The University of Iowa Libraries

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition) provides guidelines for formatting papers/manuscripts followed by nursing and most allied health sciences disciplines. In this hands on session, attendees will have the opportunity to learn basic rules of APA formatting as well as gain experience applying APA formatting to journal, book, and web references. Resources for future referral will also be provided.

This hands-on session will demonstrate how to use CINAHL effectively to find high quality nursing and allied health literature. An explanation and demonstration of how to select the most appropriate search terms will be provided. Search practice will be conducted at the end of the session to reinforce what was demonstrated. Anyone who has an interest in learning how to use this tool should consider attending; no prior experience with searching this database is needed.

The purpose of this workshop is to explain research data management and its importance, help identify some common data management issues, and learn about best practices and resources that are available to assist researchers.

EMBASE is a biomedical and pharmaceutical database containing bibliographic records with abstracts. Although there is overlap with records from PubMed, there are also many unique records. This hands-on session will show you how to conduct basic searches using EMBASE’s quick search box, how to conduct searches using EMTREE subject headings, and how to use subheadings for drug and disease topics.

In this workshop, participants will gain an overview of the emerging landscape of alternative publishing. We will discuss advantages and disadvantages of publishing research on Web platforms that offer ‘pre-publishing,’ such as bioRxiv publishing research output other than articles, such as Figshare earning credit for peer reviews, such as Publons publish an article first and peer review afterward, such as F1000 and other novel ways and models to disseminate research output.

EndNote Basic is a web-based citation management software that is freely available to all UI affiliates. It allows you to import, organize and format citations for papers, articles, etc. EndNote Basic is not the same as the desktop software, Endnote.

EndNote is a reference management tool that helps you to easily gather together your references in one place, organize them, and then insert them into papers and format them in a style of your choosing. This session will walk you through the basics of using EndNote to collect and format your citations. The class will be hands-on and there will be time for questions at the end.

For those already using Endnote, this class teaches you to maximize the tool. You’ll learn about the Endnote options for sharing so that you can collaborate effectively. From exporting and importing to syncing and sharing, this class will help you manage your information seamlessly on the desktop, on the web, and on mobile device.

Have you ever accidently lost or deleted your old files? Have you ever had trouble locating the current version among multiple versions of your paper? Come and learn best practices on file naming conventions. File naming conventions are a set of rules that help you name your files in a consistent, logical, predictable way, allowing you to distinguish similar files from one another at a glance. With good file naming conventions, you will be able to access files without rethinking the process each time.

This workshop introduces you to the Gene Ontology (GO) framework. Publications in molecular biology mostly lack a unified language to describe their hypotheses and findings; written in ‘natural’ language, they may be easier to read but are often difficult to compare. GO, in contrast, is a controlled language that enables describing molecular functions, cellular components, and biological processes across species. Thus, it highlights similarities between observations, avoids ambiguity, and facilitates machine readability. This workshop will enable you to ‘find your way’ through the GO terminology and apply its essential concepts to your research area.

This course will cover how to search for Hardin Library resources including books and journals and how to request materials not owned by the libraries. Participants will also be introduced to our available databases, subject guides, and services. Optional tour of library spaces after session. This course can be tailored to meet the needs of a particular group.

Using images can add interest to your assignments and presentations, but do you know where to find good images and how to ensure that you use those images ethically? This workshop will help you understand copyright, creative common licenses, and public domain. You will also learn where to search for stock and health sciences images and how to cite your images appropriately.

Explore the John Martin Rare Book Room’s rich collection of rare and historical medical materials! The JMRBR has over 6400 items spanning the of breadth of Western medical scholarship, available for viewing and research. Individuals or small groups are welcome to schedule a visit focusing on several highlights of the collection, or directed towards a subject area of your choice.

Want to know as soon as an exciting new article is published? Tired of skimming the websites or paper copies of multiple journals to see what is in the new issue? This hands-on session will show you how to create a single destination for information from your favorite journals, databases, websites and blogs using RSS feeds and auto-alerts.

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences is a 55,000 square foot facility housing over 100,000 books and offering access to nearly 5400 journals. We have 3 computer labs, 2 computer classrooms, a 24 hour study area and over 500 study seats. Library tours are available to individuals or groups. Tours include an overview of the Hardin Library facility focusing on where to find materials and the location of various service points.

Mendeley is a popular citation management tool with a social networking twist, allowing researchers to share, compare, and discuss materials. This introductory session will cover the strengths and weaknesses of the Mendeley tool, as well as provide an in-depth demonstration of its functionality.

Take a tour of some new (and some well-established) apps for your mobile device or smart phone! At this informal workshop, you’ll not only be shown a variety of tools for both academic and clinical use but also invited to share your own examples and experiences. If you don’t have a mobile device, don’t worry: The only necessary smart device is you!

