Category Archives: About the Library

Invitation to Join Journal Editorial Board

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Earlier this month, I received an email invitation to join a journal’s editorial board.  At first glance, I was delighted for the opportunity and flattered that someone would think of me for this role.   Then…. on closer examination, red flags started to appear.

The sender’s email address did not reflect the publishing company, the website link was not included, nor the address of the organization.  In addition, the reason that was given for why they wanted me to join the board was because of a paper I co-authored in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship, published in July 2015.  The topic of the paper was the relevance of a library’s physical space, while the journal trying to recruit my services was focused on Integrative Medicine.  I didn’t see any connection between these two subject areas. Continue reading →

Three Questions for our Librarians – Mark

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This month, I asked three questions to Mark Monakey, Associate Librarian, Content Management.

What areas can you help MSK users with?
In my position as Associate Librarian, Content Management, one of my main responsibilities is to acquire new materials for the MSK Library. This includes books, journals, and databases. We often receive recommendations directly from MSK users on what resources we should add to our collection. My team works with users to ensure that their input has been received and considered, that we purchase/license materials from the best source, that our accounts are paid in full, that the resource is accessible from our catalog, and that our budget is balanced.

What projects have you been working on recently?
In conjunction with our Tri-Cat partners, Weill Cornell Library and Rockefeller University Library, we recently completed a full data migration from Innovative Interfaces Inc.’s Millennium integrated library system (i.e. the Tri-Cat catalog) to Alma/Primo (i.e. OneSearch), Ex Libris’ next-generation library management solution and discovery and delivery solution. The new Alma/Primo system includes essential cataloging, patron record management, and circulation features, as well as integrated digital content management, and a statistics analysis tool that can generate customized reports regarding our collection.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would travel to South Korea with my family – we would start off in Seoul then travel to JeJu Island, and then end our vacation in Busan.

More About Preprints

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In academic publishing, a preprint is the version of a scientific paper that often is seen prior to its publication in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The preprint is usually available at no cost to the reader before and/or after the paper is published. As is the case with most preprint services, an author has a venue to post his or her findings ahead of the formal peer-review and publication process. There are also other benefits for the author when a decision is made to upload the manuscript to a preprint server. Among them – this action can help reduce the research publication time frame, speed up the process in disseminating the findings, and establish early provenance of the research.

Last year, I published a post about preprints (04/28/17) and listed a variety of sources that would be of interest to the MSK research community. Recently, there was a news release (03/20/18) from the American Chemical Society (ACS) announcing its partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry and the German Chemical Society, adding to the list of preprint sources.  These three societies have come together to support the strategic development and associated costs for the global premier preprint server – ChemRxiv.

This year, we have the pleasure of collaborating with members of our PostDoc community to host an event focusing on preprints at one of the MSK Library’s Advancing Scholarship Discussion Series sessions. Working with Michiel Boekhout, PhD, and his colleagues (Lilian T. Lamech & Zheng Ser), our goal is to bring awareness about the value and benefits of preprints. Michiel, along with Lilian and Zheng are eLife Ambassadors, and one of the causes that eLife Ambassadors hope to champion is preprints and encouraging researchers to start posting their research findings as preprints (when appropriate).  You can read more about how eLife offers authors the opportunity to submit a preprint to bioRxiv.

Our upcoming event is scheduled for the end of June 2018.  Don’t hesitate to contact Michiel Boekhout (boekhoum@mskcc.org) or me to learn more.  You can also start exploring the value of preprints by reading the following editorial published in PLoS Biology (May 2017) entitled, “Ten simple rules to consider regarding preprint submission.”

Donna Gibson
Director of Library Services