Student research conference concerns

From the Digital Commons Google group: 11/16/2016 by Meaghan Heselden <corbettm@email.gwu.edu>

For faculty and students who are concerned about the implications of publishing in the future, or about making their data publicly available before they've had the opportunity to submit a manuscript to a journal, we offer the option to embargo posters for a period of their choice (6 months up to 3 years). I've also pointed out the policies of several prominent health sciences journals and publishers that don't consider posters to be prior or duplicate publication, such as: 

- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

- Sage Publishing

- PLoS 

- Nature Journals

We would advise our students to read individual journals' policies, and to contact the journal directly with any questions or concerns about their editorial process--we offer to assist with that, as well. 

Ideas for supporting McNair Program

We added the McNair journal to Digital Commons about 4 years ago, and it has been downloaded over 900 times. The current iteration of the journal is a pdf of the print version with a little about the student and a one-page abstract about their research. I have found 3 other examples of McNair journals in institutional repositories, and they all have full papers attached. The reason may have to do with the cost to print the journal. If that is the case, then perhaps the print edition could continue as before, but the online edition could contain the papers, as well. It might be a useful way to demonstrate outcomes for the grant, too. 

Eastern Michigan: http://commons.emich.edu/mcnair/

Grand Valley State University: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/

University of Pennsylvania: http://repository.upenn.edu/mcnair_scholars/

In speaking to Herma (cc: Barbara), I found out that "Summer Research students are required to write one abstract for conferences and one for the journal. In some cases, their mentor requires them to write a full paper as well, especially when their research is for credit. So your point is certainly thought provoking. And I'm so happy to see that people are downloading the journals so many times!!! That is good news. We'll be in touch, Herma :) ". 

A supplemental idea of housing their research posters in Digital Commons, in the soon-to-be created Poster Palooza collection was a definite hit, so we should follow up with them about that after the summer program.