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Carrie L. Iwema
ILS 564—Library Service/IB Incorporation
11 November 2005
Leaving the Labyrinth: Partners in the Publication Process
Objective:
To establish an innovative, in-house publication support service to aid the research and
publishing activities and ease the time burdens of the Medical Library community and bolster the
open access movement. Services will range from free (e.g., enhanced education program; a
comprehensive web site; automatic submission of papers to PubMed Central), to fee-based (e.g.,
referral to professional medical editors, clerical support for journal submissions, citation
database management).
Keys to Success:
1. Use a combination of observational evidence, interview data, and a formal survey to
determine the desirability and sustainability for different service levels.
2. Emphasize to potential users the benefits of this service in terms of expediting the
transition from manuscript to publication and supporting open access to research results.
3. Investigate a cost model and fee structure.
4. Seek grants and internal seed money for start-up costs.
5. Survey campus resources to plan coordinated and targeted outreach and instruction
sessions to postdocs, faculty, and researchers.
6. Reach out to local and national medical editors for inclusion in a resource and referral
guide.
7. Explore programs offered commercially or at other institutions to both model services
and avoid potential missteps.
8. Use the feasibility study and establishment of the service as "teachable moments" in
liaison and outreach activities.
9. Increase awareness of the library's role in knowledge creation, dissemination and
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preservation and promote open access through kick-off events for the service and an
ongoing marketing campaign.
Target Audience:
All members of the Medical Library community who publish scholarly research/clinical articles,
including but not limited to faculty, researchers, postdocs, and clinicians. Editorial assistance
will particularly benefit non-native English speakers. This project serves to bolster the
relationship of the library to a portion of its user base, i.e., researchers and others who publish.
Personnel:
Initial personnel will include members of the Library Liaison staff as well as Reference staff.
Ultimately, a Medical Library staff member specifically hired for the position will run the
program. Staffing is dependent on seed money as well as program sustainability; the intent is to
generate sufficient income from the fee-based services to support the salary of one staff member
on at least a part-time basis.
Services:
Free Services:
1. Education—in addition to current classes on information seeking techniques, offer
classes on publication-related concerns such as “Tips on Writing Abstracts,” “How to
Select the Appropriate Journal for Your Manuscript, aka, What’s an Impact Factor?” and
“RefWorks/Endnote/Reference Manager 101.”
2. Webpage—develop a page on the Medical Library website dedicated to information and
links about publishing scientific manuscripts, including Instructions to Authors for some
of the top journals, writing style guides, and tips on how to generate figures and graphs.
3. Open Access Submission—assist users with the manuscript submission process to the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) PubMed Central; this fulfills a grant requirement that
all NIH-funded manuscripts be submitted to NIH and supports the NIH Policy on
Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded
Research.
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Fee-Based Services:
1. Referrals to Professional Medical Editors—although not necessarily a fee-generator for
the Medical Library, this service directs users to reliable editors who have developed a
relationship with the Medical Library.
2. Citation Database Management—assist users with maintenance of their ever-expanding
reference list; may include manuscripts as well as Internet bookmarks.
3. Publication Support—develop different service levels to support all aspects of the
manuscript submission process, including reformatting manuscripts and citations to
conform to journal-specific standards, verifying inclusion of all appropriate
accompanying documents, and physically handling the submission.
Rationale:
Two recent papers described the pressing need for academic librarians to progress from a passive
liaison model to a proactive consulting model in order to transform into “information
consultants.” (Frank, 2004; Frank & Howell, 2003). This consultant role requires the formation
of partnerships with faculty, a focus on content and information management, promotion of
information services, and provision of value-added information tailored for professionals and
scholars (Frank & Howell, 2003). The information seeking practices and behavior of this user
group is evolving, which requires not only flexibility from librarians/information consultants, but
also a vision of the future that anticipates user needs.
For example, traditional methods of technical and scientific communication have dramatically
altered in recent years via a shift from paper to electronic resources. Researchers have greater
access to information through the use of library-provided electronic journals and e-books, e-mail
correspondence, and the Internet (Davis, 2004; Hallmark, 2001; Iwema, 2005). However,
although individuals now experience more control over their choice and use of information
resources, they do not necessarily have enough time or energy to deal with it all (Iwema, 2005;
McGeachin, 2004; Murphy, 2003; Wurman, 1989). Thus,
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“Saving users’ time may be the fastest growing added value in importance,
since every person has a limited fixed amount of time and attention, for which
there is increasing competition. In a world of accelerating improvements—i.e.,
also accelerating change—most users want services that save more of their time,
their most valuable personal resource.” (Sweeney, 1997)
The purpose of this proposal is to develop a library-supported program that will provide a value
added service that not only promotes scholarly publishing but also saves time for the target user
group. Researchers and clinicians who wish to publish the results of their work and choose to
take advantage of this service will be released from the burden of tedious “paperwork”
associated with manuscript publication, thus enabling them to focus attention on both seeking
and providing further information. In addition, the submission of manuscripts to a governmentsponsored open access program (http://publicaccess.nih.gov) will assist with the information
seeking of others by providing easy access to the results of scientific and medical research,
regardless of location or professional affiliation.
Benefits to the library include increased user awareness of and exposure to library services,
revenue from fee-based services, and reinforcement of the library’s contributions to and
integration with scholarly research. No information is available on the implementation of a
publication support service by a research library, as this appears to be a unique service not
offered elsewhere. Nonetheless, observations of scientists’ information behavior (Davis, 2004;
Hallmark, 2001; Iwema, 2005; McGeachin, 2004; Murphy, 2003) and reports on the changing
field of library and information science (Frank, 2004; Frank & Howell, 2003; Sweeney, 1997)
suggest that it is a service that anticipates user needs and aids with the transition of librarians into
“information consultants.”
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References:
Davis, P. M. (2004). Information-seeking behavior of chemists: A transaction log analysis of
referral URLs. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55(4),
326-332.
Frank, D. G. (2004). Effective leadership in postmodern science/technology libraries. Science &
Technology Libraries, 24(3/4), 411-419.
Frank, D. G., & Howell, E. (2003). New relationships in academe: Opportunities for vitality and
relevance. College & Research Library News, 64(January 2003), 24-27.
Hallmark, J. (2001). Information-seeking behavior of academic meteorologists and the role of
information specialists. Science & Technology Libraries, 21(1/2), 53-64.
Iwema, C. L. (2005). Information behavior of a specific population—scientists. Unpublished
manuscript: Southern Connecticut State University.
McGeachin, R. B. (2004). The impact of electronic bibliographic databases and electronic
journal articles on the scholar’s information-seeking behavior and personal collection of
“reprints”. Science & Technology Libraries, 25(1/2), 127-137.
Murphy, J. (2003). Information-seeking habits of environmental scientists: A study of
interdisciplinary scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Summer, 2003.
Sweeney, R. (1997). Creating library services with Wow! Staying slightly ahead of the curve.
Library Trends, 46(1), 129-151.
Wurman, R. S. (1989). Information Anxiety. New York: Doubleday.