Collaboration between health sciences librarians and faculty as reflected by articles published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2018.559

Keywords:

Collaboration, Authorship, Publishing

Abstract

A recent study by Higgins and colleagues reports that the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) had the highest percentage of articles with both librarian and faculty coauthors out of 13 peer-reviewed journals in science, technology, engineering, and medicine librarianship and education between 2005 and 2014. A deeper and updated analysis of JMLA research articles and case studies published between 2008 and 2017 revealed that 29% of articles had both librarian and faculty coauthors. The main topics of librarian-faculty collaboration, as described in these articles, were related to patient and consumer health information and clinical information-seeking and decision-making by health care providers. Most faculty coauthors came from the disciplines of biomedical or health informatics and biostatistics and library and information science. The publication of these articles in the JMLA provides evidence of health sciences librarians’ and information specialists’ ability to collaborate with faculty members to advance the knowledgebase and practice of librarianship and the health sciences.

Author Biographies

Katherine G. Akers, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the Medical Library Association, and Biomedical Research and Data Specialist, Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

Editor-in-Chief, JMLA

Biomedical Research and Data Specialist, Shiffman Medical Library

Molly Higgins, Reference and Digital Services Librarian, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Reference and Digital Services Librarian 

Jennifer A. DeVito, Director of Access and User Services, Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

Director of Access & User Services

Sally Stieglitz, Digital Learning and Instruction Librarian, Swirbul Library, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY

Digital Learning and Instruction Librarian 

Robert Tolliver, Head, Science and Engineering, Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

Head, Science and Engineering

Clara Y. Tran, Science Librarian, Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

Science Librarian

References

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Rethlefsen ML, Farrell AM, Osterhaus Trzasko LC, Brigham TJ. Librarian coauthors correlated with higher quality reported search strategies in general internal medicine systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2015 Jun;68(6):617–26.

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Published

2018-10-04