.
Thoughts & Opinion
R. Zhang
Ren Zhang
Sir, The National Institute of Health (NIH) requires that the biosketch be provided for all grant applications. The biosketch, similar to a highly structured curriculum vitae, provides essential information about applicant’s qualifications for the proposed research project. NIH has announced that a new format of the biosketch is required for grants submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2015 [1]. The new format, which is adopted by other grant agencies, such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is drastically different from the old format in many ways. For instance, the new format requires principal investigators (PIs) to describe contributions to science. Up to five contributions can be named, and for each contribution, up to four publications can be listed. In other words, the maximum number of publications listed in the biosketch is 20. At the same time, listing all publications is prohibited. Instead, PIs should
provide a link to the full list of their published work as found in a publicly available digital database such as the NCBI My Bibliography. For instance, the web address, or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) below is for the NCBI My Bibliography of a PI named Johnson: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/ myncbi/1rSSASw-9xn5A/bibilography/ 47758966/public/?sort=date&direction =descending Only providing the My Bibliography URL has two shortcomings. First, the web address for the My Bibliography is too long. When the biosketch is viewed on a computer, reviewers can click on the link; when the biosketch is printed on paper, however, it is not practical for reviewers to type such a long web address into the web browser. Second, the My Bibliography URL is composed of, in many cases, meaningless characters, and therefore the URL is not customized. It is thus impractical for PIs to remember their own My Bibliography URLs.
To solve these problems, I created a website, mypub.org, which shortens and customizes the web address of the NCBI My Bibliography. At mypub.org, users can register for a customized URL, that is, mypub.org/username. After logging in, users can input a redirecting address, e.g., the one located at NCBI My Bibliography. For instance, for the aforementioned URL for Johnson, the new address is mypub.org/johnson. When visiting mypub.org/johnson, visitors will automatically be redirected to the NCBI My Bibliography webpage. Users can also change the redirecting address to those for other digital databases, such as Google Scholar. I hope that this free service makes the new NIH biosketch format more acceptable and more convenient for PIs.
Reference 1. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/ NOT-OD-15-085.html
DOI 10.1002/bies.201500062 Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA Corresponding author: Ren Zhang E-mail: [email protected]
Bioessays 37: 835, ß 2015 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.
www.bioessays-journal.com
835
Correspondence
mypub.org, a customizable URL shortener for the NCBI My Bibliography
Thoughts & Opinion
R. Zhang
Ren Zhang
Sir, The National Institute of Health (NIH) requires that the biosketch be provided for all grant applications. The biosketch, similar to a highly structured curriculum vitae, provides essential information about applicant’s qualifications for the proposed research project. NIH has announced that a new format of the biosketch is required for grants submitted for due dates on or after May 25, 2015 [1]. The new format, which is adopted by other grant agencies, such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is drastically different from the old format in many ways. For instance, the new format requires principal investigators (PIs) to describe contributions to science. Up to five contributions can be named, and for each contribution, up to four publications can be listed. In other words, the maximum number of publications listed in the biosketch is 20. At the same time, listing all publications is prohibited. Instead, PIs should
provide a link to the full list of their published work as found in a publicly available digital database such as the NCBI My Bibliography. For instance, the web address, or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) below is for the NCBI My Bibliography of a PI named Johnson: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/ myncbi/1rSSASw-9xn5A/bibilography/ 47758966/public/?sort=date&direction =descending Only providing the My Bibliography URL has two shortcomings. First, the web address for the My Bibliography is too long. When the biosketch is viewed on a computer, reviewers can click on the link; when the biosketch is printed on paper, however, it is not practical for reviewers to type such a long web address into the web browser. Second, the My Bibliography URL is composed of, in many cases, meaningless characters, and therefore the URL is not customized. It is thus impractical for PIs to remember their own My Bibliography URLs.
To solve these problems, I created a website, mypub.org, which shortens and customizes the web address of the NCBI My Bibliography. At mypub.org, users can register for a customized URL, that is, mypub.org/username. After logging in, users can input a redirecting address, e.g., the one located at NCBI My Bibliography. For instance, for the aforementioned URL for Johnson, the new address is mypub.org/johnson. When visiting mypub.org/johnson, visitors will automatically be redirected to the NCBI My Bibliography webpage. Users can also change the redirecting address to those for other digital databases, such as Google Scholar. I hope that this free service makes the new NIH biosketch format more acceptable and more convenient for PIs.
Reference 1. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/ NOT-OD-15-085.html
DOI 10.1002/bies.201500062 Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA Corresponding author: Ren Zhang E-mail: [email protected]
Bioessays 37: 835, ß 2015 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.
www.bioessays-journal.com
835
Correspondence
mypub.org, a customizable URL shortener for the NCBI My Bibliography
