Mind the Gap: The Underrepresentation of Female Participants and Authors in Virtual Reality Research.

A common goal of human-subject experiments in virtual reality (VR) research is evaluating VR hardware and software for use by the general public. A core principle of human-subject research is that the sample included in a given study should be representative of the target population; otherwise, the conclusions drawn from the findings may be biased and may not generalize to the population of interest. In order to assess whether characteristics of participants in VR research are representative of the general public, we investigated participant demographic characteristics from human-subject experiments in the Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Conferences from 2015-2019. We also assessed the representation of female authors. In the 325 eligible manuscripts, which presented results from 365 human-subject experiments, we found evidence of significant underrepresentation of women as both participants and authors. To investigate whether this underrepresentation may bias researchers' findings, we then conducted a meta-analysis and meta-regression to assess whether demographic characteristics of study participants were associated with a common outcome evaluated in VR research: the change in simulator sickness following head-mounted display VR exposure. As expected, participants in VR studies using HMDs experienced small but significant increases in simulator sickness. However, across the included studies, the change in simulator sickness was systematically associated with the proportion of female participants. We discuss the negative implications of conducting experiments on non-representative samples and provide methodological recommendations for mitigating bias in future VR research.

Benefits of a joint health sciences practicum for students in library and information sciences: a case report.

BACKGROUND: A joint practicum gives library and information science (LIS) students the opportunity to compare two health sciences libraries' structures and workflows. The goal of this case report is to describe how a joint health sciences practicum can help LIS students and recent graduates develop skills that may be beneficial for their future positions in health sciences or other libraries.Case Presentation: Six participants in a joint health sciences library practicum underwent two interviews: the first interview focused on their practicum experiences, and the second interview sought to determine whether the participants had found employment and were using any skills in their new positions that they acquired during their practicums. Participants gave mostly positive feedback regarding their practicum experiences and expressed openness to applying for health sciences library positions. Although the participants who found employment did not work in health sciences libraries, their practicum projects served as supporting materials for their job applications, and they were using the skills they had gained from their practicums in their new positions. CONCLUSIONS: While most joint practicum participants were not working in a health sciences library, the practicum was beneficial to their new careers. This case report highlights that a joint health sciences practicum program can be beneficial in showing LIS students different approaches to health sciences librarianship.

Women are underrepresented in computational biology: An analysis of the scholarly literature in biology, computer science and computational biology.

While women are generally underrepresented in STEM fields, there are noticeable differences between fields. For instance, the gender ratio in biology is more balanced than in computer science. We were interested in how this difference is reflected in the interdisciplinary field of computational/quantitative biology. To this end, we examined the proportion of female authors in publications from the PubMed and arXiv databases. There are fewer female authors on research papers in computational biology, as compared to biology in general. This is true across authorship position, year, and journal impact factor. A comparison with arXiv shows that quantitative biology papers have a higher ratio of female authors than computer science papers, placing computational biology in between its two parent fields in terms of gender representation. Both in biology and in computational biology, a female last author increases the probability of other authors on the paper being female, pointing to a potential role of female PIs in influencing the gender balance.

Tracing the scientific outputs in the field of Ebola research based on publications in the Web of Science.

BACKGROUND: Ebola virus disease (hereafter EVD or Ebola) has a high fatality rate. The devastating effects of the current epidemic of Ebola in West Africa have put the global health response in acute focus. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern". A small proportion of scientific literature is dedicated to Ebola research. METHODS: To identify global research trends in Ebola research, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science™ database was used to search for data, which encompassed original articles published from 1900 to 2013. The keyword "Ebola" was used to identify articles for the purposes of this review. In order to include all published items, the database was searched using the Basic Search method. RESULTS: The earliest record of literature about Ebola indexed in the Web of Science is from 1977. A total of 2477 publications on Ebola, published between 1977 and 2014 (with the number of publications increasing annually), were retrieved from the database. Original research articles (n = 1623, 65.5%) were the most common type of publication. Almost all (96.5%) of the literature in this field was in English. The USA had the highest scientific output and greatest number of funding agencies. Journal of Virology published 239 papers on Ebola, followed by Journal of Infectious Diseases and Virology, which published 113 and 99 papers, respectively. A total of 1911 papers on Ebola were cited 61,477 times. CONCLUSION: This analysis identified the current state of research and trends in studies about Ebola between 1977 and 2014. Our bibliometric analysis provides a historical perspective on the progress in Ebola research.

