Check out the Levy Library blog post from this day back in 2006!
Levy Library Press, the in-house press of the Levy Library at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, provides a platform for inter-professional scholarship that promotes open research across science and medicine. It aims to facilitate and support the foundation of Open Access peer-reviewed, academic journals at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Keep reading to learn more about our journals!
Journal of Scientific Innovation in Medicine
The Journal of Scientific Innovation in Medicine is an international, open access, peer-reviewed journal in the area of transformative scientific developments that provide new concepts and paradigms in treatment of human disease. The mission of this journal is to advance an understanding of how to apply new technology, scientific discovery and innovative solutions in order to expand the frontiers of medicine. The journal welcomes manuscripts that present original research pertaining to therapeutic discovery from both clinicians and scientists as they discover new ways to treat diseases and illnesses. The journal also welcomes submissions of original research related to the impact of scientific discovery on the health care system; including costs, value and applicability. In addition, the journal solicits original papers exploring scholarly attitudes towards clinical innovation, exploring healthcare technology assessment and the effect of new technology on society. We also welcome medical student, resident and fellow papers and accepted conference abstracts. We encourage trainees to publish their work, e.g. originating from evidence-based research, which will be subject to constructive peer review process.
ISMMS Journal of Science and Medicine
A student-run publication of The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai! The ISMMS Journal of Science and Medicine is an international, open access, peer-reviewed academic journal in the areas of Biomedical Science, Medicine and Health Administration and Leadership. The journal welcomes manuscripts that present original research, reviews, short communications and essays pertaining to these disciplines written by students across all ISMMS programs and internationally. [Note added 9/30/2024: this journal ceased independent publication as of June 1, 2023. Students now contribute to the Journal of Scientific Innovation in Medicine]
Practical Implementation of Nursing Science
Practical Implementation of Nursing Science is an open access, peer-reviewed journal for nurses engaged in clinical practice. The journal encourages contributions from clinical nurses who advance the science and practice of nursing by adopting, refining, or innovating nursing care in the practice setting. PINS encourages submissions of Original Projects conducted in the practice setting, including evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and research. PINS also welcomes Nursing Lens contributions, which take the form of op-ed pieces or personal essays focusing on healthcare delivery and policy from a nursing perspective, Literature Reviews, including systematic, scoping, and narrative reviews, and Case Studies to highlight challenging experiences in nursing that generate thought-provoking conversations about the nature of patient care in contemporary practice.
Linda Paulls, MLIS
Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Librarian
Consumer health information is information on health topics and medical conditions available to the general public at the layperson level, usually written in non-technical language. It’s estimated that 70% of U.S. adults search the web for health information.1 Online information can influence health beliefs and health decision-making. Unfortunately, not all health websites are credible, accurate, or up-to-date. With so many seeking online health information, some less-than-credible or opportunistic websites can attempt to influence information-seekers for their own gain, rather than offer unbiased, evidence-based information. Some of these websites offer opinions not facts, while others are motivated by a sponsor or business with the goal of promoting something.
So, how can information-seekers identify a credible website from a bad website? Luckily, there is criteria for evaluating consumer health websites, sometimes referred to as the ABC’s of evaluating consumer health websites:
- Accuracy: Information should be based on facts from medical research, not opinion. Authors’ email address(es)/contact info, and credentials should be provided. Is this person qualified to write on this topic? Sources for factual information should be listed.
- Authority: Who created the website? Check the “About us” page. Check the website’s URL. The web address can provide information about the nature of the site. Websites from the U.S. government (.gov), a university (.edu), and health organizations or professional societies (.org) are considered reputable with no financial gain. In addition, author’s credentials and affiliations should be listed to demonstrate that he or she can write with authority on the topic.
- Bias/Objectivity: Information should be objective and free of bias. Is the purpose and intention of the site clear? There should be no advertisements, no marketing. Blogs are opinion-based, not reliable, authoritative sources.
- Currency: Is the information current? The date the website was last updated should be listed. If it contains links, are they up-to-date?
- Coverage/Design: Is the site well-designed? It should be free of broken links, typos, spelling errors. These could be indicators that the site is not maintained, not up-to-date, or not from a credible source. You should be able to view information without fees or browser issues.
Health-on-the-Net Code (HON)
Many consumer health websites choose to abide by the Health-on-the-Net Code (HON). The HONcode Symbol represents the code of conduct of the Health On the Net Foundation, one of the most widely used and best trusted ethical codes for consumer health websites. It is still advisable to evaluate website content even when the HONcode symbol is present.
For more information on evaluating consumer health websites, visit:
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The Levy Library Guide: Consumer Health Information, A Brief Guide: https://libguides.mssm.edu/consumer-health-information
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Medical Library Association (MLA): For Consumers and Patients, Find Good Health Information: https://www.mlanet.org/page/find-good-health-information
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(National Library of Medicine) MedlinePlus: Guide to Healthy Web Surfing: https://medlineplus.gov/healthywebsurfing.html
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AmericanFamilyDoctor.org: Finding Information on the Web, Finding Reliable Information: https://familydoctor.org/health-information-on-the-web-finding-reliable-information/?adfree=true
References
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Sun Y, Zhang Y, Gwizdka J, Trace CB. Consumer evaluation of the quality of online health information: Systematic literature review of relevant criteria and indicators. J Med Internet Res. 2019 May;21(5): e12522. Available from DOI: 10.2196/12522
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Kapoun, J. Teaching undergrads web evaluation: a guide for library instruction. C&RL News. 1998 July/August: 522-523. [cited 2021Nov4]. Available from https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/23707/31079
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For health consumers and patients: find good health information [Internet] Medical Library Association (MLA); 2021 [cited 2021 Nov4]. Available from https://www.mlanet.org/page/find-good-health-information
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Guide to healthy web surfing [Internet] MedlinePlus. U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2015 [cited 2021Nov4]. Available from https://medlineplus.gov/healthywebsurfing.html
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The commitment to reliable health and medical information on the internet [Internet] HonCode patient/individual. Health on the Net; 2018 [cited 2021 Nov4] Available from https://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Patients/Visitor/visitor.html
2021 is wrapping up! Don't miss out on the remaining Levy Library Open Classes for the rest of the year. Keep reading for class descriptions and registration links...
