving Up Scholarly “Pirated” Journal Articles”, which provides additional information. For those still curious about Sci-Hub, this 2016 bibliography from Stephen Reid McLaughlin might also be of interest.

For now, we hope that our researchers will resist the urge to use Sci-Hub or any other third-party aggregator of this nature, and instead choose our Document Delivery Service for articles not found in the MSK eJournal collection.

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services