Love Data Year Round

Posted on by

Love Data Week (February 14-18) is an important reminder of the role that data creation and management play in research. It’s a week where we collectively recognize the value of datasets, code, analytical tools, and all the people who engage with data to provide informational support for science.

Of course, like many of you in the MSK community, the Library loves data all year round! For the past few years, we have been developing a Research Data Management program which has focused on developing services and applications to integrate with researchers’ workflows, lower administrative burdens, and encourage partnerships to support researchers throughout the life of their experiments, from planning to publication, and beyond.

Recently ResearchDataQ, a digital platform from the Association of College and Research Libraries Digital Scholarship Section, published an editorial profile written by the Associate Librarian for Data Management Services and the Library Director at MSK about the origin of our program, our new service and application initiatives, and our roadmap for future development. Read more here.

So, if you are interested in learning more about any of our initiatives, especially if you love data the same way we do, then send us an email, sign up for a class, request some one-on-one time with a data librarian, or ask us to set up a personalized data session for your lab. We hope you’ll take some time to love data, this week and throughout the year!

Race and Ethnicity-related 2022 MeSH changes

Posted on by

Over the last year, many stakeholders involved in scholarly publishing have been revisiting the terminology used for reporting race and ethnicity in biomedical literature, for example:

Flanagin A, Frey T, Christiansen SL; AMA Manual of Style Committee. Updated Guidance on the Reporting of Race and Ethnicity in Medical and Science Journals. JAMA. 2021 Aug 17;326(7):621-627. 

Flanagin A, Frey T, Christiansen SL, Bauchner H. The Reporting of Race and Ethnicity in Medical and Science Journals: Comments Invited. JAMA. 2021 Mar 16;325(11):1049-1052. 

In 2022, the National Library of Medicine, producer of PubMed/MEDLINE, also made changes to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) related to race and ethnicity, replacing multiple headings with more up-to-date terminology that better matches with the latest United States Census terminology. Among the 24 changes to MeSH headings this year were:

African Continental Ancestry Group >>>> Blacks
American Natives  >>>>  American Indians or Alaska Natives
Asian Continental Ancestry Group  >>>>  Asians
Continental Population Groups   >>>>  Racial Groups
Ethnic Groups >>>>  Ethnicity
European Continental Ancestry Group >>>> Whites
Hispanic Americans  >>>>  Hispanic or Latino
Oceanic Ancestry Group  >>>>  Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Below is a more detailed view of how the MeSH Tree Structures were affected by the changes. To compare, here is the Population Groups Tree from MeSH 2021:
2022 MeSH replacements:

“Ethnicity”[Mesh]

A group of people with a common cultural heritage that sets them apart from others in a variety of social relationships.

“Racial Groups”[Mesh]

Groups of individuals with similar physical appearances often reinforced by cultural, social and/or linguistic similarities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


2022 MeSH additions: (to MeSH trees other than “Population Groups”)

“Health Disparity, Minority and Vulnerable Populations”[Mesh] 

Groups of persons whose special characteristics make them a minority, vulnerable, and frequently subjected to conditions with limited levels of access to health care and other opportunities. (Most of the 2021 “Ethnic Groups” MeSH tree terms were moved here.) 

“Ethnic and Racial Minorities”[Mesh]

Socially constructed groups of people who differ in race, color or national, religious, or cultural origin from the dominant group and is often the majority population of the country in which they live. Ethnic minority groups generally share a common sense of identity and common characteristics such as language, religion, tribe, nationality, race, or a combination thereof.

 

 

 


The MeSH vocabulary is reviewed annually and revised on an “as needed” basis to best represent the latest subject matter appearing in the biomedical literature. It is not perfect and always a work in progress that grows and changes organically. Everyone is welcome to write to the NLM help desk to submit a request for a change or addition to the MeSH vocabulary.

Questions? Ask Us at the MSK Library.

A Renewed Cancer Moonshot

Posted on by

Earlier this month, President Biden announced a renewed Cancer Moonshot initiative aimed at halving the cancer mortality rate within 25 years. The new plan focuses on increasing screening and access to care.

Larry Norton, MD, and Debra Schrag, MD, MPH

Left: Larry Norton, MD. Photo by Juliana Thomas.
Right: Debra Schrag, MD, MPH. Photo by Richard DeWitt.

Numerous outlets interviewed experts at MSK for their thoughts about the plan. In USA Today, Dr. Larry Norton expressed hope that the plan will improve coordinated access to and sharing of patient data, which could drive new advances. He told Grid News that he believes cutting the mortality rate in half may happen more quickly than anticipated.

In NBC News, Dr. Deb Schrag said that the goal is a realistic one, given that cancer is many diseases, and often a consequence of aging. She added in The Washington Post that we currently lack solutions for cancers linked to obesity, which are expected to rise. In VOA News, she said that the focus on care accessibility could allow vaccination and screening to reach more people.