Becker Medical Library offers a variety of both traditional and innovative services to assist researchers, clinicians and students. All consulting and services are provided free of charge to the Washington University in St. Louis community.
Examples of our staff’s skills and expertise are below. Consultations and group presentations for labs, departments, etc. are available via Zoom on the topics outlined below. Contact us at (314) 362-7080 or askbecker@wustl.edu for more information.
Research analytics
- Citation analysis and bibliometrics
- Research impact metrics
- Creating co-author network maps
- Use of research assessment tools – Essential Science Indicators, Scopus, SciVal
Information retrieval and evaluation
- Expert systematic review searching
- Database searching – PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO
- Global and public health
- Point-of-care clinical information services (rounding)
- NCBI databases and tools for genomic information and analysis
- Evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice (nursing)
Information management
- Database taxonomy – MeSH
- Citation management tool education, e.g. EndNote
- Digital Commons/institutional repositories
- Mobile apps – clinical information apps
Research Computing
- Basic research computing skills, e.g. UNIX commands, shell scripting
- R and Python programming basics
- Knowledge of research and statistical analysis software landscape
- Cluster computing basics
Data Management and Sharing
- Data management plan assistance
- REDCap workshops and assistance
- Expertise in finding and sharing to data repositories
Health communication
- Communication skills training (e.g. empathy, cultural competency)
- Guidance on simplifying consent documents
- Locating and evaluating consumer health education materials
- Expertise in plain language writing and editing
Author support
- Selecting a journal for publication
- Open access publishing options
- Public access policies expertise – NIH PAP, NSF, others
- Copyright issues/questions
- Data visualization tools – Tableau, Sci2
- Social media in scholarly communications
Historical information
- Rare medical books
- Institutional histories of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine
Other
- Product trial surveys and evaluations
- NIH grant prep tools – MyBib, SciENcv