Factor de impacto y calidad de las publicaciones científicas en Microbiología: el ejemplo de la Revista Española de Quimioterapia / Impact factor and quality of scientific publications on Microbiology: the example of the Spanish Journal of Chemotherapy

Introducción. El factor de impacto de una revista es el análisis cuantitativo del número de citas recibidas durante un período específico de tiempo. Actualmente es la herramienta estándar para medir la calidad de las publicaciones y una forma para evaluar la trayectoria investigadora de un científico. Métodos. Búsqueda de indicadores bibliométricos: Journal Citation Reports (JCR), Factor de impacto potencial de las revistas médicas españolas del Instituto de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación López Piñero (IHCD) y SCImago Journal Rank. Identificar criterios de calidad editorial, difusión y visibilidad revisando bases de datos como el Sistema Regional de Información en Línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal (LATINDEX), SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), DIALNET y el catálogo de publicaciones periódicas en Bibliotecas de Ciencias de la Salud Españolas, conocido como C17. Resultados. La Revista Española de Quimioterapia aparece por primera vez en la edición 2009 del JCR, previamente se incorporaron dos revistas españolas Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica e International Microbiology, y ambas ocupaban bajos puestos en el ranking. Al calcular los factores de impacto nacional e internacional de las cinco publicaciones que se incluyen en la categoría de Farmacología y Farmacia dentro del proyecto realizado por el IHCD, la Revista Española de Quimioterapia es la publicación que alcanzó los mejores valores. Conclusiones. La Revista Española de Quimioterapia obtuvo unos buenos resultados en los indicadores bibliométricos analizados y se sitúa a la cabeza de las publicaciones médicas españolas. Una buena difusión hace que sea más sencillo mantener la visibilidad de la publicación en el ámbito editorial(AU)

Introduction. The impact factor of a journal is the quantitative analysis of the number of citations obtained during a specific period of time. This currently is the standard tool to measure the quality of the publication and a way to evaluate the research trajectory of a scientist. Methods. Search for bibliometric indicators: Journal Citation Reports, SCImago Journal Rank and Potencial Impact Factor for the Spanish Medical Journals of the Instituto de Historia de la Ciencia y Documentación López Piñero (IHCD). To identify criteria of editorial quality, of visibility and of spreading by reviewing databases such as the Online Regional Information System for Scholarly Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal (LATINDEX), SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), DIALNET and the Collective Periodical Publications Catalogue of Spanish Healthcare Science Libraries, known as C17. Results. For the first time, the Spanish Journal of Chemotherapy appears in the 2009 edition of JCR, previously by joined the two spanish journals Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and International Microbiology, both ranked at a lower position. While calculating factors of national and international impact of the five publications included in the category of Pharmacology and Pharmacy as part of the project initiated by the IHCD, the Spanish Journal of Chemotherapy showed the best results. Conclusions. The Spanish Journal of Chemotherapy obtained good results in analysed bibliometric indicators, positioning it at the top of the ranking of Spanish medical journals. A good spreading helped to maintain visibility on the publication in the editorial field(AU)

In silico identification of coffee genome expressed sequences potentially associated with resistance to diseases

Sequences potentially associated with coffee resistance to diseases were identified by in silico analyses using the database of the Brazilian Coffee Genome Project (BCGP). Keywords corresponding to plant resistance mechanisms to pathogens identified in the literature were used as baits for data mining. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) related to each of these keywords were identified with tools available in the BCGP bioinformatics platform. A total of 11,300 ESTs were mined. These ESTs were clustered and formed 979 EST-contigs with similarities to chitinases, kinases, cytochrome P450 and nucleotide binding site-leucine rich repeat (NBS-LRR) proteins, as well as with proteins related to disease resistance, pathogenesis, hypersensitivity response (HR) and plant defense responses to diseases. The 140 EST-contigs identified through the keyword NBS-LRR were classified according to function. This classification allowed association of the predicted products of EST-contigs with biological processes, including host defense and apoptosis, and with molecular functions such as nucleotide binding and signal transducer activity. Fisher's exact test was used to examine the significance of differences in contig expression between libraries representing the responses to biotic stress challenges and other libraries from the BCGP. This analysis revealed seven contigs highly similar to catalase, chitinase, protein with a BURP domain and unknown proteins. The involvement of these coffee proteins in plant responses to disease is discussed.

