Hardin News

A Newsletter for the Health Sciences Campus at the University of Iowa

January 2007 | Issue 1.07

Hardin Scholarly Communication News brings together a variety of topics that affect the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new developments, open access and alternative publishing models in the health sciences. This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu. Subscribers will also receive Hardin News announcements.

Table of Contents:

Author Addenda (for Retention of Copyright): An Examination of Five Alternatives
Survey on Academic Publishing
Scholarpedia Launches
Open Access Could Lead to Cancelled Subscriptions
Summary of Biomedical Funders’ Policies on Open Access
The Promise of Value-based Journal Prices and Negotiation
Publishers Criticize Professors for Copyright Violations
What is Open Data?
Creative Commons Add-in for Microsoft Office
Genetic Database That Matches Drugs to Illnesses May Speed New Therapies
Nature Ends Open Peer Review Experiment
Google’s Offer to Digitize Journal Back Runs for OA
UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) Now Live
Shaping the Future of Scientific Scholarly Communication: PLoS One

The Well-Equipped Surgeon’s Chest — Don’t Leave Home Without It 

Woodall, John (1570–1643). The Surgeons mate or military & domestique surgery. 2^nd edition, London, 1639.

The John Martin Rare Book Room recently acquired a 1639 copy of John Woodall’s, The Surgeon’s Mate, the second and greatly expanded version of the work first published in 1617. Intended as a tutorial for apprentice ship surgeons, the book was extremely popular as an authority in its time and brings to light first-hand medical care as practiced aboard sailing vessels in the early 17^th century. The first surgeon-general of the East India Company, Woodall was responsible for supplying each ship with a surgeon’s chest. This accompanying volume details the various ailments, medicines, and surgical techniques for dealing with the myriad of health problems and injuries faced by sailors, including gunshot, gangrene, amputation, ulcers, and fistulas. In the passage, below, Woodall advises the junior surgeon on how to prepare a patient for the ordeal of amputation, a procedure in all too frequent use on ships.

“If you be constrained to use your saw, let first your patient be well informed of the eminent danger of death by the use thereof; prescribe him no certaintie of life, and let the work be done with his owne free will, and request, and not otherwise. Let him prepare his soule as a ready sacrifice to the Lord by earnest prayers, craving mercie and helpe unfainedly: and forget thou not also they dutie in that kinde, to crave mercie and helpe from the Almightie, and that heartily. For it is no small presumption to dismember the image of God.” [spelling from original].

Woodall was one of the first to recommend lemon juice for preventing and treating scurvy, years before James Lind confirmed its efficacy in his Treatise on the Scurvy in 1753. Woodall’s organizational talents were well recognized during his lifetime as was his courage; he remained in London to treat victims of the 1603 and 1638 plague outbreaks during which he contracted and recovered from the disease twice. Our copy of this important work is in excellent condition and includes well preserved leaves illustrating the vast armaments of surgical tools necessary for the well-equipped ship’s surgeon.

RefWorks classes are open to all faculty, staff and students. The classes will be taught at the Hardin Library Information Commons.

Register Now!

Tuesday January 23rd from 3:30-4:30
Monday January 29th from 9:00-10:00
Thursday February 8th from 2:00-3:00
Friday February 16th from 3:30-4:30
Monday February 19th from 1:00-2:00
Wednesday February 28th from 11:00-12:00
Thursday March 8th from 9:30-10:30
Tuesday March 13th 12:00-1:00

The University of Iowa Libraries is excited to announce its purchase of a site license to the citation management software RefWorks. RefWorks allows you to import citations from databases like Academic Search Elite, organize your citations and share them with colleagues, as well as insert your citations into papers and format them in any of hundreds of bibliographic styles.

You may have heard of or used other citation management software such as Endnote or ProCite. RefWorks contains the same core functionality as these programs, but it has the advantage of being web-based, so your citations can be accessed from any internet-connected computer, not just the one where the software is installed. If you are currently using one of these other pieces of software and want to try RefWorks, your citations can easily be imported into RefWorks.

You can create as many RefWorks accounts as you need. For instance, create a personal account as well as one for your department, lab, or team. RefWorks makes it easy to share your citations with colleagues at the University of Iowa and beyond.

If you would like to learn more about RefWorks, please let us know. One of our librarians would be happy to come to your office to show you the software one-on-one. More information about RefWorks (including a link to set up your own account) can be found at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/find/refworks.