Three Questions: Eric W, Programmer Analyst III

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For our next Three Questions interview, we spoke with Eric W, Programmer Analyst III.

Image of a forest in Oregon.

Eric hiking in Oregon.

What areas can you help MSK users with?

I help users behind the scenes on Library websites and applications like Synapse (the publication database of MSK) and the MSK Data Catalog (datasets used in research at MSK), among many others. In collaboration with my colleagues, I work on projects to add new features to existing applications as well as develop new ones to help meet the research needs of MSK.

What projects have you been working on recently?

Some of my current projects: I’ve been working with our Research Data Management Librarian to create a data policy API and a separate front-end app that will help MSK researchers understand and meet the compliance requirements of their publishers and funders. I’ve also been working with the Library Director on a database and display for accessing past quarterly Advancing Authorship seminars hosted by the Library.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I’ve wanted to go on a safari and see the pyramids ever since I was a child. Rather than just one specific area, I’d like to travel around the continent of Africa.

 

Tools for Ranking Journals by Impact

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Many considerations should factor into a well-made decision about which journal(s) an author should target for manuscript submission. (For more info, see the MSK Library’s Support for Authors LibGuide.) 

As they explore their options, it’s often useful for authors to get a sense of how reputable a particular journal title is based on how this journal ranks – in terms of impact – versus other journals within the same discipline. In general, journal impact metrics are generated using a mathematical algorithm that is largely based on article citation counts over a pre-specified time period. Citation count data can provide some indication of a journal’s influence and reach, particularly when considered relative to other journals.

Below are three tools (two subscription databases available via the MSK Library and one free online search engine) that can be used to generate journal impact ranking information that can aid with the journal selection process.

Journal Impact FactorsTM – and the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) rankings that they lead to – are generated using two years-worth of article citation data compiled in Clarivate’s Web of Science database. This metric has been around for over 50 years, and was developed by the originator of the citation analysis concept, Eugene Garfield, who is often considered the grandfather of information science and scientometrics. 

See more details on how the Journal Impact FactorTM is calculated.

Elsevier generates it own impact metric, called the CiteScoreTM, by using the citations to articles, reviews, conference papers, book chapters and data papers published over a four-year publication window. Similar to Clarivate, Elsevier can generate these metrics because the data needed for the calculations is available from its flagship Scopus database.

See more details on how the CiteScoreTM is calculated.

Google Scholar, although not a structured database populated with records that have standard fields (as is the case in JCR and Elsevier’s Scopus Sources) still collects citation data that it compiles via the Google Scholar search crawler. It then uses citation data to generate an h-index type metric for the entire journal, as opposed to the usual use of the h-index to evaluate the productivity of an individual researcher. Google Scholar h5 metrics are calculations based on the citation count to published items from the last five complete calendar years.

See more details on how Google Scholar h-based metrics are calculated.

Be sure to check out the MSK Library’s Measuring Research Impact class and the Evaluating Journal Quality class if you have questions, or Ask Us! 

New MeSH Terms for 2022

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The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It is used for indexing, cataloging, and searching of biomedical and health-related information. MeSH includes the subject headings appearing in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases.

The NLM has released its annual list of MeSH changes, including highly anticipated NEW MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) terms for 2022!

The list covers a variety of changes and updates made to MeSH, including:

  • Updated terms — these are MeSH terms that have been deleted, changed, or replaced to reflect more updated terminology
    • 24 terms were updated for 2022
  • New terms — these are brand new MeSH terms added
    • 277 new MeSH Descriptors were added for 2022
    • 218 new Supplementary Concepts were added for 2022

New Covid-19-related MeSH Headings:

New Cancer-related MeSH Headings:

Note: The MeSH Browser can be used to conduct in-depth searches of the vocabulary within MeSH, whereas the MeSH Database is a mapping tool within PubMed to quickly locate terms and add them to search strategies.