Librarians Improve Science: Impacting Research Quality through Transparency and Reproducibility

Sponsored by JoVE
Recorded on 07/18/2018

Posted in Scholarly Communication and Research

Explore ways academic libraries and librarians can positively improve transparency and reproducibility at their institutions by educating and supporting researchers, students, and the broader communities they serve. Come and learn about available tools and initiatives that can help enhance the quality of science immediately, as well as longer term strategies for leading institutional change around reproducibility.

Melissa Rethlefsen and Ana Patricia Ayala are leading advocates in this sphere and will bring their passion to the session to ensure that you:

  1. Gain familiarity with tools to enhance transparency
  2. Understand how academic libraries can catalyze the conversation around reproducibility at their institutions
  3. Become empowered to share these initiatives among your communities

Introducing the webinar will be JoVE’s vice president of operations Dr. Justin Cherny. He will discuss how the JoVE Video Journal was created to address the frustration of scientists trying to repeat experiments — with only inadequate text articles to guide them.

Speakers:

  • Image of Ana Patricia Ayala, MIst, AHIP

    Ana Patricia Ayala, MIst, AHIP

    esearch Services Librarian at Gerstein Science Information CentreUniversity of Toronto

    Patricia has co-lead the development of the Systematic and Scoping Review Service (SSRS) at Gerstein Science Information Centre, focused on collaborating with faculty and researchers engaged in systematic, scoping and other types of method-driven literature reviews. Patricia’s portfolio includes building and deepening relationships with faculty, staff, students and other researchers, on campus, within research institutes, teaching hospitals, hospital libraries, and national and international organizations. She established a liaison relationship between Gerstein and the EQUATOR Network with the purpose of developing a network for librarians across the globe, and organizing outreach opportunities advocating for the role of librarians in research, proper reporting, and research integrity. She’s currently co-leading research on the challenges and opportunities for early career researchers undertaking systematic reviews. As an ambassador for the Open Science Framework (OSF), a tool that facilitates integrity and transparency in the entire research cycle, Patricia conducts workshops and teaches how initiatives like this one can be used to align scientific approaches with scientific values.

  • Image of Melissa L. Rethlefsen, MSLS, AHIP

    Melissa L. Rethlefsen, MSLS, AHIP

    Associate Dean George A. Smathers Libraries, and Fackler Director of the Health Science Center LibrariesUniversity of Florida in Gainesville, Florida

    Melissa was Interim Executive Director & Librarian at the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. She received her Master’s Degree from the University of North Texas, and she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and History from the University of Minnesota. She previously worked at Mayo Clinic’s Learning Resource Center, the Minnesota Department of Health RN Barr Library, and the University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library. In her role as Interim Executive Director at the University of Utah, she was also the Director for the MidContinental Region & National Training Office, National Network of Libraries of Medicine. She also served as the Section Director for the Systematic Review Core, Population Health Research Foundation for Discovery within the Center for Clinical & Translational Science, for which she led a team of librarians in performing systematic reviews and conducting systematic review methodology research. She also led the creation of the first national conference on research reproducibility, Research Reproducibility 2016, #MakeResearchTrue; its successor, Research Reproducibility 2018: Building Research Integrity through Reproducibility; the Research Reproducibility Coalition at the University of Utah; and Utah’s Grand Rounds: Research Reproducibility, an interdisciplinary seminar series.

    Melissa has received many awards for her work in medical librarianship, including being named as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2009 and receiving the Estelle Brodman Award for Academic Medical Librarian of the Year in 2015. She served as a member of the Medical Library Association Board of Directors from 2015-2018, and is currently a member of the Medical Reference Services Quarterly Editorial Board. Her research currently focuses on systematic review methodology and reporting, particularly the librarian’s role in improving quality and reproducibility. She is also known for her work in social media and public health bibliometrics. She has published a book, Internet Cool Tools for Physicians; over 20 peer reviewed research articles in journals including PLoS One, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, and Mayo Clinic Proceedings; and over 50 non-peer reviewed articles, including articles in JAMA and Minnesota Medicine