scholarly communication

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library Dr. Franz: Infection pattern and transmission potential of chikungunya virus (Open Access)

Dr. Franz: Infection pattern and transmission potential of chikungunya virus (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services Zalk Veterinary Medical Library
Posted on

Dr. Alexander Franz, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the department of Veterinary Pathology at the College of Veterinary Medicine. His research focuses on mosquito-borne arboviruses and their interaction with the mosquito. Recently, his team became involved in studying Zika virus, i.e. developing an animal model, in collaboration with Dr. Jeff Adamovicz (Dept. of Veterinary Pathobiology, MU), and Dr. Carl Gelhaus, (MRI-Global, Kansas City); in collaboration with Dr. R. Michael Roberts (Life Sciences Center, MU), [they] are taking part in the investigation of the mechanism allowing Zika virus to infect human placenta-derived cells. If you would like to learn more about Dr. Franz, click here,

Dr. Franz, along with Dr. Shengzhand Dong and their research team, published in Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific mega journal published by the Nature Publishing Group.. In August, a blog post on the Scholarly Kitchen, mentioned that the journal is likely to become the biggest one in the world, overtaking the open access journal, PLOS ONE. Their article, Infection pattern and transmission potential of chikungunya virus in two New World laboratory-adapted Aedes aegyptistrains, discusses the mosquite-borne Chikungunya virus and its infection pattern.

 

Why did you choose to publish in an Open Access journal?

“We were interested in reaching a broad audience also in countries/institutions that may not be able to afford high-price journal subscriptions and therefore rely on open access articles to get informed about scientific developments/discoveries. This is especially useful when working on things like tropical disease agents, which often are a problem in countries that do not have a rich science infrastructure.”

Would you publish in an Open Access journal again?  If so, why?

“Yes, I would. I like the concept of open access even though it means that we (as authors) have to pay for the publication. But ususally, it also means that we (as authors) retain the copy rights of our work.”

home Budget, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Additional details about $150,000 Health Sciences Library collections cut

Additional details about $150,000 Health Sciences Library collections cut

By E. Diane Johnson   Posted in Budget J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
Posted on

You probably have already heard about the cut to the MU Libraries Collections planned for the coming year .  Here’s what we know as of now about what it will mean for the Health Sciences Library:

Our collections allocation will be reduced about $150,000 compared to last year – a 20% reduction.

Meeting this target will require us to:

  • Drastically reduce our book spending to only $21,000 in new purchases in FY2017.
  • Cancel $100,000 in Health Sciences Library journal subscriptions.  These cuts will be made based on a combination of factors, including:
    • Usage and cost per use.
    • Journals with subscription prices which far outstrip normal inflation are getting special scrutiny. Some examples
    • To the extent possible, we will try to maintain subscriptions to the journals you publish in, cite, or have identified as core to your work.
  • This $100,000 cut must be taken from the $577,000 in subscriptions under the direct financial control of the Health Sciences Library.
  • These cuts are in addition to reductions to University Libraries centrally-administered journal subscription packages from Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Oxford and Springer.  Any cuts to journals in those packages will be in addition to, not in the place of the $100,00 journal cut facing the Health Sciences Library. 

 

A list of all journal subscriptions under review, with prices and publishers listed, is now live on the Health Sciences Library web site, along with additional details about the budget challenges facing our library. The list will be a continually updated with cancellation information until we reach our budget reduction goal.

 

Please let us know if you have questions and concerns.

 

home Resources and Services Learning to JAM in 5 steps: New initiative reminds journalism students to archive their digital work

Learning to JAM in 5 steps: New initiative reminds journalism students to archive their digital work

By Edward McCain   Posted in Resources and Services
Posted on

Journalists take note: the internet eats your stories for lunch. News professionals who assume someone else is saving their digital output are often shattered to find they have little or nothing to show for years of stressful work on deadline.

