Scholarly Communication
NIH Public Access Policy Workshop
On October 20 from 10am to 12pm in the LHL Electronic Classroom (LHL G-40) there will be a “how-to” workshop on the NIH Public Access Policy and manuscript deposit requirements. Attendees who bring manuscripts can receive assistance with submission during the second half of the workshop. No registration is required. For more information, please contact me at lvucovi@uab.edu
Feedback request on Journal Decisions for LHL
The UAB Lister Hill Library staff is requesting input from researchers and clinicians on journals the library will license for 2010. Journal renewal for 2010 began in July. Their vendor, EBSCO requested that they return a renewal list in August because they’re making significant changes and cutbacks. Your opinions, suggestions, input, etc are very important to them as they make these subscription decisions. They aim to keep all core titles that they can; what they need most from you is to know what specialty journals you and your colleagues would like them to subscribe to . Please reply to Lee Vucovich (lvucovi@uab.edu) or contact Liz Lorbeer, Associate Director for Content Management directly at lorbeer@uab.edu . Please let them know the journals that you use regularly and any additional information about the journal (s) or its importance you would like to include to help inform the decision. The deadline date for feedback is August 7 as the list of list of core and faculty requested titles will be submitted August 14. Please be sure if you have residents, post-docs, or graduate students working with you, to ask them what they need. Most of the requests they received during the year were from this group. Thank you for your assistance!
How to develop a Scientific Manuscript
Today in the UAB Spain Auditorium, Dr. Dale Benos, UAHSF Endowed Chair in Biomedical Research & Chair of the UAB Department of Physiology and Biophysics, presented his well-known seminar on Developing Scientific Manuscripts. Dr. Benos has been presenting this information on the UAB Campus for over five years. In explaining to today’s participants why a seminar on how to develop scientific publications is important, Benos said, “I know some of this information sounds so obvious, but if it was obvious we would all do it, and we don’t!”
Given that most scientific research is multi-disciplinary, most publications have an average of six authors. Benos’ biggest piece of advice to new investigators is to establish work assignments among all potential authors of a manuscript up-front and to keep lines of communication open among all authors. “This will prevent a lot of problems in the future and increase the chances that your manuscript will be accepted for publication,” he said.
His presentation covered the following topics: the overall process of scientific publication, issues to conisder before you start to write, elements of a journal article, the review/revision process, tips to enhance your chances of acceptance, and ethical issues.
Developing Scientific Manuscripts is one of several seminars offered by the UAB CCTS Scientific Writing Seminars. To learn more about these Seminars, visit the UAB CCTS web site at: http://www.ccts.uab.edu/pages/sws.aspx
The NIH Public Access Policy and You
Fact: Only 20% of all electronic articles in the scientific literature are free and available to everyone.
In 2003, Congress asked the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a way to provide the public with free access to all NIH-sponosered research. The result is the NIH Public Access Policy which is a federal law that requires all researchers to submit all final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that are accepted for publication and result from NIH funding. This policy applies to all manuscripts that are:
- peer-reviewed;
- accepted for publication in a journal on or after April 7, 2008;
- result from the following funding: an NIH grant or cooperative agreement active in Fiscal Year 2008; an NIH contract signed on or after April 7, 2008; or any direct funding from the NIH Intramural Program.
NIH wants the final manuscript, not the final journal article, because the author holds the rights to the manuscript while the publisher holds the rights to the article. These manuscripts are deposited into PubMed Central and will be made available for free public access no later than 12 months from publication.
To help UAB researchers, UAB’s Lister Hill Library offers a service to help submit manuscripts to NIH.
Click here to learn more about the Open Access movement.
