Hardin News

I’m writing to alert you to a new funding announcement from the National Library of Medicine, PAR 08-080. This is an announcement for investigator-initiated R01 research grants in biomedical informatics and bioinformatics. These grants will be reviewed by NLM’s study section, the Biomedical Library & Informatics Review Committee.

Highlights of the NLM Express Research Grant in Biomedical Informatics that make it different from PA 07-070, the NIH parent announcement that is currently used for R01 applications to NLM:

• modular budget (i.e., direct costs are capped at $250,000 per year)
• research plan component of the application is restricted to 15 pages
• no appendices
• resubmissions must include a 1-page introduction to the amended application
• examples of the basic problem areas and application domains of interest to NLM

Electronic grant submission information at http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/

NIH on Friday posted its revised — and now mandatory — Public Access policy. The changes in policy correspond to recently enacted legislation, which reads “The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.” Under the policy notice posted on Friday:

1. The NIH Public Access Policy applies to all peer-reviewed articles that arise, in whole or in part, from direct costs funded by NIH, or from NIH staff, that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008.

2. Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring that any publishing or copyright agreements concerning submitted articles fully comply with the Policy.

3. PubMed Central (PMC) is the NIH digital archive of full-text, peer-reviewed journal articles. Its content is publicly accessible and integrated with other databases (see: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/).

4. The final, peer-reviewed manuscript includes all graphics and supplemental materials that are associated with the article.

5. Beginning May 25, 2008, anyone submitting an application, proposal or progress report to the NIH must include the PMC or NIH Manuscript Submission reference number when citing applicable articles that arise from their NIH funded research. This policy includes applications submitted to the NIH for the May 25, 2008 due date and subsequent due dates.

Also, the Scientific Council of the European Research Council posted on Friday its Guidelines for Open Access. The guidelines require that all peer-reviewed publications from ERC-funded research projects be deposited when published into an appropriate research repository where available, such as PubMed Central, ArXiv or an institutional repository, and subsequently made Open Access within 6 months of publication.

The public is invited to a University of Iowa History of Medicine talk on “The Transformation of Hypochondriasis: 1680 to 1880″ at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 22, in Room 401 of the UI Hardin Library for the Health Sciences.

The speaker will be Russell Noyes, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa

Light refreshments will be served. The lecture is part of a series of presentations sponsored by the UI History of Medicine Society.

Hypochondriasis, which today is a mental disturbance characterized by unfounded fear of serious illness, was once a common physical disease. Indeed, Sydenham (1681) said that it along with hysteria accounted for half of the chronic diseases he saw. But over the next 200 years hypochondriasis was transformed from a major physical to a minor mental disorder. What had been an affliction of the abdominal organs (hypochonders) became a disorder of the brain and finally the mind.

Noyes will trace this transformation and talk about factors that brought it about. These included advances in medical science that resulted in the removal of gastrointestinal diseases from hypochondriasis. They also involved social factors that contributed to fear of disease and to making hypochondriasis a mark of class distinction. A review of its history provides some perspective on the controversies that surround the disorder today.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Ed Holtum at 319-335-9154 or edwin-holtum@uiowa.edu.

For directions to Hardin Library and information on parking, visit http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/getting.html.

For more information about the UI History of Medicine Society lecture series, visit http://hosted.lib.uiowa.edu/histmed/