Overwhelmed by the number of databases that the National Center for Biotechnology Information has to offer on nucleotide sequences, genes and proteins? Wondering which database you should always start with? Would you like to learn how to set up an NCBI account to link articles in PubMed to records in other databases? Do you know about PubMed’s Gene Sensor? Learn all of these tips and more in this session that is designed for anyone who needs to search the NCBI databases for information about genes and proteins. To gather fast and reliable information about both, we will also touch upon other useful databases for both groups.

The NIH Public Access Policy, which assures that all articles arising from NIH-sponsored research are freely available within a year after publication, is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes in the scholarly publishing. Participants will learn more about these trends and to discuss experiences with publishing.

OpenRefine (formerly known as Google Refine) is a free tool for working with messy tabular data. Save yourself a lot of time by using OpenRefine when working with datasets that need to be transformed, cleaned, or otherwise processed before use. OpenRefine's facet and filter functions facilitate exploration of large datasets. Automated functions easily and quickly handle common problems with data, such as splitting cells that contain multiple data values, detecting duplicates, standardizing date formats, trimming extra spaces from cells, and combining multiple datasets into a single spreadsheet.
OpenRefine supports input of TSV and CSV files, and other data table formats. Files can be exported as TSV, CSV, Excel, and HTML tables. Advanced users can build custom templates for exporting other types of data.
To learn more, visit the OpenRefine homepage.

Prior to the workshop, please install the Release Version of OpenRefine on your laptop: https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/wiki/Installation-Instructions

Open Access to scientific literature is one of the most hotly debated topics in scholarly publishing. This workshop will provide an overview of what scientists need to know when making their research open access. We will cover the basics of what we mean by open access, how open access relates to the NIH Public Access policy, open access journals in the biomedical sciences, predatory publishing scams, and best practices for evaluating your open access options.

What is ORCID? Why would you want one? This session will discuss ORCID, how researchers can benefit from having one, and how ORCID connects with other information systems. This will also be a hands-on workshop where everyone will have the chance to create their own ORCID and learn the most efficient ways to populate their profile with their publications.

The purpose of this hands-on class is to introduce several resources found on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office website that may be used to locate information on patents, trademarks and patent applications. Google’s patent searching feature will be also be highlighted as a source for finding information on patents. Taught by Kari Kozak (Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library).

PubMed is the National Library of Medicine’s index to the medical literature and includes over 26 million bibliographic citations in life sciences. This one-hour session will show you how to improve your search results by using subject headings (MeSH) and advanced keyword searching techniques.

This class will teach participants how to use tools such as Ulrich’s, Journal Citation Reports, Web of Science, and Scopus to determine the impact that journals, articles, and authors have had on a particular field. Topics such as impact factors, Eigenfactors, and H-indices will also be discussed.
Students must bring their own laptops.

Both databases are multidisciplinary and allow you to measure scholarly impact. This hands-on session will show you
• how to quickly find the articles you need for you research or systematic review in each database
• how to track an article’s cited and citing references in each database
• how to find journal ‘Impact Factors’ using the Journal Citation Reports of Web of Science
• how to determine an author’s h-index
• how to identify a researcher and her/his publication track with Scopus,
among other useful features of both databases.

Introduction to standards and specifications. Learn how to access a wide variety of standards including ASTM, ISO, ADA, NFPA (Fluid), and the US Code of Federal Regulations. Featuring a new database, TechStreet, to gain electronic access to these standards and more. Taught by Kari Kozak (Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library).

This class will provide a framework for developing a literature search for a systematic review. Topics will include the following: standards and criteria to consider, establishing a plan, registering a protocol, developing a research question, determining where to search, identifying search terms, reporting search strategies, and managing references.
NOTE:
We suggest that “Nuts and Bolts of a Systematic Review” be taken before “Literature Searching for a Systematic Review.”

For individual instruction on this topic, please contact your liaison librarian.

This class will focus on tips and techniques for carrying out a successful literature search in support of a systematic review. Topics will include techniques for developing search strategies, deciding which databases to search and how to seek out grey literature for a given topic. There will also be discussion on selecting journals for hand searching, documenting search strategies, and saving and organizing references.

NOTE: We suggest that “Nuts and Bolts of a Systematic Review” be taken before “Literature Searching for a Systematic Review.”

Twitter is more than just a social media tool. It has developed into a vibrant real-time information network used by health care providers, scholars, and scientists. Come to this hands-on session to learn the basics of twitter, advanced techniques such as searching, and examples of its use in the Health Sciences.

Collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources with Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh], a free, easy-to-use web browser tool. Learn more at our hands on session and start gathering your materials in Zotero right away.