Macmillan and Nature SciShare Special Edition of Blog Buzz

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Macmillan’s announcement earlier this month that it is using ReadCube’s technology to allow read-only sharing by subscribers to content on Nature.com has generated LOTS of discussion. Here is a collection of just some of it. From the press release;

Subscribers to 49 journals on nature.com can now legitimately and conveniently share the full-text of articles of interest with colleagues who do not have a subscription via a shareable web link on nature.com. In addition, Macmillan Science and Education will take a lead on opening up public engagement with scientific knowledge to society at large by giving access to the same content to readers of 100 global media outlets and blogs.

There are also plans to allow for annotation of the shared materials, which certainly sounds like a wonderful way to facilitate collaboration and help publisher platforms to remain relevant by becoming creative and innovative spaces.

Is this fauxpen access as some have said (Peter Murray Rust for example) or progress in the right direction? Depends who you ask, but what is the fuss all about but many feel it is a step in the right direction. Mike Taylor’s thoughtful post about the announcement (with lots of links) acknowledges positives and negatives (the ephemeral nature of a non-printable document for one).

An interesting point, Mark Monakey, head of our Content Team mentioned is that if Nature can provide libraries with statistics on how often members of their institutions share articles it could be a valuable tool for understanding the broader impact of our paid content for the scientific community. Also, if the platform can provide us with how often our author’s papers are shared it would give us another metric of the impact of our community members and our community as a whole. This segues nicely with the question of whether this will be good or bad for altmetrics…which brings up more discussion in in the blogosphere.

Timo Hannay took questions in a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) which you can read here (heads up, academic publishing is a hot button issue on reddit and there may be some strong language in the comments).

 

Requirement Date Extended for New NIH Biosketch Format

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Last month, the NIH announced that applicants must use the new, modified biosketch format for research grants due on or after January 25, 2015. However, a new announcement was published on Friday, allowing for a 4-month extension to ease in the transition. Applicants are encouraged to start using the new format right away but will only be required to do so for applications with due dates on or after May 25, 2015.

The biosketch format was revised in order expand the focus from publications to the scientific advances associated with the researcher’s discoveries and the specific role the researcher played in those findings.

For more information and the results of a pilot survey that was conducted earlier this year, see Sally Rockey’s blog post on Implementing the Modified NIH Biosketch Format.

Smokers Lose more Y Chromosomes and more…

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  • A recent study has shown that male smokers have a greater number of cell mutations resulting in the loss of Y chromosomes in their blood cells.   This is not experienced by men who do not smoke. MSK’s Dr. Robert Benezra has said, “This is an important study,” but that more research needs to take place.  Identification of loss of Y chromosomes can bring about more rigorous screening of smokers at early points in their disease trajectory.
  • MSK’s Dr. Nadeem Abu-Rustum, Chief of the Gynecology Service, reported at the International Gynecologic Cancer Society meeting that sentinel lymph node mapping significantly assists in the staging of early endometrial cancer. It decreases side effects, makes possible the selection of lymph nodes with a higher probability of containing disease and reduces the number of lymph nodes removed, thus diminishing the possibility of the development of lymphedema.
  • Preliminary results of an MSK phase 1B clinical trial indicated that the PD-1 inhibitor, pembrolizumab used to treat pre-treated patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, brought about a response in 66% of participants in the study. The results were reported by MSK’s Dr. Craig H. Moskowitz, the lead investigator, who is clinical director in the Division of Hematologic Oncology.