If you’re wondering whether or not to upgrade to EndNote version X5 you might want to consider this great new feature that’s been added to the application. X5 now includes a PDF window that not only allows you to view PDFs within EndNote but also allows you to annotate text with highlights and/or text:
You annotate text by adding “stickies” to the document:
View this online tutorial for more information about version X5.
You’re doing in depth research on, say, artificial knee implants. Perhaps you’re applying for a research grant or thinking about applying for a patent. You need to do a comprehensive search and find everything that’s out there. You’ve searched PubMed, then other databases such as Web of Science (WoS) and BIOSIS Previews. That’s it then, isn’t it? Unfortunately, no isn’t! If you really want to do a comprehensive search and find as much scientific or technical information as you can about any topic, you would have to search the patent literature. Databases such as Chemical Abstracts and BIOSIS Previews include some patent records, but if you want access to the complete patent literature you have to go beyond bibliographic databases and the peer-reviewed literature.
A patent is not just a legal document but is also a technical description of an invention, be it a new drug compound, an artificial knee joint or a new procedure for isolating DNA. The patent literature is an important, unique, and often overlooked source of technical and research data, much of which is never published or disclosed elsewhere. It is estimated that up to 80% of scientific or technical information disclosed in a patent application is not disclosed anywhere else. Because a patent application needs to be applied for before the first publication of an invention, patents and patent applications are often published earlier than academic papers.
Thankfully, the majority of the patent literature is now freely available on the web. The following are links to free key sources for patent information. These sites also provide general information about patents and the patent process:
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) provides bibliographic details or access to the full text of US patents from 1976 and TIFF images for all patents from 1790 to the present
The patent database of the European Patent Office (EPO) offers free patent searching of documents from over 50 different countries and access to the full text of many via its esp@cenet interface.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s PATENTSCOPE lets you search 10,078,403 patent documents, including 1,982,614 published international patent applications (PCT).
Google Patents searches over 7 million patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as well as patent applications submitted to the office.
For trustworthy information on HIV/AIDS visit the MedlinePlus HIV/AIDS site. MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Web site for patients and their families and friends and offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made translational medicine research a high priority. UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) is one of the 60 institutes nationwide awarded through the NIH Clinical Translational Science Award program in 2006 and was recently awarded a five-year, $112 million NIH renewal grant to help accelerate translation of research to improve health.
Cross-discipline collaboration has grown rapidly over the last few years. The CTSI promotes collaborative and interdisciplinary translational research. To facilitate researchers not only locally but also nationally and internationally to find experts, collaborators or mentors from UCSF, CTSI created a “UCSF Profile”.
It’s very easy to use. You can find investigators by searching research topic or by name/department. Below is an example of Dr. E. Blackburn’s profile. You can see whom Dr. Blackburn networks with (who co-authored with her; who worked on similar research topics) and her publications.
Try this useful UCSF research expertise database to find mentors, collaborators and experts!
Many of you will have moved to the new RefWorks 2.0 interface. The new interface has the same features as the classic interface but is easier to navigate and use:
RefWorks "Classic" Interface
RefWorks 2.0 Interface
Up to now you’ve had the option to switch between the new interface and the old. However, if you haven’t started to use 2.0 you should switch as soon as possible because Classic is going away. It will no longer be available after December 31, 2011.
You can view these quick online tutorials if you aren’t familiar with 2.0.
PubGet’s PaperPlane
A previous post highlighted PubGet, a Web-based search engine for life sciences researchers for conducting searches of the medical literature and fast retrieval of full-text PDFs. However, if you don’t have the time or inclination to explore yet another biomedical search engine and just want to stick with PubMed, you can still get fast access to PubMed’s PDFs by using the PubGet PaperPlane tool.
It’s simple to use. First you add a PaperPlane bookmarklet to your browser toolbar:
When you search PubMed, click on the title of an article to select the Abstract format:
Then select the PaperPlane link from the Bookmarks menu/bar and PubGet opens a new window and gets you the PDF:
As this week is Open Access Week this might be good time to remind you what all the fuss is about and to provide you with links and information for you to get better acquainted with the Open Access (OA) movement, what it’s trying to achieve and how it benefits both the researcher and the general public.
General introduction to Open Access (OA):
Tools and information for the researcher:
You’ve been working diligently on your research, and now you’re ready to get your new ideas out to the academic world. What are the things you should be aware of even before you start to write your research paper?
I found an easy to follow 25 minute video produced by Taylor & Francis Publishing. I gained so many helpful insights from the presentation while watching and listening to the presentation at my desk during lunch.
Here are some of the things I learned:
A snapshot of how an academic researcher approaches the publication process:
Yes, you can use RefWorks with your iPad! Using Safari you can import, edit, and organize references as usual. Unfortunately the Cite-N-Write module does not work with the iPad’s Pages word processor. But if you really want to format a paper on your iPad you can do it using Google Docs. This video from Thomas Jefferson University shows you how to use RefWorks’ one-line-one-cite feature with Google Docs:
You also won’t be able to easily download records from PubMed via Safari so you should perform your PubMed search through RefWorks. From the Search menu select Online Catalog or Database, then PubMed:
But remember that a PubMed search from within RefWorks will not have all the advanced options than a search on the PubMed website will give you.
I came across this book on the NCBI Bookshelf: Citing Medicine, 2nd Edition -Authored by Karen Patrias and Dan Wendling and published by the National Library of Medicine, it provides information on how to cite all manner of print and non-print items for your bibliographies. There are examples of ways to cite unpublished manuscripts, patents, websites, online journal articles, email discussion forums, DVDs, and more. Of course the regular print article citation formats and book formats are also included. The book also includes several appendixes such as Abbreviations for Commonly Used English Words in Journal Titles, Notes for Citing MEDLINE/PubMed, and ISO Country Codes for Selected Countries. Keep a link to this on your desktop and you will quickly be able to look up and find the correct citation format for whatever type of material you need to cite in your bibliography.
