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How to get the attention of scientists/ clinicians: PubMed Commons

Hope123

Senior Member
Messages
1,266
I'm rarely on PR anymore but I'd thought I bring this up if no one has.

People posting here often have interesting comments about studies. If you have ever had an article -- even a letter - published in a peer-reviewed journal that is indexed (i.e. listed) on Pubmed (the main US databased for finding research articles), you have the opportunity and privilege of joining PubMed Commons. How to find out whether you're on Pubmed already? Search for your name/ e-mail address on it.

Why is this important? The discussion surrounding weaknesses, strengths, limitations, findings, etc. of studies needs to get out beyond the ME/CFS community to ANYONE who reads these articles. The joy of Commons is

a) Posting is as easy as posting on any website

b) Your comment gets published immediately. A major stumbling block to commenting in journals via letters to the editor is the Editor can decide your comment is not valuable. There is no such moderation on PubMed as long as you do not attack people for personal traits, use profanity, etc.

c) ANYONE who ever searches for a topic or article and sees it on PubMed automatically sees your comment. This is even better than publishing in a journal in the sense that journal paywalls prohibit everyone from seeing your comment and people unfamiliar with a journal are unlikely to seek it our. However, millions of scientists and health professionals internationally use PubMed (which is free, supported by US taxes) to search out topics of interest.

Over the years, I find that WHO I say things to is as important as WHAT I say so these days, I try to target my messages to specific audiences. You can do similar --reach out to people unfamiliar with ME/CFS. You can even cut and paste comments from here to PubMed or vice versa.

CAVEAT: PubMed requires you use your REAL name.

Ready to sign up? See here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedcommons/get-started/

Example of Comments on the Recovery PACE article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23363640
 

Jenny TipsforME

Senior Member
Messages
1,184
Location
Bristol
So for those of us who aren't anywhere along this process, a first step is to write letters to journals about topics we're knowledgable about? These are usually objecting to something in a paper aren't they?

Then once something we've written is published online, start this process:

"
How to Join PubMed Commons
To be eligible to use PubMed Commons, you must be an author of a publication in PubMed. You will need an invitation to join PubMed Commons and an NCBI account. This is free of charge.

Once you are a member of PubMed Commons, you will be able to invite other eligible authors to join. For more details on how to do that, see the Invitation Instructions.

You may be able to invite yourself
E-mail addresses of eligible authors have been collected from the NIH, the Wellcome Trust and authors’ email addresses in PubMed and PubMed Central. Check to see if your active email address is on this list.

GET STARTED

Ask a colleague to invite you
If you have a colleague who is already in the system, ask them to send you an invitation. Otherwise, some of your colleagues should be able to invite themselves – and then they will be able to invite you.

Another alternative is to organize a group from your academic institution. For more details, see the FAQ."

Do we know who on PR can act as the equivalent of our 'colleagues'?
 

Jenny TipsforME

Senior Member
Messages
1,184
Location
Bristol
Other people who have full commenting rights are Commons Journal Club members.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedcommons/journal-clubs/about/

"PubMed Commons Journal Clubs is an initiative to capture discussions of scientific publications and connect them to citations in PubMed.

This initiative is currently open to journal clubs holding regular discussions for research, graduate and postgraduate education, or continuing professional education. Traditional or virtual formats are welcome. A PubMed Commons member who participates in the journal club serves as guarantor, responsible under the PubMed Commons guidelines.

Read more about this initiative on the PubMed Commons Blog."

"Around the world, the journal club is a cornerstone engagement with the scholarly literature. Whether in face-to-face meetings or on social media platforms, researchers, physicians, and trainees gather to debate and converse about publications. Participants share their views on methods and interpretations of results. They discuss how publications fit into a broader context or might inform their own research or practice.

In short, the journal club can represent a major intellectual investment – and a long-standing form of post-publication evaluation.

Yet often, the analyses and ideas don’t travel far beyond core participants. Digital records and virtual journal clubs can help deliver the discourse to others. Still, wouldn’t it be fantastic if more of us could see what these groups have to say?

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of PubMed Commons Journal Clubs. These accounts will allow groups to establish their own identity on PubMed Commons. Journal clubs will be able to share key points, questions, and summaries from their discussions – right below citations in PubMed." (emphasis mine)

I suspect PR may quite legitimately already meet this type of criteria, then we only need one responsible Pubmed Commons member.

BTW @Hope123 should this thread be in the members area?
 
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Jenny TipsforME

Senior Member
Messages
1,184
Location
Bristol
This is an example of one:

"#RheumJC is a Twitter-based Rheumatology journal club officially launched in January 2015 for the purpose of bringing together healthcare professionals from all over the world to discuss published scientific literature in rheumatology using Twitter as an interactive platform for engagement. Discussions occur approximately once to twice a month, with two one-hour live chats to allow for international participation. All relevant tweets include the hashtag #RheumJC. Summaries as well as full transcripts of the sessions are posted within a few days on http://www.rheumjc.com. Efforts are made to have every chosen article be open-access so that there are no barriers to participation. Additionally, whenever possible, authors of chosen articles are invited to participate in the live chats"

Example of #RheumJC in action: https://storify.com/psufka/rheumjc-from-09-28-2017

It might be enough to start a thread called Phoenix Rising Journal Club and then from that thread link to paper specific discussions as they happen? Then one of us can add a summary of our discussion to the thread and pubmed. It will appear right under the original citation on pubmed like this:

IMG_2861.png

Screenshot of https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25047592#cm25047592_9793

Plus any registered members of the journal club can comment on any paper on pubmed (if I understand correctly).

Does this seem doable and a good idea?
@Mark @Jonathan Edwards

For more information or to apply for a Journal Club account, email pubmed.commons@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

BTW my energy is already over committed and then some, so this isn't me volunteering to organise it all ;)
 
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Hope123

Senior Member
Messages
1,266
Other people who have full commenting rights are Commons Journal Club members.


BTW @Hope123 should this thread be in the members area?

Hi, Jenny,

I placed the post under "Research" because this is where most comments about research are -- from what I remember anyways -- and the "Members" area is restricted. I want the maximum number of people to see this.

In terms of the Journal Clubs, I don't know how that works. I have an academic background and had already published in PubMed before getting sick so it was not a problem for me to join PubMed Commons. I'm also neither on PR much nor Twitter besides lack of energy so would not be able to organize a Club.

However, I believe several members of PR have had things published in a PubMed journal and might be able to organize such a venture. I just think if people are using their energy to post important comments/ questions, they might consider doing it in a venue that gets those comments and questions published where researchers and clinicians will see them.

Usually not on PR so if there are additional questions, I may not be following/ answering them but I wish you or anyone interested in organizing this my best wishes.