Prevalence of Medical Journal Websites That Deny Access to Users Who Block Browser Cookies.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Friedman AB
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7998074 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:PURPOSE:Medically-focused journal clubs have been used as an educational tool for over 100 years with research indicating that they improve knowledge, reading behaviour, and critical appraisal skills. However, it is not known how widespread their use is among Australian medical schools, nor the opinions of medical education leaders as to their value. METHODS:A nationwide cross-sectional study was performed on academic leaders from every Australian medical school. Individuals were asked to complete a survey detailing their attitudes towards journal clubs using single or multiple answer questions, Likert scales, and ranked data. They were asked whether students at their institutions were able to partake in journal clubs, and if so, details of their implementation. RESULTS:At least one response was collected from 18 of 19 Australian medical schools. This represented 60 responses of a possible 147 (40.8%), the vast majority of whom were heads of clinical schools, 36 (60.0%). The prevalence of journal clubs among medical institutions was high, with 15 of 18 (83.3%) stating that they had a journal club. Of these 23 (65.7%) were metropolitan and 12 (34.3%) were rural institutions. Most were clinician-led, 18 (51.4%), run through specific hospital departments, 13 (37.1%), and most frequently occurred during clinical years, 23 (65.7%). The vast majority stated that the primary aim of the journal club was to develop critical appraisal skills, 20 (57.1%). CONCLUSION:Journal clubs are a highly regarded educational tool in the armoury of medical school educators, with significant heterogeneity in their structure, geographic prevalence and intended purpose. Further studies into their efficacy in teaching evidence-based medicine is warranted in the medical student cohort.
| S-EPMC7365995 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in the number of open access (OA) journals in almost all disciplines. This increase in OA journals was accompanied an increase in funding to support such movements. Medical fields are among the highest funded fields, which further promoted its journals to move toward OA publishing. Here, we aim to compare OA and non-OA journals in terms of citation metrics and other indices. Methods: We collected data on the included journals from Scopus Source List on 1 st November 2018. We filtered the list for medical journals only. For each journal, we extracted data regarding citation metrics, scholarly output, and wither the journal is OA or non-OA. Results: On the 2017 Scopus list of journals, there was 5835 medical journals. Upon analyzing the difference between medical OA and non-OA journals, we found that OA journals had a significantly higher CiteScore (p< 0.001), percent cited (p< 0.001), and source normalized impact per paper (SNIP) (p< 0.001), whereas non-OA journals had higher scholarly output (p< 0.001). Among the five largest journal publishers, Springer Nature published the highest frequency of OA articles (31.5%), while Wiley-Blackwell had the lowest frequency among its medical journals (4.4%). Conclusion: Among medical journals, although non-OA journals still have higher output in terms of articles per year, OA journals have higher citation metrics.
| S-EPMC6449789 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) was an early pioneer of open access online publishing, and two decades later, some readers and authors may have forgotten the challenges of previous scientific publishing models. This commentary summarizes the many advantages of open access publishing for each of the main stakeholders in scientific publishing and reminds us that, like every innovation, there are disadvantages that we need to guard against, such as the problem of fraudulent journals. This paper then reviews the potential impact of some current initiatives, such as Plan S and JMIRx, concluding with some suggestions to help new open-access publishers ensure that the advantages of open access publishing outweigh the challenges.
| S-EPMC6945122 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Advances in sequencing technologies have facilitated large-scale comparative genomics based on whole genome sequencing. Constructing and investigating conserved genomic regions among multiple species (called synteny blocks) are essential in the comparative genomics. However, they require significant amounts of computational resources and time in addition to bioinformatics skills. Many web interfaces have been developed to make such tasks easier. However, these web interfaces cannot be customized for users who want to use their own set of genome sequences or definition of synteny blocks. RESULTS:To resolve this limitation, we present mySyntenyPortal, a stand-alone application package to construct websites for synteny block analyses by using users' own genome data. mySyntenyPortal provides both command line and web-based interfaces to build and manage websites for large-scale comparative genomic analyses. The websites can be also easily published and accessed by other users. To demonstrate the usability of mySyntenyPortal, we present an example study for building websites to compare genomes of three mammalian species (human, mouse, and cow) and show how they can be easily utilized to identify potential genes affected by genome rearrangements. CONCLUSIONS:mySyntenyPortal will contribute for extended comparative genomic analyses based on large-scale whole genome sequences by providing unique functionality to support the easy creation of interactive websites for synteny block analyses from user's own genome data.
| S-EPMC5989462 | biostudies-literature
Project description:MotivationHuman epigenomic data has been generated by large consortia for thousands of cell types to be used as a reference map of normal and disease chromatin states. Since epigenetic data contains potentially identifiable information, similarly to genetic data, most raw files generated by these consortia are stored in controlled-access databases. It is important to protect identifiable information, but this should not hinder secure sharing of these valuable datasets.ResultsGuided by the Framework for responsible sharing of genomic and health-related data from the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), we have developed a tool to facilitate the exploration of epigenomics datasets' aggregate results, while filtering out identifiable information. Specifically, the EpiVar Browser allows a user to navigate an epigenetic dataset from a cohort of individuals and enables direct exploration of genotype-chromatin phenotype relationships. Because the information about individual genotypes is not accessible and aggregated in the output that is made available, no identifiable data is released, yet the interface allows for dynamic genotype - epigenome interrogation. This approach has the potential to accelerate analyses that would otherwise require a lengthy multi-step approval process and provides a generalisable strategy to facilitate responsible access to sensitive epigenomics data.Availability and implementationOnline portal instance: https://computationalgenomics.ca/tools/epivarSource code: https://github.com/c3g/epivar-browser.