Impact of a web-based stress management and health promotion program on neck-shoulder-back pain in knowledge workers? 12 month prospective controlled follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of a web-based stress management program on neck-shoulder-back pain and perceived pain-relatedness to stress in a prospective and controlled study. METHODS: Study points were baseline, after 6 months intervention and at 12 months follow-up on 226 news media employees in two study groups and one control group. RESULTS: Between groups no significant differences were found at any study point. Within groups, the study group with less intensive program improved in pain-relatedness to stress at follow-up. Between baseline and after intervention, the group with more intensive program showed decreased low back pain, and the control group showed less pain-relatedness to stress. Within group differences varied according to pain localization and were inconsistent. CONCLUSION: Present web-based stress management program did not influence neck-shoulder-back pain or perceived pain-relatedness to stress in stress-intensive occupations.

Work-related factors, sleep debt and insomnia in IT professionals.

BACKGROUND: Reduced sleep can be associated with a risk of health problems. Information technologies (IT) professionals often work long hours and this could have an effect on their sleep quality. AIMS: To examine the prevalence of sleep debt, insomnia and long working hours among Finnish IT professionals and to analyse which specific work-related factors are associated with shortened sleep. METHODS: Cross-sectional, representative data from a questionnaire survey of IT professionals. Hierarchical regression analyses were applied to investigate relationships of sleep debt and insomnia. RESULTS: A total of 2,334 IT professionals responded to the survey. Thirty-seven per cent reported sleep debt of at least 1 h and 6% of at least 2 h, while 16% reported insomnia. Twenty-seven per cent worked for a minimum of 50 h a week, while 31% spent at least 50 h a week on work. The most important factors associated with both sleep debt and insomnia were work-related demands requiring long hours, mental stamina and problem solving and positive perceptions of work, such as job control and importance of the respondents' own work in their life. CONCLUSIONS: Even though long working hours were common among IT professionals in Finland, sleep debt and insomnia were not. Work-related factors were associated with insufficient sleep.

Estudio bibliométrico de la revista Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (1984-2003). Análisis de la producción (I) / Bibliometric study of the journal Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (1984-2003). I. Production analysis

Objetivo. Analizar los artículos científicos publicados en actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (AD) entre 1984 y 2003. Los principales parámetros bibliométricos analizados han sido: número de artículos, extensión y tipología documental, áreas temáticas fundamentales, autoría de los documentos, principales centros productores, áreas departamentales y distribución geográfica de los artículos. Material y métodos. Se revisaron manualmente todos los artículos científicos publicados en los números ordinarios de la revista AD entre 1984 y 2003 (dos décadas), lo que corresponde a los volúmenes 75 a 94. Resultados. En el periodo de estudio se publicaron en la revista AD un total de 2.604 artículos, con una media anual de 130. El caso clínico o nota clínica fue el principal tipo documental (66,2 %), seguido de los artículos originales (23,5 %) y los artículos de revisión (4,7 %). La extensión de los documentos varió entre 1 y 33 páginas, con una media de 4,55 páginas. Las cuestiones más abordadas en los documentos del periodo fueron dermatopatología (15,9 %) y tratamiento (15,4 %). Se contabilizó un total de 11.667 autorías, y el número de autores distintos fue de 2.907. El índice de colaboración medio del periodo se situó en el 4,48. Un 56,7 % de autores lo fue de forma ocasional (firmó un único documento), mientras a un 3,5 % se les consideró máximos productores por haber firmado 20 o más trabajos a lo largo del periodo. Siete comunidades autónomas concentraron el 85,5 % de la producción. La comunidad de Madrid fue, con diferencia, la gran productora (917 documentos; 35,2 %), seguida de Andalucía (422; 16,2 %), Cataluña (240; 9,2 %) y Castilla y León (221; 8,5 %). Un total de 293 centros distintos firmaron los 2.604 documentos del estudio y dieron lugar a 2.977 colaboraciones. La mayoría de estas colaboraciones pertenecían a grandes hospitales o complejos hospitalarios entre los que destacaron los madrileños Hospital 12 de Octubre (281 colaboraciones) y Hospital Clínico San Carlos (153), así como el Hospital Universitario San Cecilio de Granada (149). La dermatología fue la especialidad que firmó un mayor número de documentos (90,8 % como primer firmante). La gran colaboradora de la dermatología fue la anatomía patológica que participó en un 28,5 % de artículos. Conclusiones. El análisis de la productividad de la revista AD durante dos décadas permite aproximarnos a la actividad científica dermatológica nacional dada la importancia cuantitativa y cualitativa de la revista en el contexto de la dermatología española

