ARCS experts work with individual researchers and with entire classrooms or labs to meet specific needs and to strategize about pathways to robust and sustainable projects. The stories below offer just a few examples of the many ways ARCS services can enhance your research.
Clinical informatics: Sarah Meyer
Meyer supports data-centric research projects from a variety of disciplines. Many of her consultations revolve around the National Institutes of Health’s i2b2 (informatics for integrating biology to bedside) tool. This tool provides access to a “limited data set” of clinical observations from UF’s integrated data repository (IDR). With over 1 billion observations on over 1 million patients, access to IDR records facilitates new discoveries, cohort counts for grant proposals, planning clinical trials and IRB protocols. Sarah recently collaborated with two nursing students to conduct a pilot study to update risk factors of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) for hospital-acquired delirium. She provided expertise on clinical health data requirements, i2b2 retrieval and data analysis methods, resulting in a product that has garnered positive feedback from the research community.
Digital humanities: Tiffany Esteban
Tiffany Esteban takes a client-centered approach to digital humanities consultations, events, and outreach at the University of Florida. With her expertise in digital humanities and library and information science, she advises students, instructors, and researchers on multilingual digital projects, international digital libraries, and digital games. She also facilitates community-centric programming through her leadership roles in the UF Digital Humanities Working Group and the Florida Digital Humanities Consortium. To support international digital humanities initiatives, she has consulted on the Islam Burkina Faso Collection (Library Press at UF) and other projects, presented on the Japan Disasters Digital Archive (Harvard University), and co-organized the Global Digital Humanities Symposium 2022. Her endeavors center the work of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in the field, and her efforts build relationships around a shared interest in the intersection of human cultures and digital technologies.
Computational reproducibility: Hao Ye
As Reproducibility Librarian, Hao Ye promotes through instruction and consultation best practices in research reproducibility, including data/code sharing, open-access and preprint publications, and computational workflows. A recent consultation with a graduate student is illustrative of how he can improve the reproducibility of research on campus. Hao provided details about software-development methods to promote computational reproducibility, and guided the student towards the PyOpenSci online community that publishes standards for packaging research software in the Python programming language. He also pointed them toward the DLHub platform for sharing machine learning models as a repository with examples most similar to the student’s research domain and application.
Scholarly publishing strategies: Terry Selfe
If you are considering writing a research article but aren’t sure where to begin or are feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect, Terry Selfe is here to help! As part of ARCS’ Research Metrics and Impact team, Terry focuses on giving students and early career researchers the tools and strategies to publish on their research – increasing dissemination through publication increases potential impact. She promotes the use of reporting standards as helpful tools to guide authors in writing high-quality manuscripts publishable in peer-reviewed journals. Terry offers these impact strategies through consultations, guest lectures, workshops, and conference presentations to relevant groups (e.g., Society of Clinical Research Associates). These educational efforts demystify the publishing process and provide concrete steps to follow. Her slate of workshops include From Poster to Publication; Publish, Don’t Perish; Publishing a Clinical Trial with CONSORT; and a Good Reporting Practices (GRPs) series.
Systematic reviews: Patti McCall
Systematic Review Librarian Patti McCall works closely with students, faculty, and other researchers across all disciplines on planning and strategizing systematic, scoping, rapid, and related reviews. These reviews are considered the "gold standards" for locating, analyzing, and summarizing evidence to support clinical and other decision-making. Patti identifies appropriate resources and works with teams to develop effective and efficient search strategies to yield relevant results. The Institute of Medicine requires systematic review searches be performed by a librarian, and the Cochrane Collaboration strongly recommends the same. Patti's slate of review projects includes a rapid review addressing comorbidities in Covid-19. She has presented on systematic reviews to UF’s K College and collaborated on a well-received six-part workshop series on systematic reviews.
Copyright and publishing: Perry Collins
Copyright specialist Perry Collins collaborates with researchers across campus as they seek to publish scholarly and creative works. Navigating the legal and ethical complexities of copyright can be especially challenging for students, and Perry welcomes opportunities to visit classes or consult one-on-one to introduce concepts such as fair use and help students understand their own rights. Perry worked with one undergraduate student who was ready to publish a children’s book, but needed additional guidance on how to share rights with the book’s illustrator and on the copyright registration process. This student later reflected on her experience: “As I decided to join the publishing world and create my first book, I knew that I would need some help along the way. As a student, the university offers us many library services and resources for our convenience. Thankful for this, I reached out to a few librarians that were excited to give me some helpful insight into copyright, publishing, my genre, and more.”
Data management in agriculture: Plato Smith
Data Management Librarian Plato Smith partners with researchers and students to improve their skills in data organization (consistent file naming conventions, folder structure, and version control for data), facilitating data sharing, reuse, and impact. His expertise in the creation of data management plans for NIH and NSF grant proposals positions researchers to be successful in these endeavors, and his knowledge of data repositories facilitate data sharing compliance by these researchers. In addition to the Oyster Reef project described elsewhere on this page, he is a co-PI on a $4.8 million USDA-NIFA funded project titled “SmartPath—Grower-directed convergence nanotechnology and smart decision analytics for irrigation water quality management to pathogen”. In this project he works to create data management and analysis capacity, infrastructure, and resources in support of the development of the SmartPath Center of Excellence.
Data management and informatics for conservation: Plato Smith and Joe Aufmuth
The ARCS team excels in collaborative projects, exemplified by the work of Plato Smith and Joe Aufmuth on UF’s Wildlife Ecology and Conservation’s Lone Cabbage Reef Restoration Project (https://wec.ifas.ufl.edu/oysterproject/restoration.php ). The goal of the project, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Gulf Environmental Benefits Fund, is to restore the Lone Cabbage reef chain, and help protect nearby coastal areas from habitat destruction. Through a $73,673 sub-award to the Libraries, the ARCS team were essential partners in the initial launch of a field database and version control systems, provided Geographic Information Systems (GIS) support, and tracked these efforts through the key initial phases of the project involving design, construction, and pre/post construction monitoring.
Journal publishing: Chelsea Johnston
Publishing an open access journal is hard work. Scholarly Publishing and Repository Librarian Chelsea Johnston is here to help as UF’s lead for Florida Online Journals (Florida OJ), a digital publishing platform available to UF affiliates publishing open access journals. She provides assistance with technical troubleshooting, recommendations for editorial project management, and support in archiving journal content. Chelsea leads journal editors through each stage of the publishing process, from crafting transparent editorial policies to exploring techniques that increase visibility. Recently, Chelsea collaborated with EDIS to create a plan to register DOIs for past, present, and future journal articles. With over 1,350 DOIs now registered, authors have persistent identifiers to cite and share their work and journals have seen increased interaction via Google Analytics. Working with new and established journals, Chelsea collaborates with editorial teams to maximize publishing impact.
Research Metrics: Tara Cataldo
Do you know where to find them and how to use them? As part of the ARCS Research Metrics and Impact Team, Tara Cataldo does. Whether it is finding author metrics like the h-index, calculating citation counts for journal article and e-books, or building complex data queries to create group metrics, Tara can assist through consultations, guest lectures, and workshops. Reach out the next time you are looking for numbers to put in a promotion packet, award application, a grant biosketch, or your profile page.
