CFP: Vt Oxford Network

Vermont Oxford Network 2013 Annual Meeting and Quality Congress: Learning Fair and NICU Tube Fest
Call for Poster & Video Presentations
The Learning Fair is one of the most popular events of the Annual Meeting and Quality Congress, and reflects the collective work of this vibrant community of practice. Teams from around the world are actively engaged in sharing their improvement stories and data via posters. We have expanded the time to explore the Learning Fair by including events on both Saturday October 5, and an additional optional faculty-led Guided Poster Walk on Sunday, October 6, 2013.
Who Should Submit a Poster?
• Every NICU team or individual engaged in improving the quality, safety, efficiency and value of newborn care
• NICQ 8 and iNICQ teams
• State or regional quality improvement organizations
• Neonatal Fellows
Submissions will be evaluated for their quality and relevance to the conference program. Select posters may be highlighted in a Guided Poster Walk on Sunday, October 6th. Fellows Corner of the Learning Fair will highlight Fellow-driven quality improvement work. Outstanding poster submissions may be invited to share their improvement data in a short Podium Brief during plenary sessions. For the Podium Briefs, we are particularly interested in improvement projects that focus on the following plenary themes or challenges:
• Neurologic outcomes or newborn brain care
• Innovative models of NICU care
• Care-by-parent or couplet care models/projects
• Oxygen saturation targeting, compliance and/or impact on downstream outcomes
• Standardization and MUSIQ
• Care for infants and families affected by NAS
Complete guidelines for posters are located on the following pages. A completed copy of your center’s Submission Authorization is required. (Note: Not required for NICQ 8 center participants.) DEADLINE: An abstract summarizing the poster submission is due by August 12, 2013. Abstracts submitted after that date will not be accepted.
Details here: http://www.vtoxford.org/meetings/AMQC/2013CallforPosters.pdf 

Call for Clinical Editors (Book Publisher)

CALL FOR CLINICAL EDITORS
Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins seeks nurses to serve as Clinical Editors for books in the award-winning Incredibly Easy Series, as well as other popular reference titles. As Clinical Editor, you will aid with a book’s revision by identifying items that require updating, soliciting contributors and reviewers, performing review, and ensuring a high-quality product. An honorarium is paid, and the Clinical Editor’s name will appear on the cover of the book and in front matter.
Clinical Editor Requirements
• Advanced practice or doctoral degree in nursing
• Experience as an author/reviewer for nursing books or journals
• Ability to recruit exceptional contributors and reviewers
• Expertise or familiarity with book topic
• Demonstrated ability to:
• Coordinate the efforts of contributors
• Meet deadlines
• Manage page allotments
Forthcoming Book Topics
• Dosage calculations
• ECG interpretation
• Emergency nursing
• Fluids & electrolytes
• Hemodynamic monitoring
• IV therapy
• Maternal – neonatal
• Medical terminology
• Nursing fundamentals
• Nursing procedures
• Pharmacology
• Wound care
Send an email and your C.V. to: Shannon Magee, Senior Editor, Wolters Kluwer/ Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Shannon.magee2@wolterskluwer.com

Chronicle: Researchers and Scientific Groups Make New Push Against Impact Factors

Reported today in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

More than 150 researchers and 75 scientific groups issued a declaration on Thursday against the widespread use of journal “impact factors,” blaming the practice for dangerous distortions in financing and hiring in science.

The impact factor “has a number of well-documented deficiencies as a tool for research assessment,” the scientists said in the letter, which had been in preparation since a conference led by publishers and grant-writing agencies last year in San Francisco.

Those deficiencies include the ability of publishers to manipulate the calculations, and the way the metrics encourage university hiring and promotion decisions, as well as grant agencies’ award distributions, that can lack an in-depth understanding of scientific work.

For some analysts, the impact factor has largely become an outsourced proxy for research quality, allowing decision makers (like tenure committees and deans) to forego actually reading faculty members’ work. Full article on line: http://chronicle.com/article/ResearchersScientific/139337/

CFS: MedSurg Matters!

MedSurg Matters! http://www.amsn.org/professional-development/periodicals/medsurg-matters-newsletter

Newsletter: MedSurg Matters! is the official member newsletter of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) and is indexed in the Cumulative Index in Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). It contains peer-reviewed clinical articles and is distributed six times a year as a benefit of membership. Each issue includes at least one CNE article.

MedSurg Matters! is always accepting feature articles that are clinical in content, whether you are a first-time writer who can benefit from mentoring or a veteran continuing to share your knowledge. Our Author Guidelines <http://www.amsn.org/sites/default/files/documents/professional-development/periodicals/medsurg-matters-newsletter/AMSN-MSM-Author-Guidelines.pdf> (PDF) will give you valuable pointers and the Manuscript Wish List<http://www.amsn.org/sites/default/files/documents/professional-development/periodicals/medsurg-matters-newsletter/AMSN-MSM-Manuscript-Wish-List.pdf> (PDF) helps you with ideas (or feel free to present to us the topic of your choice). If you’d like to write, send an email to msmnews@ajj.com or fill out the Manuscript Query Form <http://www.amsn.org/professional-development/periodicals/medsurg-matters-newsletter/medsurg-matters-manuscript-query>.

