Author Archives: Donna

Altmetrics: Is it Gaining Traction as a Measure of Research Impact?

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In July 2014, without any fan fare, we embedded the donut-shaped Altmetric Badge as a new feature on Synapse (MSK Publication database). What this new feature provides to the viewer, when available, is a way to measure the online attention received by a particular work, with the option to be alerted whenever the work receives any new mentions. The Altmetric score is “derived from an automated algorithm, and represents a weighted count of the amount of attention ….. picked up for a research output.” Readers and authors can click on the donut score to be taken to the details page for that specific work where they can further explore all the original mentions and sources. The Altmetric Donut Badge is not unique to Synapse; it can also be found on a variety of publishers’ platforms including Elsevier, Springer Nature, and PLoS.

Altmetrics, or alternative metrics, introduced a new approach to determine the value, impact, or popularity of research within the digital scholarly ecosystem. These web-based metrics come in the form of tallied views, downloads, cites, saves, bookmarks, tweets, shares, likes, recommends, posts, comments, and tags.  Tweets, for example are displayed in the context of a map showing the global Twitter reach of the work. You can also review the News tab to see which news outlets picked up the published research to share beyond the scientific community.  Available information is delivered in real time and can change daily.  Continue reading →

Have You Heard of NEJM Catalyst? Join a Community Focused on Health Care Delivery and Patient Care

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I just returned from attending the annual NEJM Library Advisory Board and wanted to showcase in this month’s Director’s Reflection, an awareness resource that I learned about that would be beneficial to many individuals at Memorial Sloan Kettering and beyond!

On December 10, 2015, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) group announced the launch of a new resource that they hope will bring about a positive change for an audience that includes health care executives and senior managers, clinical leaders, physicians, residents, physician assistants, nurses, and all individuals interested in improving the value of health care delivery and patient care.

The goal of NEJM Catalyst is to provide information about practical innovations, insights from leaders and experts in the health care field, impartial and objective publications (articles), case studies, video talks, and events, that will encourage a forum for the exchange of ideas and perspectives from those involved in the health care community. This resource has been organized around key themes impacting health care today – patient engagement, care redesign, the new market place, and leadership. Continue reading →

ORCID@MSK – New Library Service Supporting Researchers’ Scholarly Workflow

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UPDATE: The MSK Library is pleased to announce that effective today (03/01/2016) our authors can register at ORCID@MSK.  Authors who already have a Synapse‘s profile will soon receive email notification from the Library about next steps. 

ORCID@MSK is about to bloom….I mean … launch.  The MSK Library staff is very excited to be rolling out this new service in support of our authors.  Our timing coincides with a recent open letter released by a group of publishers (to include eLife, EMBO, PLoS, and Science) announcing their support and commitment in requiring ORCID iDs in their publishing process for their journals, and inviting other publishers to do the same.  Through manuscript submission systems, publishers are in an exclusive position to encourage widespread adoption of ORCID. Nature Publishing Group (NPG), Wiley, and Elsevier have been accepting ORCID iDs for several years, although they have yet to make this a requirement.

Why is this service so important and what are the benefits for our authors?  An ORCID iD from the Open Researcher and Contributor ID registry is a unique, permanent, and universal digital identifier for authors. This 16-digit number (expressed as a URL) serves a valuable purpose – to eliminate author name ambiguity and improve discoverability to one’s research and scholarly works.

Memorial Sloan Kettering is an institutional member of ORCID.org and once ORCID@MSK is launched, we will be encouraging all our authors to register as this identifier over time will become a requirement in the scholarly publishing landscape.

ORCID iDs will create greater efficiencies for authors, publishers, funders, and others involved in scholarly communication activities. This identifier is being included as a searchable field in bibliographic and abstracting databases (e.g. PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science), will ensure that all scientific and research contributions are associated with the “right” researcher, and will aid in automatically populating an NIH biographical sketch. This translates to no more re-typing the same data!

We will be launching ORCID@MSK before end of February.  Below is a sneak peek of what MSK authors can look forward to seeing and the benefits of registering through ORCID@MSK.  Continue reading →