Levy Library Blog

On Tuesday, November 28th, librarian Rebecca Snyder taught "Academic Integrity and Reference Management," the most recent  in the Scientific Writing and Publishing series. As the title suggests, this class covered the basics in maintaining integrity within academic writing and best practices for using reference and citations tools. 

Strategies used to ensure that academic integrity is upheld in writing include proper citing, quoting (and punctuation), and paraphrasing. Citations are extremely important when borrowing text from another source. In fact, writers need to be cautious not to omit citations for their own works (known as self-plagiarization). Through the writing process, one of the best things you can do is to develop your own habits and understanding of best practices. 

Reference management tools help writers and researchers organize their citations and references for quick access and recall. Use of reference management make it easier to stay within the bounds of responsible scholarship. Such tools include EndNote (the most widely used in academic communities), Mendeley, and Zotero.

Congratulations to Rebecca for a great class!

On November 16, librarians Samantha Walsh and Celine Soudant presented "Grey Literature: What it is & how to find it." This class introduced the concept of "Grey Literature," materials and research that are produced outside the realm of traditional (or commercial) publishing and distribution means. Types of grey literature include market research reports, statistical reports, presentations, bibliographies, lecture notes, newsletters and blogs...to name a few. 

One significant challenge that can accompany grey literature is the lack of quality control. Data within grey literature is not always easily fact-checked. Since grey literature is not published through a permanent, commercial channel, the longevity of its internet existence cannot be guaranteed.

On the other hand, grey literature is of great value in the fact that it can be produced quickly and reflect the most accurate and up-to-date research data. This type of literature supports free and instantaneous access to research information. 

"Best Practices for Manuscript Preparation and Data Visualization" took place this past Tuesday taught by Jill Gregory, Associate Director and Certified Medical Illustrator. The students and faculty who attended received tips and best practice guidelines on how to properly represent the research data that they collect. Jill also gave the class pointers on how to spot data that has been manipulated or misrepresented.

Jill Gregory

Thank you to Rebecca Snyder and all who attended! 

On Tuesday, November 21st, excited students gathered round to welcome Chica Chula, a new member of Mount Sinai's pet assisted therapy program, to Levy Library for this month's Tail Tuesdays. 

Tail Tuesdays, running since 2012, is our monthly program in which students, faculty and staff can take a break and help relieve stress with a therapy dog visit. 

Thank you to Chica Chula and Patty for visiting Levy Library!

Each month the Levy Library showcases the achievements of Mount Sinai faculty and researchers by highlighting an article and its altmetrics. Altmetrics are alternative measures of impact that capture non-traditional data like abstract views, article downloads, and social media activity.

This month we highlight the article written by a team of researchers including Mount Sinai’s Ruth Jf F Loos, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Institute of Personalized Medicine.

Citation data: PLoS Genetics, ISSN: 1553-7390, Vol: 13, Issue: 4, Page: e1006528

Publication Year: 2017

Researchers: James E. Hayes, Ruth Jf F Loos

Summary: 

Physical activity (PA) may modify the genetic effects that give rise to increased risk of obesity. To identify adiposity loci whose effects are modified by PA, we performed genome-wide interaction meta-analyses of BMI and BMI-adjusted waist circumference and waist-hip ratio from up to 200,452 adults of European (n = 180,423) or other ancestry (n = 20,029). We standardized PA by categorizing it into a dichotomous variable where, on average, 23% of participants were categorized as inactive and 77% as physically active. While we replicate the interaction with PA for the strongest known obesity-risk locus in the FTO gene, of which the effect is attenuated by ~30% in physically active individuals compared to inactive individuals, we do not identify additional loci that are sensitive to PA. In additional genome-wide meta-analyses adjusting for PA and interaction with PA, we identify 11 novel adiposity loci, suggesting that accounting for PA or other environmental factors that contribute to variation in adiposity may facilitate gene discovery.

View article on Plum X

View Dr. Loos' profile on Plum X