The scholarly communication landscape, especially over the last five years, has been changing rapidly. A noteworthy “new kid on the block” that has recently seen a big increase in availability, visibility, and use, is a category of resource type often referred to as “Interim Research Products”.

Interim research products are basically research documents that are shared publicly prior to their final publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. In other words – keeping in mind that there are multiple definitions by different stakeholders that continue to evolve in this space – they are: research products that become part of the public scientific record without yet having been confirmed by peer review.

Most common among them are preprints and preregistered protocols. Recent discussions of these two types of interim research products that may be of interest:

1: Xu J, Zhang L. Will Medical Preprints Change Oncology Practice? JAMA Oncol.2020 Feb 20. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.5972. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID:32077893. 

2: Schiavo JH. PROSPERO: An International Register of Systematic Review Protocols. Med Ref Serv Q. 2019 Apr-Jun;38(2):171-180. doi:10.1080/02763869.2019.1588072. PubMed PMID: 31173570.

Funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), among others, have started encouraging the use of interim research products as they may potentially improve the rigor of research work and speed up the dissemination of research results, not to mention allow for more transparency in the research process.

For example, the rapid sharing and dissemination of research findings is a critical goal of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative as a way to accelerate cancer research. Specified in their documentation is the requirement “that all publications and data resulting from Cancer Moonshot funded initiatives will be required to be immediately accessible“. 

From their Cancer Moonshot Public Access and Data Sharing Policy website: 

“Much of the urgency highlighted by the Cancer Moonshot and in the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendations to the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) in 2016 emphasizes that the rapid availability of cancer publications and the primary data behind it promotes dissemination of new knowledge, enhances reproducibility, and accelerates the ability of researchers to build upon cancer research to make new discoveries.” 

With this aim in mind, the Cancer Moonshot Initiative uses a broader definition of “publication” and “publish” than is traditionally used on their funding information website, and one that is more inclusive of interim research products. More specifically:

• Publication: A “Publication” includes (a) published research results in any manuscript that is peer-reviewed and accepted by a journal¹ or (b) a complete and public draft of a scientific document (commonly referred to as preprint).²
• Publish: To “Publish” means to report in a publicly accessible manner.

For more information about finding and citing interim research products, be sure to Ask Us at the MSK Library.

As the “pause” period in our region extends, it’s more important than ever for everyone to stay active as best they can to maintain their optimum physical and mental health. There are already published articles appearing in PubMed on this topic – for example these recent papers:

1: Chen P, Mao L, Nassis GP, Harmer P, Ainsworth BE, Li F. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): The need to maintain regular physical activity while taking precautions. J Sport Health Sci. 2020 Mar;9(2):103-104. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2020.02.001. Epub 2020 Feb 4. PubMed PMID: 32099716; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7031771.

2: Jiménez-Pavón D, Carbonell-Baeza A, Lavie CJ. Physical exercise as therapy to fight against the mental and physical consequences of COVID-19 quarantine: Special focus in older people. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2020 Mar 24. pii: S0033-0620(20)30063-3. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2020.03.009. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32220590; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7118448.

3: Altena E, Baglioni C, Espie CA, Ellis J, Gavriloff D, Holzinger B, Schlarb A, Frase L, Jernelöv S, Riemann D. Dealing with sleep problems during home confinement due to the COVID-19 outbreak: practical recommendations from a task force of the European CBT-I Academy. J Sleep Res. 2020 Apr 4. doi:10.1111/jsr.13052. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32246787.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, has also released some guidance on “Staying Active While Social Distancing”, as has the American College of Sports Medicine. Their “Exercise is Medicine^” initiative has created the Rx for Health series which is available in multiple languages and now includes handouts on: Being Active During the Coronavirus Pandemic and Keeping Children Active During the Coronavirus Pandemic that are intended to be distributed to patients by healthcare providers.

Stay safe, active, and be well everyone – and if you need any research help, just Ask Us!

Regardless:

• Of your physical location – whether you are working from home or on-site at MSK,
• Of what device you are working on – whether you have been issued an MSK laptop or are working on your personal computer,
• If you have set-up VPN, PingID, and ez2Factor or not,
• If you are a clinician or non-clinician,
• If you have worked remotely from home before or not,
• If you need a journal article or book chapter on a specific topic,
  
  …your information and research needs can be met via the MSK Library’s homepage!

Note:  Not all MSK Library’s resources have been converted to electronic formats although our collection development policies favor electronic versions of resources (when available and not cost-prohibitive) – for both books and journals.

Paired with its super-efficient Document Delivery Service (which allows the library to take advantage of both the print and electronic collections of other libraries), the MSK Library is well-positioned to offer a comprehensive digital library experience for the entire MSK community.

Here’s what you need to do if you are NOT on the MSK campus and are NOT using VPN from offsite:

To gain access to the MSK Library’s electronic resources remotely, all you need to do is go to the MSK Library’s homepage at https://library.mskcc.org/ (you can even just Google “MSK Library” to reach it) and then click “Remote Access” located at the top right of your screen.

Enter the requested information and start using resources by launching them from the MSK Library website.

If you have any issues finding or accessing resources, please be sure to Ask Us.