Scholarly Publishing
September 2025 Scholarly Communications Round-up
Learn more about Open October, and updates on the 2024 NIH Policy and My Bibliography.
Becker Blog
Health and Science Communication
Tips and resources to help you shine in your next scientific presentation — Part 1: Planning
Presentations are a key component of academic life. The quality of your talk plays a critical role in how your message is received — but what makes a presentation good? While personal preferences vary and no single formula fits every scenario, the most impactful talks share a common trait: their visual elements are thoughtfully designed [Read more]
Archives and Rare Books
Violet Doolin, School of Nursing, Class of 1945
In 2024 Violet Mae Doolin (later Schroeder by marriage), donated a collection of letters she wrote while attending the Washington University School of Nursing in the 1940s.
Scholarly Publishing
Prepare for upcoming changes to NIH Common Forms – Add a Delegate to ORCID
The NIH just announced the Preview of NIH Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support. Preview versions will be available within SciENcv on or before September 15. The announcement also included recommendations for researchers to: Becker Library is offering a Zoom session on Mon. Oct. 13 at 11:00 AM that will [Read more]
Scholarly Publishing
Selecting a Journal for Publication for Reporting of NIH-supported Research? Confirm Journal Policies Before Submitting a Manuscript for Peer Review
The 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy is now applicable to peer-reviewed journal articles accepted for publication on or after July 01, 2025. The free pathway to compliance can be achieved by submitting the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) to PubMed Central (PMC) for public availability upon the official date of publication without embargo. Under the [Read more]
Science and Informatics
Do you need high performance computing for your research?
Research continues to generate more and more data, and large-scale data analyses can be complicated, computationally intensive and not suitable for personal computers. When faced with such a problem, what options do researchers have? Researchers can use High Performance Computing (HPC), a powerful technology which makes use of multiple computing processors that work in parallel [Read more]
Scholarly Publishing
The 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy is in Effect: Requirements and NIH Rights Statement
The 2024 Updated NIH Public Access Policy is applicable to peer-reviewed journal articles accepted for publication on or after July 01, 2025.
Archives and Rare Books
MUMPS and Medical Computing at WashU Medicine
If you’ve ever accessed your electronic health records (EHR), there’s a good chance you’ve encountered MUMPS—the Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, that is, not the vaccine-preventable disease. Originally designed in the late 1960s specifically for building medical databases, MUMPS and its descendants continue to form the basis of the EHR software used by many [Read more]
Archives and Rare Books
Travel scholarships available for archives and rare books collections use
Bernard Becker Medical Library is fortunate to have robust collections in archives and rare books that document the history of medicine from the late 15th century up to the present. Subjects in which the library’s holdings are particularly strong include ophthalmology and optics, neurology, deaf education and the history of dentistry. To encourage researchers living [Read more]
Archives and Rare Books
The Paradox of the Paravox VERI-small, or How to Hide a Hearing Aid in Your Hair
Today, hearing aids are small enough to sit behind your ear or slip in your ear canal, but they weren’t always so diminutive or discreet. If you used a hearing aid in the 1930s and 1940s, you wouldn’t just have a receiver in your ear—that receiver would be connected to two bulky units: one piece [Read more]