Research impact assessment — A new tool available to help

Thinking about how to assess your research’s impact? A new tool on doing just that — Assessing the Impact of Research — was recently unveiled by Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

I recommend reviewing this tool in its entirety. And, please note that there is something for every one here: researchers, communication experts, administrators, etc. Here are some highlights from one librarian’s perspective:

• The “Strategies for Enhancing the Impact of Research” section has three focus areas:
  • Preparing for publication: This area outlines steps to consider taking before you publish an article. From consistently using the same variation of your name (i.e. Lynch, AE) in all your publications to having a very explicit statement about how your research may translate into the clinical setting, this area is a must read.
  • Dissemination: Submitting your article manuscript to a subject or institutional repository (e.g. PubMed Central) will help get the word out about your research. Consider publishing negative results so that others learn from your experience and don’t duplicate the study/hypothesis, etc. Create a research study web site in order to collocate your articles, presentations, and other published updates in one online space and be sure to have an area for patients and communities to learn what your study’s outcomes may mean for them. These three topics are just a few of the items discussed in this section.
  • Keeping track of your research: Sign up for ResearcherID or LinkedIn and include your publications, presentations, etc. Update your Scopus Author profile to make sure your published content is correctly associated with you and not someone else. Keep updated on your PLoS publication Article-Level Metrics, which goes far beyond who’s citing you in Web of Science and Scopus. Again, just a handful of great tips for tracking the use of your work and associating it with you as the author.

• Think of the Reporting Template as a working document to be updated throughout a study’s life cycle. The template contains a “Documented Evidence” column to help researchers track their study’s impact. The other two columns cover the “Indicators” and “Examples” of research outputs and activities.

Interested in discussing this tool? Contact me (alynch@coh.org; x60520). Interested in filling out the Reporting Template for your research study(ies)? Let me know…because I’d be glad to help you get started and the creators of the tool (Cathy Sarli and Kristi Holmes) would like to know too.

How to access library resources from off campus

Did you know?  You can access nearly all of the library’s electronic resources (e-journals, e-books, databases) from off-campus using City of Hope’s Virtual Private Network (VPN).  We get lots of questions about how to use VPN to access library materials, so we have prepared a help sheet with step-by-step instructions and screenshots to get you started.

If you have any questions or encounter any problems accessing library resources with VPN, please let us know.

Login to the Graff Library Computer Lab Computers

The Graff Library computers are set to automatically login. Providing an NT user account and password is not necessary.

These computers do allow users who need to use their COH NT user accounts to log in. In order to use a specific user account:

• perform a logout procedure;
• When given the final OK to logout, hold down the Shift key;
• Hold the key down until you get the NT network login screen;
• Login with your COH account as usual.

When finished remember to logout or your network access will remain open to the next user of that computer. The automatic library login will go into affect once you log out.

CINAHL Frequently Asked Questions and Helpful Tips

CINAHL is a database for finding literature and audiovisuals in nursing, public health, and allied health areas. Find CINAHL by going to the library’s Biomedical Databases page; it is listed under “Nursing/Social & Behavioral Sciences.”

In January, we scheduled training sessions on CINAHL for two nursing departments. Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions. You had great questions and feedback about CINAHL that will be incorporated and implemented in future learning opportunities, in addition to being highlighted below.

CINAHL Frequently Asked Questions

• What will I find using CINAHL? The types of publications found using CINAHL are journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and audiovisuals. The CINAHL date coverage is 1981 to present. Nursing and allied health subjects covered include: pediatric oncology nursing, oncology nursing, genetic nursing, holistic nursing, behavioral sciences, nutrition & dietetics, health information management, surgical technology, as well as health promotion & education and alternative/complementary medicine.

Scopus Training Day — Tips and Tricks for Using Scopus

Before you jump into Scopus (or any database for that matter), getting to know how the resource works will save you time and, possibly, frustration. Sure you can figure the database out as you use it or by reading the Help documentation, but reviewing the below Scopus tips and tricks before you start searching will save you from wasting time figuring out what is happening behind the database scenes, allowing you to focus finding and reading the items you need.

Have some Scopus tips and tricks of your own? Share them with us and your colleagues by using the comments feature below.

Have Scopus questions? Contact Andrea Lynch (alynch@coh.org or x60520). In the meantime, take a look at the post on Scopus FAQs.

Scopus Tips and Tricks