The
beta launch of PubMed Commons has been like a month ago, the pilot system that
enables authors’ discussion and sharing of information about publications in
PubMed and other Libraries. See PubMed Official Site
As
at the time of publishing this article, the first public version of the PubMed
Commons pilot will be released in few weeks from now. It’s a great news that all
users of PubMed will be able to see, read and cite comments on their blog.
They
are very grateful to the hundreds PubMed users who joined the closed phase of
testing – especially for those who had patience with the inevitable bugs in a
beta system. The activity and feedback of these users have made the system
better in several ways:
The
team members of PubMed also said that there will be a simplified way for
eligible authors to join – including all those with current author email
addresses in PubMed and PubMed Central; A permanent citable link will be
available;
They
have increased the space in individual comment boxes (up to 8000 characters),
and the new release will have warnings if you’re getting close;
Article
helpfulness ratings are influencing the comment stream on the home page;
New
specific guidelines have been released to address concerns reported by members.
More
features are in the pipeline. It was said that there will be an increased use
of data from the helpfulness ratings to make the display of comments more
helpful – and they will support sharing on social media. Also in development is
an application programing interface (API) to integrate comments from PubMed
Commons into other websites.
Exploring
options to ensure a vibrant and useful forum for discussion of scientific
publications will be a key focus of the next stage of the pilot. They will be
exploring ways to expand people’s access to commenting and rating helpfulness,
for example through group accounts. Enhancing the value of PubMed for users is
critical to the success of PubMed Commons, and they are relying on the
community to help shape the conduct and system it wants to see.
They
said that they are establishing a working group to advise us during the next
stages of the pilot and its evaluation. And we look forward to community
discussion, too.
The
upcoming release marks the start of evaluation of PubMed Commons. Evaluation
results will be considered at 3 months and 6 months, with the final report on the
pilot anticipated after 9 months. Three key areas will be our focus: uptake and
reputation, quality and impact of comments and discussion, and sustainability.
The
team members of Martins Library will be blogging more about comments being made
in the PubMed Commons Blog, what they’re learning, and explaining more about
aspects of the type of system they use. We will be joining them as they try out
a Twitter chat, so keep your eye out on @martinslibrary
for the announcement. We say thanks again to everyone who has contributed to
PubMed Commons and discussion through Martins Library it. We look forward to an
even wider discussion soon. Stay tuned to this blog or @martinslibrary or directly @PubMedCommons
for news of the Commons going public.
This
blog article was first written by The PubMed Commons team but edited my Martins Library
team.
How
to join Martins Library
(Note – if you are an author of a publication in Martins Library, please read How to Submit your article/work for publication - Guideline for Manuscript)
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