Objective. Analyze the scientific articles published in Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas (AD) between 1984 and 2003. The main bibliometric parameters analyzed were: number of articles, their length and type, primary subject areas, authorship of the documents, main contributing centers, departmental areas and geographic distribution of the articles. Material and methods. All of the scientific articles published in the regular issues of the journal Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas between 1984 and 2003 (two decades), corresponding to volumes 75 to 94, were reviewed manually. Results. A total of 2,604 articles were published in the journal AD during the period studied, with a yearly average of 130 articles. Clinical cases or notes were the main type of document (66.2 %), followed by original articles (23.5 %) and review articles (4.7 %). The length of the documents varied from 1 to 33 pages, with an average of 4.55 pages. The subjects that were most discussed in the documents from this period were dermatopathology (15.9 %) and therapeutics (15.4 %). A total of 11,667 authorships were found, with 2,907 different authors. The average number of authors per article for the period was 4.48. 56.7 % of the authors were occasional contributors (having signed a single document), while 3.5 % were top contributors, having signed 20 or more works over this period. Seven Autonomous Communities accounted for 85.5 % of the articles. The Community of Madrid was by far the largest contributor (917 documents, 35.2 %), followed by Andalusia (422, 16.2 %), Catalonia (240, 9.2 %) and Castile-León (221, 8.5 %). The 2,604 documents in the study were from 293 different centers, which accounted for 2,977 co-authorships. Most of these co-authorships were from large hospitals or hospital complexes. The most noteworthy of these were the Madrid hospitals 12 de Octubre (281 co-authorships) and Clínico San Carlos (153), and Hospital Universitario San Cecilio in Granada (149). Dermatology was the specialty of most of the authors (90.8 % of those authors listed first). The main specialty collaborating with dermatology was pathology, taking part in 28.5 % of the articles. Conclusions. An analysis of the productivity of the journal AD over two decades gives us an idea of scientific activity in dermatology in Spain, because of the journal's quantitative and qualitative significance in the context of Spanish dermatology

La Literatura científica española en enfermería sobre administración sanitaria (1990-2001) / Scientific literature in nursing relating to healthcare management (1990-2001)

Objetivo: analizar los artículos científicos españoles de Enfermería sobre temas relacionados con la administración sanitaria indizados en la base de datos CUIDEN en el período de 1990-2001.• Material y método: estudio bibliométrico descriptivo retrospectivo. Se seleccionaron todos los artículos que respondían a la estrategia de búsqueda (artículos de Enfermería españoles sobre administración sanitaria) y se procedió a un análisis de los datos para la obtención de los indicadores bibliométricos (productividad,colaboración y materias).• Resultados: se obtuvieron 313 artículos con un promedio de aproximadamente26 por año. Los valores máximos se dan en 1992 y 1995. Las revistas con mayor número de artículos son Atención Primaria y Rol de Enfermería con 28 artículos cada una. La producción de artículos está distribuida en 80 publicación es periódicas que oscilan entre 2 revistas con 28 artículos cada una y 34 revistas con una sola publicación. Los hospitales son los que más artículos escriben sobre esta temática. Andalucía es la Comunidad Autónoma más productiva; por provincias, es Barcelona la que más produce. El índice de colaboración ha sido de 2,7 autores por artículo. La materia con más frecuencia de aparición en los artículos es control de calidad sanitaria.• Conclusiones: se tiende a publicar más en revistas que destacan por su gran difusión, producción y repercusión, pero que no están especializadas en gestión sanitaria. Esto puede dificultar en gran medida a cualquier investigador que pretenda abordar este tema y sustentar su estudio sobre conocimientos previos, impidiéndole así la discusión comparativa con otros trabajos. Por otro lado, existe un escaso desarrollo del trabajo en equipo en Enfermería en los estudios sobre administración sanitaria

Objective: to analyse Spanish scientific papers in Nursing on subjects relating to health care administration indexed that have been indexed in the CUIDEN data base in the period from 1990 to 2001.• Material and methods: bibliometric, retrospective and descriptive study. All articlesthat complied with the search strategy were selected (Spanish Nursing papers onhealthcare administration). Data was analysed to obtain bibliometric indicators(productivity, collaboration and subjects).• Results: a total of 313 papers were obtained, averaging 26 per year, with peak values between 1992 and 1995. The journals with the largest number of papers are Atención Primaria and Rol de Enfermería, with 28 papers each. The production of papers is distributed into 80 regular publications that are divided into2 journals with 28 articles each and 34 journals with just one single publication. Hospitals rank first in the writing of this sort of papers. By geographical regions, Andalusia is the most productive autonomous region and by provinces, Barcelona is the most productive. The collaboration index was 2.7 authors per paper. The most commented subject in the papers was the control of health care quality.• Conclusion: the tendency is to publish in journals that stand out for their large circulation, production and repercussion, however, these papers are not specialized in healthcare management. This can make it rather difficult for the investigator whose aim is to address this subject or to support his or her study on previous knowledge, preventing him or her from making a comparative discussion with other papers

