Trial: Journal Watch

Himmelfarb Library is pleased to offer you the opportunity to survey a trial of Journal Watch. Journal Watch reviews over 180 scientific and medical journals to present important clinical research findings and insightful commentary.

The following specialties are available as a part of this trial: Aids Clinical Care; Cardiology; Dermatology; Emergency Medicine; Gastroenterology; Infectious Diseases; Neurology; Oncology and Hematology; Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine; Psychiatry; and Women's Health. Journal Watch has also made available an Audio Service, which features Expert Interviews; Clinical Conversations; and the specialty of General Medicine.

You can access Journal Watch content through the Himmelfarb Library Electronic Journals webpage. The trial period runs from now through November 31, 2009. If you have questions or comments, please contact Serials Librarian Steven Brown at mlbswb@gwumc.edu.

Request & Recommend Resources to Himmelfarb

Himmelfarb Library welcomes recommendations from faculty, students and staff members for materials of all types that we may want to add to our collection. Because of your research, clinical, and educational expertise, you may be aware of an information resource that would be valuable to our collection, and we want to hear from you!

Although the final addition is dependent upon a number of factors, we depend upon your input to identify high-quality materials. Once a request is made, we will review the specific title, balance it with the other titles in the same area, and keep you aware of the final disposition. We will also provide any training necessary.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to make us aware of your request. You can submit requests and recommendations:

Please help us with your special knowledge as we try to make our collection one of the best available.

Psychiatry Portal: PsychiatryOnline

PsychiatryOnline provides a single portal to access high-quality psychiatry information for clinical care, research, and education by providing full-text access to the DSM-IV, seven core psychiatry textbooks, six journals, APA practice guidelines, patient education information, and self-assessment quizzes.

PsychiatryOnline provides access to the current edition of the DSM, the DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It also provides full-text access to prior editions of the DSM going all the way back to the original edition. These prior editions are provided for reference only, so information from them won't be included in your search results. In addition to the DSM, PsychiatryOnline provides access to resources to assist you in clinical work:

PsychiatryOnline provides access to the current editions of a core set of textbooks published by American Psychiatric Publishing. All textbooks are available in full-text format, and can be searched or browsed for information. PsychiatryOnline's textbook collection includes:

All American Psychiatric Association journals are provided in full-text format beginning with the 1997 issues and continuing through the present. You can also link to the full-text journals from databases including PubMed, MEDLINE, and Scopus. PsychiatryOnline's journal collection includes:

PsychiatryOnline provides full-text access to the APA's practice guidelines. The APA guidelines are intended to provide evidence-based recommendations for the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

To help patients understand psychiatric diagnoses and therapies, PsychiatryOnline provides access to a set of materials created specifically for patients and their families. PsychiatryOnline's patient educations materials include:

You can use PsychiatryOnline's self-assessment area to evaluate your knowledge of subject matter in different areas. The self-paced, online quizzes are based on content in four of the core online textbooks.

Access to PsychiatryOnline is provided via the Himmelfarb Library website. Remote access is available to all GWUMC faculty, students, and staff; information and instructions for remote access are available from the Library's Off-Campus / Wireless Access webpage. PsychiatryOnline can also be accessed via Blackberry/Treo PDAs/smartphones. Users will automatically be re-directed to a web version which is optimized for viewing on mobile devices.

Before your first mobile visit, you will need to create a free personal "My PsychiatryOnline" account. To create an account, access PsychiatryOnline from the Library's website using a desktop or laptop computer, then click the "My PsychiatryOnline" link and follow the instructions for creating an account. Your "My PsychiatryOnline" username and password will then give you access to the mobile site.

2nd Floor Closed & Quiet Study for Boards

The 2nd floor of Himmelfarb Library will be closed from Tuesday, July 15 through Monday, August 3 for the final phase of construction.

To provide dedicated quiet space for 4th year medical students studying for boards, the following areas have been reserved for their use:

  • 6 carrels in the Bloedorn Technology Center (3rd Floor Himmelfarb)
  • Study room/lounge adjacent to the Bloedorn Technology Center (3rd Floor Himmelfarb)
  • Rooms T2 and T3 (Basement/Terrace Level Himmelfarb)

MS3 Clerkships: Information Resources

A new web tutorial, MS3 Clerkships: Information Resources, is available for 3rd year medical students which links to information resources relevant to each of their clerkships. The tutorial provides a tab for each clerkship (e.g. OB/GYN, Pediatrics, etc.) and provides links to 'best bets', key textbooks, handheld resources, and research article databases. The tutorial even includes a list of the EBM publication types to help identify high-quality clinical information.

