Category Archives: Health and BioMed

Brown University Library Celebrates National Public Health Week 2023

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A view of 121South Main Street. Photo by Ken Zirkel.

In keeping with the theme of National Public Health Week 2023, Centering and Celebrating Cultures in Health, below are some relevant projects, initiatives, and resources from the Brown University Library.

Subscription resources available via the Library

A search for “public health” as subject retrieves these results in BruKnow, the Library catalog. You may use the filters on the left side to refine results by format, library, language, and more. Sign in with your Brown credentials to access or request any of the results.

Key academic research databases, books, journals, and other resources for Public Health can be found here: libguides.brown.edu/PublicHealth.

Freely-available online resources for reliable health information

KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation)

Nonprofit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. KFF develops and runs its own policy analysis, journalism and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with major news organizations. KFF serves as a nonpartisan source of facts, analysis and journalism for policymakers, the media, the health policy community and the public.

MedlinePlus.gov

Offers high-quality, relevant health and wellness information that is trusted, easy to understand, and free of advertising, in both English and Spanish. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which is the world’s largest medical library and a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

EthnoMed

EthnoMed is Harborview Medical Center’s ethnic medicine website containing medical and cultural information about immigrant and refugee groups. Information is specific to groups in the Seattle area, but much of the cultural and health information is of interest and applicable in other geographic areas.

More freely-available online resources can be found here: libguides.brown.edu/ConsumerHealth

Center for Digital Scholarship projects

Learn more about the Twitter projects on Black Maternal Health and My Body My Choice that the Library’s Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) staff have collaborated on with faculty. Information about other CDS projects can be viewed on the CDS website.

Special Collections

Request access to special collections materials at the John Hay Library on Alcohol and Addiction Studies, ACT UP Rhode Island, and more! Find information about many special collections holdings and researching and accessing special collections.

Best Bets for Full Text Access to Journal Articles in the Health and Biomedical Sciences

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Brown has thousands of online journals, but sometimes it’s hard to know the best route for quick access to the articles you need. Streamline your research workflow with these tips for quickly accessing full text:

  • Using PubMed? Use the Brown-specific URL, then click on the “Find It” icon in the abstracts to ensure you’ll see all available subscriptions or interlibrary loan options.
  • LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that allows users to seamlessly authenticate and download PDFs when a journal article is detected. The LibKey icon shows across different platforms, from subscription library databases like JSTOR, to open databases like PubMed and Google Scholar, publisher journal pages, and even Wikipedia references. 
  • Have a PMID or DOI? Go to Libkey.io, enter it into the search box, and LibKey will show you our access options. 
  • Configure Google Scholar to connect to Brown. Set Brown as your default library by going to Settings→ Library Links→ search for Brown→ select Brown University Library→ Save.
  • Want to keep up with professional reading? Create a bookshelf of your top journals with BrowZine. With BrowZine, you can easily follow titles of interest, be notified when new articles are published, and save/read articles on your device of choice.

For more detailed guidance, see Full-text article access.

Library Data Management and Publishing Support Services

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The University Library’s research data management and publishing support services are available to all Brown-affiliated faculty, staff, and students, including clinical faculty with Brown credentials. Learn about our full array of research support services at https://library.brown.edu/info/research-support-services/.

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs)

In 2022 the University renewed its license for LabArchives electronic lab notebooks. LabArchives has no limit on file storage and is 21 CFR part 11 compliant. Principal investigators can create project notebooks for themselves and each lab member, and share them with external collaborators. In compliance with Brown’s Research Data and Research Materials Management, Sharing, and Retention Policy, the PI will retain ownership and access to all members’ notebooks and may retain and share a copy with any departing team member. 

LabArchives Education

Brown’s license also includes LabArchives Education, for use in lab courses. LabArchives Education allows instructors to create a course lab notebook containing protocols and assignments; students and TAs may be given different levels of access, and both individual and group work are supported. Contact the Library for support at [email protected] or sign up for training on research or educational ELN use.

Preparing for NIH’s new Data Management and Sharing Policy (DMSP)

The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) new Data Management and Sharing Policy goes into effect on January 25, 2023, and the Library is ready to support its new requirements. Our Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMP) consulting service can connect researchers with funder templates and Brown resources for managing and sharing data. Contact the Library for support at [email protected] or access Brown’s guidance and submit a draft DMP for library review by logging into and using the DMPTool and following the prompts.

Support for Brown’s Faculty Open Access Policy

In 2021, the Brown faculty adopted a Faculty Open Access Policy, which calls upon faculty to deposit either a copy of a working paper (pre-print), a final peer-reviewed manuscript, or an open-access publication in a not-for-profit repository such as Brown’s branded-space within BioRxiv or MedRxiv; a funder’s publication repository such as PubMed Central (PMC) or NSF-PAR; or the Brown Digital Repository (BDR). Contact us for support at [email protected].

Support for Public Access Compliance

On August 25, 2022, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memo requiring federal funding agencies to develop plans to make publicly-funded publications and data available to the public without an embargo period. Agencies will be developing these updated public access policies over the coming years. As always, if researchers need help complying with current National Institutes of Health (NIH) or National Science Foundation (NSF) public access mandates, like depositing a non-compliant paper in PubMed Central, contact the Library for support at [email protected].

Literature Reviews and Evidence Synthesis Projects in Health and Biomedical Sciences

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Health and Biomedical Library Services (HBLS) provides support for traditional literature reviews as well as evidence synthesis projects. Our service is growing: in 2021, the  members of the HBLS team partnered on 30 literature reviews (including systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses), and in 2022 we’re on track to surpass that number by another 5-10 projects. Request process

Request process

To better manage requests and staff capacity, we have updated our service guidelines and introduced a project intake form. Please consult our Health Sciences Literature Reviews resource guide for these updates, as well as to learn more about the distinction between traditional literature reviews and evidence syntheses, find methodology guidance, tools for searching and screening, and more. 

To meet with a librarian about your project, please review the service guidelines and complete the intake form.  Researchers should reach out to us for assistance with their research projects early in the process. At this time, comprehensive reviews that require thorough literature searches across multiple databases (for example, systematic reviews or scoping reviews) may take the librarian 2-3 months from the first meeting to deliver results.

New Resources: McGraw Hill Medical Suite plus Expanded DEI Titles, More

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Full McGraw-Hill Access Medical Suite 

The Library recently upgraded our subscription to the full McGraw-Hill Medical Suite. In addition to AccessMedicine, we now provide access to 16 McGraw-Hill Medical and specialty collections, including AccessPediatrics, AccessPharmacy, AccessEmergencyMedicine, and JAMAEvidence. These collections include critical textbooks, test prep materials, procedures videos, calculators, and more. You can find all of these resources through our access to McGraw-Hill Medical, or read more about them on our McGraw-Hill handout.

New DEI collection and enhanced ebook access

In addition, the Library purchased access to new ebook collections. From Lippincott-Williams we have added the Ovid Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) collection, along with the 2022 Core Collection from Doody Enterprises, expert reviewers of biomedical publications. These additions will provide access to top rated publications in biomedical fields ranging from allergy/clinical immunology to vascular surgery. The easiest way to access these titles is via [email protected].

Even more science titles

We were also able to add hundreds of recent medical, biomedical, and life sciences titles from Springer Publishing. All of these are now available through BruKnow, the Library’s online catalog. If you would like a detailed list of titles, please contact the HBLS team.