The practice of preprinting in the life sciences has grown rapidly. In addition to accelerating scientific publication, preprinting also has the potential to open new avenues of communication among researchers. For example, preprint peer review offers tremendous potential for changing the culture of scientific assessment, broadening participation, and enhancing the robustness of scholarship.

Abstract Background Reducing costs and carbon footprint are important, parallel priorities for the U.S. healthcare system. Within surgery, reducing the number of instruments that are sterilized and disposable supplies that are used for each operation can help achieve both goals.

Students and residents aspiring for a career in academic surgery are looking for training programs that will help jumpstart their careers by exposing them to mentorship and opportunities to conduct research. While the gold standard of academic productivity (for the time being) remains peer-reviewed publications, conference posters and presentations are an important secondary metric.

In our digital era, scientists are certainly sharing and reusing open data. Yet it remains unclear how widespread data reuse and citation practices are within academic disciplines, and why scientists cite—or do not cite—data in their research work.

Doctors are moving out of their clinics and taking over the digital world. Many physicians are engaging in digital media, sharing their expertise and opinions on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. But little is known on how doctors are mediating health research on social media. Noha Atef, a postdoctoral fellow at the ScholCommLab, led a series of qualitative studies on doctors who create video blogs (or vlogs) on YouTube.

Abstract The field of surgery faces complex, systemic challenges that will require new academic frameworks. In this paper, we propose design thinking as a useful problem solving technique to apply to such challenges. We define design thinking and provide a brief history of this practice.

Abstract The institutional knowledge required for residency is vast, complex, and frequently changing. Most institutions do not have a resource that serves as a singular source of truth for this information. Furthermore, since information is mostly presented on static documents such as emails or PDFs, there is no easy way to update and share the information in real time.

In the slow, unpredictable world of journal publication, preprints—unreviewed published papers—offer a mechanism for rapidly communicating health research with the scholarly community. Historically, media coverage of preprints was discouraged in journalism, due to potential concerns about reporting flawed, biased, or provisional research.

By Alice Fleerackers (Simon Fraser University) and Lauren A Maggio (Uniformed Services University of the Health Science) A story on gender inequity in scientific research industries. A deep dive into the daily rhythms of the immune system. A look at vaccine effectiveness for COVID-19 variants.

Last week I submitted a manuscript entitled "Wikidata and the bibliography of life". I've been thinking about the "bibliography of life" (AKA a database of every taxonomic publication ever published) for a while, and this paper explores the idea that Wikidata is the place to create this database.