Information literacy skills of occupational therapy graduates: a survey of learning outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to assess whether recent graduates of the Ohio State University's Occupational Therapy division are applying information-seeking skills they learned as undergraduates, and to seek their advice on ways to improve information-literacy instruction for current and future occupational therapy students. METHOD: A survey was sent to a sample of graduates from 1995-2000. The results were entered into an SPSS database, and descriptive and inferential results were calculated to determine the information-seeking patterns of these recent graduates. RESULTS: A majority of the occupational therapy graduates who responded to the survey prefer to use information resources that are readily available to them, such as advice from their colleagues or supervisors (79%) and the Internet (69%), rather than the evidence available in the journal literature. Twenty-six percent (26%) of the graduates have searched MEDLINE or CINAHL at least once since they graduated. Formal library instruction sessions were considered useful by 42% of the graduates, and 22% of the graduates found informal contacts with librarians to be useful. CONCLUSIONS: Librarians and occupational therapy faculty must intensify their efforts to convey the importance of applying research information to patient care and inform students of ways to access this information after they graduate. In addition to teaching searching skills for MEDLINE and CINAHL, they must provide instruction on how to assess the quality of information they find on the Internet. Other findings suggest that occupational therapy practitioners need access to information systems in the clinical setting that synthesize the research in a way that is readily applicable to patient-care issues.

Mining microarray expression data by literature profiling.

BACKGROUND: The rapidly expanding fields of genomics and proteomics have prompted the development of computational methods for managing, analyzing and visualizing expression data derived from microarray screening. Nevertheless, the lack of efficient techniques for assessing the biological implications of gene-expression data remains an important obstacle in exploiting this information. RESULTS: To address this need, we have developed a mining technique based on the analysis of literature profiles generated by extracting the frequencies of certain terms from thousands of abstracts stored in the Medline literature database. Terms are then filtered on the basis of both repetitive occurrence and co-occurrence among multiple gene entries. Finally, clustering analysis is performed on the retained frequency values, shaping a coherent picture of the functional relationship among large and heterogeneous lists of genes. Such data treatment also provides information on the nature and pertinence of the associations that were formed. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of patterns of term occurrence in abstracts constitutes a means of exploring the biological significance of large and heterogeneous lists of genes. This approach should contribute to optimizing the exploitation of microarray technologies by providing investigators with an interface between complex expression data and large literature resources.

Análisis del consumo de información en la revista Rehabilitación (Mdr) / Analysis of the use of information in the journal Rehabilitation (Mdr)

El análisis de las referencias bibliográficas en distintas publicaciones es uno de los pilares en el estudio de la comunicación científica. Hemos analizado las pautas que rigen el consumo de información en los artículos de la revista Rehabilitación (Mdr). El estudio abarcó las 8.725 referencias bibliográficas en los artículos publicados en la revista entre 1990 y 1995. Las referencias recogidas corresponden a 940 revistas diferentes, de las que 79 son españolas. Las publicaciones editadas en los EE UU y el Reino Unido representan más del 50 por ciento del total, mientras que las de otros países europeos tienen escasa repercusión. En conclusión, la distribución de las referencias bibliográficas en la publicación difiere, en parte, de la habitual en las publicaciones médicas españolas (AU)

Increase in information content in histopathology reports: a concealed workload for histopathologists.

INTRODUCTION: The workload of histopathologists is traditionally assessed by the total number of specimens handled annually (TSA). Development in medical science has resulted in an increased demand by clinicians for more information in histopathology reports. Inclusion of this information requires more work. Annual information output (AIO) is the total number of specimens handled annually multiplied by the average number of items of information per histopathology report (AIR). An item of information is any pathological feature of prognostic or therapeutic relevance. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to determine whether there has been an increase in annual information output (AIO) during a 17-year period. METHOD: This is a retrospective study in a University Department of Pathology. 200 histopathology reports per year at 4 yearly intervals from 1982 to 1998 were examined. TSA, AIR and AIO were calculated. RESULTS: TSA increased from 2912 in 1982 to 3919 in 1998 (34.6% increase). AIR increased from 1.11 to 3.12 (181.1% increase). AIO increased from 3232.3 to 12227.3 (278.3% increase). CONCLUSION: The increase in AIO was greater than the increase in TSA. Thus the use of TSA alone will not reflect the increase in workload accurately. We recommend the use of AIO rather than TSA to quantify workload and staffing requirements of histopathologists.