Finding Related Research and Identifying a Research Gap: Try “Connected Papers”

Short Summary Many researchers search PubMed to find articles on a topic, but few know how to visually map related research and identify gaps. In this post, I explore a real example using my paper on searching PubMed in radiology — and demonstrate how a tool like Connected Papers can help researchers refine or choose a research topic by finding related research or identifying research gaps or both! Why This Topic Matters When we publish, we often wonder: Who else has written something similar? Has the topic evolved? Is there a gap I can explore further?Traditional searching gives us a…
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What Happens to PubMed When a Shutdown Looms?

What Happens to PubMed When a Shutdown Looms?

An easy-to-read summary of Hilda Bastian’s post on PubMed and the US Government Shutdown Every now and then, something happens in the world of health information that makes all of us — librarians, researchers, teachers — sit up straight. Recently, a message on PubMed’s home page did just that. It mentioned the possibility of disruption due to a US government shutdown. And for anyone who depends on PubMed daily, that’s a scary thought! Hilda Bastian, who often writes excellent, evidence-informed posts about science communication, explored this in her blog — “Tracking Shutdown Impact and Changes at PubMed”. I read it…
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How to Peer Review Search Strategies

How to Peer Review Search Strategies

I recently did a short course on "How to Peer Review Search Strategies". This was offered by INSTATS - an organization that offers several excellent research related courses. What is Peer reviewing of search strategies? In India, we have a lacuna of knowledge about search strategies and the need for them to be structured. Most often very little thought is given to the strategy and it is done in an ad-hoc manner. Peer reviewing is something no one even thinks about.. The six hour session over two evenings - run by two expert Information Professionals - Carol Lefebvre - and…
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