First-time writers may want to consider starting with a short column submission. Learn more about a few of our regular columns:

• Health Care Reform<http://www.amsn.org/medsurg-matters-seeking-authors-write-health-care-reform>

• Healthy Work Environment<http://www.amsn.org/practice-resources/healthy-work-environment>

 

CFS: ANIA Newsletter

ANIA Newsletter, the official newsletter of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), is a benefit of membership that includes clinical articles dedicated to advancing adult health nursing practice, clinical research, and professional development. Unless clearly specified, the views expressed in articles, columns, and letters published in ANIA Newsletter represent the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the official policies of ANIA. The newsletter accepts original articles, case studies, letters, descriptions of clinical care, and research. Query letters are welcomed, but not required. Material must be original and never published before. All clinical manuscripts submitted undergo review. Each manuscript is evaluated on its timeliness, importance, accuracy, clarity, and applicability to nursing informatics. Manuscripts accepted are subject to copy editing. The author will receive proofs for review prior to publication. Manuscripts not accepted for publication will not be returned to the author unless requested within 30 days of notification of rejection.

Manuscript Preparation: Manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced on 8.5” x 11” white paper, and should be 6-8 pages in length (including references). Style should generally follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed., 2010). Use the author-date method of citation within the text. For example, “(Doe, 2013)” or “Doe (2013) states…” With multiple authors, the first citation must list all authors (up to six), and subsequent citations should list only the last name of the first author and et al. (Doe et al., 2013). Prior to submission, a colleague should read the manuscript, if possible. Acquiring permission to reprint previously published materials is the responsibility of the author. Format of Manuscript: Title Page: Include the manuscript title, authors’ names, credentials, and a biographic statement. Also include a brief abstract of 40 words or less along with an address for correspondence, email address (required), and day and evening phone numbers. Text: Double-space all typing, using 1.5-2 inch margins. Include the title, or short descriptor, on top of each page, but do not include the author’s name. Subheadings: Include subheadings in the manuscript where possible. Type all subheadings flush to the left margin. References: Please limit references to 10-12 entries. All references should be from the last 3-5 years, when possible. List all references in alphabetical order. All citations should reference primary sources. The use of secondary sources (material analyzed or interpreted from the primary source) is discouraged. If necessary, locate a copy of the original work and credit it as such. Authors are encouraged to provide the digital object identifier (DOI) number for all references when possible directly after the citation. Manuscripts must NOT contain reference software codes.

Manuscript Submission: Authors should submit manuscripts via email (preferred), or on disk or CD-ROM. All disks should be clearly labeled with the author name, manuscript title, and file name. Software:As a general rule, all files should be saved as MS Word. General: Use only common fonts (CG Times, Universe, Helvetica, Courier, etc.) and avoid complex font attributes such as outline. All graphics (figures, graphs, etc.) must be submitted in cameraready form. Submit manuscripts to: ANIA Newsletter, East Holly Avenue, Box 56, Pitman, NJ 08071-0056, editor@ania.org<mailto:editor@ania.org>

Further information at: https://www.ania.org/content/ania-newsletter 

Sloppiness on the Rise

Times Higher Education reports:

Speaking at the 3rd World Conference on Research Integrity, held in Montreal, Canada, from 5 to 8 May, Véronique Kiermer said a lot of errors that needed correction were “actually avoidable errors…and I think that is a very troubling trend”.

Although – unlike across academic publishing as a whole – the publishing group’s 18 journals had seen no increase in the number of retractions per year, the number of corrections issued had risen, said Dr Kiermer.

Directing her concerns mainly at the biomedical sciences, she listed problems with papers that included missing control tests, inappropriate and poor image manipulation, issues in experimental design and reporting, and problems with statistics.

The article is on line at: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/research-paper-sloppiness-on-the-increase-warns-publisher/2003771.article

OMICS Threatens OA Critic Beall

If you’re like most academic nurses, you’ve probably been spammed by OMICS,  a group that publishes specious open-access journals and hosts conferences. This group landed on Jeffrey Beall’s carefully vetted list of “Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers” on the Scholarly Open Access Web site.

Now Beall, a U Colorado librarian, finds himself threatened with a billion-dollar lawsuit by OMICS, an Indian company where laws concerning what you can about a company may be different from those in the US.

Scrutinize very carefully an invitation from any open-access publication. Open-access publishing is a lawless frontier landscape with many unscrupulous publishers.