So You Want to Do a Systematic Review?
Thursday, November 4, 2021
2:00pm - 2:30pm
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Thinking of starting a systematic review and don’t know where to start? This 30 minute session will introduce you to what’s involved in conducting a systematic review, best practices for conducting a quality review, and library resources available to you.
In this session we’ll cover:
- Distinguishing between systematic reviews and literature reviews
- Methodology & best practices
- Systematic review support available via the library
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
1:00pm - 1:30pm
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Join us for a 30-minute Zoom session on Zotero basics. In this session we'll cover:
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Setting up Zotero on your desktop and creating your online account
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Using Zotero Connector to capture webpages, PDFs, and more
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Adding citations to your library directly from the web (PMID, DOI) and using Zotero's Magic Wand feature
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Using the Zotero plugin to automatically insert citations and create your bibliography in Google Docs or Microsoft Word
We recommend downloading Zotero and the Zotero Connector prior to this session so that you may follow along with the instructor. If you have any issues downloading Zotero, please email refdesk@mssm.edu for assistance.
Thursday, November 18, 2021
2:00pm - 2:30pm
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Understanding the peer review process & how to navigate it is essential for anyone interested in scientific publishing. This 30 minute session will cover peer review basics, including:
- Common types of peer review
- Peer review decisions & what your peer reviewed document will look like
- Best practices for responding to comments and resubmitting a revised document
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
1:00pm - 2:00pm
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Endnote just got an upgrade! EndNote 20 allows you to search online databases, organize references, and easily create properly formatted citations. The new, modern interface also includes updates like:
- Reference summaries that put critical information first
- A redesigned online search experience
- An updated PDF viewer with annotation tools
- Improved deduplication features
In addition to covering the new features of EndNote 20, this class will give you the chance to practice using EndNote 20 to collect, organize, and maintain a 'library' of references, find and save full-text journal articles, and insert/format references in a MS Word document. The class will also cover searching and exporting citations from PubMed and Google Scholar.
We recommend downloading EndNote via Levy Library prior to this session, so that you may follow along with the instructor. Please use the link below to download the software, and be sure to follow the instructions exactly: https://libguides.mssm.edu/endnote/download.
Each month 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. Our altmetrics data is provided by the PlumX platform.
This month we are highlighting Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. This article was written in part by Janet Serle, MD.
Background
Many causes of vision impairment can be prevented or treated. With an ageing global population, the demands for eye health services are increasing. We estimated the prevalence and relative contribution of avoidable causes of blindness and vision impairment globally from 1990 to 2020. We aimed to compare the results with the World Health Assembly Global Action Plan (WHA GAP) target of a 25% global reduction from 2010 to 2019 in avoidable vision impairment, defined as cataract and undercorrected refractive error.
Methods
We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based surveys of eye disease from January, 1980, to October, 2018. We fitted hierarchical models to estimate prevalence (with 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]) of moderate and severe vision impairment (MSVI; presenting visual acuity from <6/18 to 3/60) and blindness (<3/60 or less than 10° visual field around central fixation) by cause, age, region, and year. Because of data sparsity at younger ages, our analysis focused on adults aged 50 years and older.
Findings
Global crude prevalence of avoidable vision impairment and blindness in adults aged 50 years and older did not change between 2010 and 2019 (percentage change −0·2% [95% UI −1·5 to 1·0]; 2019 prevalence 9·58 cases per 1000 people [95% IU 8·51 to 10·8], 2010 prevalence 96·0 cases per 1000 people [86·0 to 107·0]). Age-standardised prevalence of avoidable blindness decreased by −15·4% [–16·8 to −14·3], while avoidable MSVI showed no change (0·5% [–0·8 to 1·6]). However, the number of cases increased for both avoidable blindness (10·8% [8·9 to 12·4]) and MSVI (31·5% [30·0 to 33·1]). The leading global causes of blindness in those aged 50 years and older in 2020 were cataract (15·2 million cases [9% IU 12·7–18·0]), followed by glaucoma (3·6 million cases [2·8–4·4]), undercorrected refractive error (2·3 million cases [1·8–2·8]), age-related macular degeneration (1·8 million cases [1·3–2·4]), and diabetic retinopathy (0·86 million cases [0·59–1·23]). Leading causes of MSVI were undercorrected refractive error (86·1 million cases [74·2–101·0]) and cataract (78·8 million cases [67·2–91·4]).
Interpretation
Results suggest eye care services contributed to the observed reduction of age-standardised rates of avoidable blindness but not of MSVI, and that the target in an ageing global population was not reached.
View this article profile here!