Himmelfarb Library's print and online collections are extensive, so these lists are by no means exhaustive, but indicate promising places to start an information search. As always, if you have questions, please ask us! We're reachable by phone, email, or IM.

Historia Medicinae – new GWUMC journal

GWUMC students have published a new online journal for articles on the history of medicine, Historia Medicinae. The journal is student run and has published its inaugural issue. Historia Medicinae will cover "all periods of medical history from classical and ancient medicine to historical developments in modern medicine."

The first issue includes articles on:

Historia Medicinae can also be found on the Library's e-journals webpage beginning on Tuesday, April 28.

Where are Himmelfarb Library's bound journals?

To create additional study space at Himmelfarb Library, bound journals which were formerly located on the 2nd floor of Himmelfarb Library have moved. Many of these bound journals are now available in on-site storage, while others have been moved to off-site storage. Information on the location of all bound journals can be found by searching the Library Catalog.

If you need an article or issue which is located in on-site storage, simply complete a brief online request form. The volumes which you request will be retrieved from our on-site storage facility and can be picked up at Himmelfarb Library's Reference and Circulation Desk after one hour.

If you need an article which is located in off-site storage, please submit your request electronically via our Documents2Go Request Form. The articles that you request will be ready with two to four business days. Articles can be delivered to you via email, or printed copies can be picked up at Himmelfarb Library's Reference and Circulation Desk.

Electronic access is also provided for the majority of the Library's journal collection; users can access electronic journals by searching the Library Catalog or accessing the E-Journals webpage.


Image: Anonymous. (circa 1930-1941). The Stacks. [Online image]. Retrieved February 5, 2009 from http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/photos_1930_1941.shtml

Compare journals using the Journal Analyzer

Researchers often want an objective way to identify the most influential journals in their field when looking to publish their work. We have written previously about a few online tools for comparing journals. Now Scopus, a powerful bibliographic and citation database, has released Journal Analyzer.

Journal Analyzer is a easy-to-use graphic tool for comparing up to 10 journals at a time. You choose the journals and Scopus gives you interactive graphs and charts starting in 1996 with the following information:

  • Total citations - the number of citations received by that journal each year
  • Articles published - the number of articles published in that journal each year
  • Trend line - the number of citations divided by the number of articles published each year

To access the Journal Analyzer, click on the Analytics tab at the top of the page in Scopus. Give it a try next time you're looking to compare journal performance.

Neglected Infections and Poverty

A review article on the Neglected Infections of Poverty in the United States of America was published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases recently. This article, written by GWUMC faculty member Dr. Peter Hotez, describes the hidden diseases of poverty - ascariasis in Appalachia and the South, dengue fever in the U.S.-Mexico border region, trichomoniasis in inner cities - which are "characterized by their high prevalence, chronic and disabling features, and disproportionate effect on the poor."

In this article, Dr. Hotez describes not only the specific diseases, but also how these conditions are part of a cycle of poverty with profound effects on child development, pregnancy outcomes, and worker productivity. To complement this article, Himmelfarb Library provides access to the following information resources:

Image: Lange, D,. (1936). Migrant mother. [Online image]. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lange/aa_lange_power_2_e.html.

Do vaccines cause autism?

Today's edition of the Washington Post features an article entitled Fathering Autism which is about a father's experience caring for a daughter with autism. The father in the article is GWUMC's Dr. Peter Hotez who is the Walter G. Ross Professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and the principal scientist for the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative.

In the article, Dr. Hotez describes his daughter and his family's life as well as the suggestion that autism is caused by mercury or thimerosal, a mercury derivative, which used to be used as a preservative in vaccines. To learn more about this controversy, the following materials may be useful:

You can explore additional information on this topic in Himmelfarb Library's print and electronic collections.

Image: Finkenstaedt, M. (2008). Autism in a Doctor's Family. [Online image]. Retrieved July 1, 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com.

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