Read more at the Reynolds Journalism Institute blog: Learning to JAM in 5 steps: New initiative reminds journalism students to archive their digital work

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Dr. Beucke: Out of the classroom and into the community (Open Access)

Dr. Beucke: Out of the classroom and into the community (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
Posted on

Dr. Nathan Beucke, MD., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Child Health at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. His research interests include General Pediatrics, Newborn Care, and Pediatric/Childhood Obesity. If you would like to learn more about Dr. Beucke, click here.

Dr. Beucke, along with several MU medical and graduate students, recently published in BMC Medical Education, an “open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in relation to the training of healthcare professionals, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing education. The journal has a special focus on curriculum development, evaluations of performance, assessment of training needs and evidence-based medicine.” Dr. Beucke’s article, Out of the classroom and into the community: medical students consolidate learning about health literacy through collaboration with Head Start, discusses the Eat Healthy, Stay Active! program, a pediatric obesity prevention program implemented at Head Start, over an academic year.

home Resources and Services Fiscal Year 2017 Collections Update

Fiscal Year 2017 Collections Update

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
Posted on

The University Libraries are proceeding with the previously announced 1.2 million dollar reduction to our collections expenditures for FY17. More information about the need for this spending reduction and how we are identifying potential savings can be found at –  University Libraries – FY17 Collections Budget update. The update now includes an initial list of titles recommended for cancellation.

Faculty and students may contact the subject librarian for their program with questions. General questions may be sent to Shannon Cary at carysn@missouri.edu. The University Libraries are committed to providing quality service and timely access to materials, though more materials will need to be acquired using our consortial and interlibrary loan services.

home Budget, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Health Sciences Library collection allocation reduced $150,000 for FY17

Health Sciences Library collection allocation reduced $150,000 for FY17

By E. Diane Johnson   Posted in Budget J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
Posted on

You probably have already heard about the cut to the MU Libraries Collections planned for the coming year .  Here’s what we know as of now about what it will mean for the Health Sciences Library.

Our collections allocation will be reduced about $150,000 compared to last year – a 20% reduction.

Even after drastically curtailing our book spending , we will still need to cut around $100,000 from the journal subscriptions managed by our library.

Also subject to the 20% cut are the centrally administered journal packages from Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Oxford and Springer.  It will be some time before the cut lists for those packages are finalized.

But any cuts to journals in  those packages will be in addition to, not in the place of the $100,00 journal cut facing the Health Sciences Library.

The same goes for the electronic resources which are purchased at the 4-campus level via the MERLIN consortium.

We will share more information as it becomes available.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Dr. Mehr: Impact of a decision-making aid for suspected urinary tract infections on antibiotic overuse in nursing homes (Open Access)

Dr. Mehr: Impact of a decision-making aid for suspected urinary tract infections on antibiotic overuse in nursing homes (Open Access)

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
Posted on

Dr. David Mehr, M.D., is a William C. Allen Professor in Family Community Medicine and Director of Research at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Dr. Mehr was awarded a $4.5 million federal grant to support a new Center for Patient-Centered Research Outcomes at MU. This interdisciplinary study is bringing together experts from across campus to investigate how to help patients and physicians understand which prevention and treatment options are best for each individual, especially patient who are older and/or dealing with complex chronic diseases.Construction is currenlty underway for the Patient-Centered Care Learning Center.

If you would like to read more about Dr. Mehr, click here for his profile.

Dr. Mehr recently published in BMC Geriatrics, an open access journal that publishes original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of the health and healthcare of older people, including the effects of healthcare systems and policies. The journal also welcomes research focused on the aging process, including cellular, genetic, and physiological processes and cognitive modifications.