| S-EPMC10418203 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo explore authors' attitudes towards open access publishing and author charges, their perceptions of journals that charge authors, and whether they would be willing to submit to these journals.DesignSemistructured telephone interviews.Participants28 randomly selected international authors who submitted to the BMJ in 2003.ResultsAuthors were more aware of the concepts of open access publishing and author pays models than previously reported. Almost all authors supported the concept of open access, but few had submitted to an open access journal, other than the BMJ. Reasons for not submitting included lack of awareness of which journals publish with open access, and journal quality taking a higher priority in decision making than the availability of open access. Authors disliked the idea of author charges without institutional support and were concerned about implications for authors from developing countries and those without research funding. However, many said they would probably continue to submit to journals they perceived as being of high quality even if they charged authors.ConclusionsAuthors consider perceived journal quality as more important than open access when deciding where to submit papers. New journals with open access may need to do more to reassure authors of the quality of their journals.
| S-EPMC555876 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Dissemination of results is a fundamental aspect of the scientific process and requires an avenue for publication that is specifically designed to suit the nature of the research being communicated. Undergraduate research journals provide a unique forum for students to report scientific findings and ideas while learning about the complete scientific process. We have developed a peer-reviewed, open-access, international undergraduate research journal that is linked to a course-based undergraduate research experience. We reflect on lessons learned and recommend effective approaches for the implementation and operation of a successful undergraduate research journal.
| S-EPMC7452719 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHealth care organizations are tasked with providing web-based health resources and information. Usability refers to the ease of user experience on a website. In this study, we conducted a usability analysis of academic medical centers in the United States, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been previously carried out.ObjectiveThe primary aims of the study were to the following: (1) adapt a preexisting usability scoring methodology to academic medical centers; (2) apply and test this methodology on a sample set of academic medical center websites; and (3) make recommendations from these results on potential areas of improvements for our sample of academic medical center websites.MethodsAll website usability testing took place from June 1, 2020, to December 15, 2020. We replicated a methodology developed in previous literature and applied it to academic medical centers. Our sample included 73 US academic medical centers. Usability was split into four broad categories: accessibility (the ability of those with low levels of computer literacy to access and navigate the hospital's website); marketing (the ability of websites to be found through search engines and the relevance of descriptions to the links provided); content quality (grammar, frequency of information updates, material relevancy, and readability); and technology (download speed, quality of the programming code, and website infrastructure). Using these tools, we scored each website in each category. The composite of key factors in each category contributed to an overall "general usability" score for each website. An overall score was then calculated by applying a weighted percentage across all factors and was used for the final "overall usability" ranking.ResultsThe category with the highest average score was technology, with a 0.82 (SD 0.068, SE 0.008). The lowest-performing category was content quality, with an average of 0.22 (SD 0.069, SE 0.008). As these numbers reflect weighted percentages as an integer, the higher the score, the greater the overall usability in that category.ConclusionsOur data suggest that technology, on average, was the highest-scored variable among academic medical center websites. Because website functionality is essential to a user's experience, it is justified that academic medical centers invest in optimal website performance. The overall lowest-scored variable was content quality. A potential reason for this may be that academic medical center websites are usually larger in size, making it difficult to monitor the increased quantity of content. An easy way to improve this variable is to conduct more frequent website audits to assess readability, grammar, and relevance. Marketing is another area in which these organizations have potential for improvement. Our recommendation is that organizations utilize search engine optimization techniques to improve their online visibility and discoverability.
| S-EPMC8734930 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Offering calories on restaurant websites might be particularly important for consumer meal planning, but the availability of and ease of accessing this information are unknown.We assessed websites for the top 100 U.S. chain restaurants to determine the availability of and ease of access to calorie information as well as website design characteristics. We also examined potential predictors of calorie availability and ease of access.Eighty-two percent of restaurants provided calorie information on their websites; 25% presented calories on a mobile-formatted website. On average, calories could be accessed in 2.35±0.99 clicks. About half of sites (51.2%) linked to calorie information via the homepage. Fewer than half had a separate section identifying healthful options (46.3%), or utilized interactive meal planning tools (35.4%). Quick service/fast casual, larger restaurants, and those with less expensive entrées and lower revenue were more likely to make calorie information available. There were no predictors of ease of access.Calorie information is both available and largely accessible on the websites of America's leading restaurants. It is unclear whether consumer behavior is affected by the variability in the presentation of calorie information.
| S-EPMC3747846 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Many websites are available with information and resources for perinatal anxiety; however, there is limited research on the quality and content of these sites. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to identify what sites are available on perinatal anxiety, identify any information and therapeutic advice given, and review its accuracy and website design. METHODS:We conducted an evaluation of websites for perinatal anxiety. Eligible websites (N=50) were evaluated for accuracy of information, resources for mothers, website quality, and readability. RESULTS:Information was often incomplete and focused on symptoms rather than risk factors or impact of untreated perinatal anxiety. Websites often had information on treatment (46/50, 92%), but much less on screening (19/50, 38%). Most sites provided at least some resources to support mothers (49/50, 98%), but active, guided support was infrequent (25/50, 50%). Website quality was extremely variable and mostly difficult to read (42/50, 84%). CONCLUSIONS:This study recommends the top 4 websites on perinatal anxiety for health care professionals and users. There is a need for websites to be developed that provide accurate, evidence-based information that women can relate to with quality support resources. Furthermore, these sites should be easy to use and readable.
| S-EPMC6320400 | biostudies-literature