McMaughan, D. K., Mehr, D. et al. (2016). “Impact of a decision-making aid for suspected urinary tract infections on antibiotic overuse in nursing homes.” BMC Geriatrics 16(1): 1-9.

home J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library Seeking your input on Springer, Sage and Oxford journals

Seeking your input on Springer, Sage and Oxford journals

By E. Diane Johnson   Posted in J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Zalk Veterinary Medical Library
Posted on

Faced with the prospect of cutting about 20% of our collections budget and having reviewed the subscriptions from the largest publishers, the campus libraries are beginning a  review our Springer, Sage and Oxford journal subscriptions, which account for close to $700,000/year of the library collection budget.

Based on past usage patterns and an analysis of alternate access to some of these titles, we will be trimming our subscription spending with these publishers by substituting article-based access and interlibrary loan for the  journals that are less used by our campus community, or duplicated elsewhere.

You’ve already “voted” with your usage, but if you wish to offer additional comments on these titles, you will find a list of low use titles in Health & Biological Sciences here.

Or, you can review the entire list of 2,600 titles if you prefer.

home Budget, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library Zalk Library & the FY17 MU Libraries Budget

Zalk Library & the FY17 MU Libraries Budget

By Kate Anderson   Posted in Budget Zalk Veterinary Medical Library
Posted on

8 June 2016

Information on the MU Libraries FY17 budget and how these cuts will affect the veterinary collections

Summary: For the MU Libraries, the 5% campus-wide budget cut amounts to $877,000. About 70% of this cut ($627,000) will come from reductions in operational expenditures (e.g., staffing, services, etc.); 30% ($250,000) will be cut from the collections budget.

In addition to the 5% cut, the collections budget faces further and significant shortfalls due to increasing costs of materials, cuts to UM System library funds, and other funding shortages. For FY2017, the MU Libraries collection budget is facing a $1.2 million shortfall. This shortfall represents a nearly 20% cut to library collections.

Subject funds to be cut 20%: As mentioned in Ann Riley and Rabia Gregory’s communication dated May 26, subject-specific funds are facing a 20% reduction. I directly control approximately $50,000 for “veterinary” materials and will need to cut $10,000 from that fund. In order to protect online veterinary journals, I will be cutting low-use print only journals and severely curtailing book purchasing. If you need a book for your research or teaching, please let me know. Your input on book purchasing is extremely useful – I want to make sure I’m purchasing what you need and not what I think you need.

IMPORTANT: Many of the resources you use are included in our journal packages or are included in other science and biomedical subject funds. All of the science librarians will be working closely together to mitigate the impact of the severe collections cut as best we can.

Your additional feedback will be needed: Thanks for your comments on journals in our ScienceDirect and Wiley packages. This feedback is informing our negotiation process with these publishers. Over the summer, we will be soliciting feedback on additional journal titles.

Thank you: This is not an easy or pleasant task. If you have any questions or want additional detail, please contact me.

More information on the Libraries collections budget can be found at: http://library.missouri.edu/collectionsreviewupdate/

Kate Anderson
Head, Zalk Veterinary Medical Library

home Budget, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Update on Collections Cuts

Update on Collections Cuts

By E. Diane Johnson   Posted in Budget J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library
Posted on

Thank you for your input in the review of some of our low usage journals this spring.

  • 992 people participated in the review.
  • 352 of those users were from Health Sciences disciplines.
  • We received feedback on all 600+ journals on the list, and this information will be very useful to have in the upcoming journal package  negotiations.
  • You can view the responses here.

It will be some time before we know how much this review will help to address what now appears will be a $1,200,000 shortfall in the collections budget.

Since this shortfall represents 20% of the collection budget for the campus libraries, we have been asked  to prepare for a 20% cut across all of our collections.

That will amount to around $77,000 for the Health Sciences Library. 

Sadly, most of this will have to come from our journal subscriptions, since we had already pared back our book spending in 2011 when we started purchasing books only on demand.

We will do our best to minimize the impact of these cuts, but they will be painful because they are so deep. In many cases, we will have to settle for access rather than ownership of needed material – hardly a sound or sustainable strategy for building or maintaining a research library collection.