Category Archives: oa.medicine.veterinary

Open access articles deliver real value to the veterinary community—and to our authors in: American Journal of Veterinary Research Volume 83 Issue 10 (2022)

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” The Directory of Open Access Journals (https://doaj.org) lists 7.8 million articles and over 17,000 peer-reviewed, open access journals, 115 of which cover veterinary medicine. One of my first initiatives as Editor-in-Chief was to propose converting our research journal, the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR), to full open access, meaning that our member and nonmember individual and library subscribers no longer need to pay to access our cutting-edge research content. We also converted AJVR from a monthly printed publication to an online-only journal, hosted on our completely revamped journals platform, http://avmajournals.avma.org. We established publishing fees at $1,600 for nonmember authors and $1,200 for AVMA member corresponding or first authors. The publishing fees are among the least in the veterinary literature and the delta between the two fees is the cost of membership, providing member benefit to repeat authors.

In tandem, we completely revamped the journal’s editorial board and began marketing intensely for manuscript submissions. And it is working! To date, we have published 158 articles in AJVR this year, up 68 from the same period in 2021. The change to open access has been extraordinarily well received by researchers, faculty, students, and practitioners everywhere.

The JAVMA also offers opportunities for open access publication. It remains a subscription-based journal (members receive it monthly as an AVMA member benefit) but is defined as “hybrid”; that is, for specific articles, authors can pay the publishing fee, retain copyright, and enjoy worldwide dissemination of their findings.

Our strategic editorial development plan includes increasing the number of high-quality randomized control trials (RCTs; ie, a paper describing a study that randomly assigns patients into an experimental or control group). Good RCTs bring evidence to our clinical decision-making, are very popular, and receive high downloads and citations. We will of course provide tailored and intensive social media campaigns, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and interviews on our Veterinary Vertex Podcast.

Through the end of 2022, we are offering authors of newly submitted RCTs for either AJVR or JAVMA a 50% discount on article publication fees: $600 for members and $800 for nonmembers….”

SARS-ANI: a global open access dataset of reported SARS-CoV-2 events in animals | Scientific Data

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Abstract: The zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2, the etiological agent of COVID-19, is not yet fully resolved. Although natural infections in animals are reported in a wide range of species, large knowledge and data gaps remain regarding SARS-CoV-2 in animal hosts. We used two major health databases to extract unstructured data and generated a global dataset of SARS-CoV-2 events in animals. The dataset presents harmonized host names, integrates relevant epidemiological and clinical data on each event, and is readily usable for analytical purposes. We also share the code for technical and visual validation of the data and created a user-friendly dashboard for data exploration. Data on SARS-CoV-2 occurrence in animals is critical to adapting monitoring strategies, preventing the formation of animal reservoirs, and tailoring future human and animal vaccination programs. The FAIRness and analytical flexibility of the data will support research efforts on SARS-CoV-2 at the human-animal-environment interface. We intend to update this dataset weekly for at least one year and, through collaborations, to develop it further and expand its use.

 

JFMS to join the open access movement – Andy Sparkes, Margie Scherk, Nathalie Dowgray, Heather O’Steen, 2022

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“We are delighted to announce that from the start of 2023, JFMS [Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery] will become a Gold Open Access journal, meaning that all articles will be published under a Creative Commons licence and available open access immediately upon publication. In becoming an open access, online journal, JFMS will be joining its sister title JFMS Open Reports….”

AVMA journals: Changing to meet your needs | American Veterinary Medical Association

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“Big changes are coming soon to AVMA’s [American Veterinary Medical Association’s] trusted scientific journals. 

Starting in April, JAVMA will begin publishing on a once-monthly schedule.
In June, AJVR will switch to an online-only format and make all articles open-access, so anyone in the world can read them for free….”

Linnaeus puts £30K towards open-access publication – VetSurgeon News – VetSurgeon – VetSurgeon.org

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“The Open Access Publication Charge (OAPC) initiative was introduced in 2021 to cover the fees for the company’s employees to publish in prominent peer-reviewed veterinary journals, which can cost up to £3,000 per paper.

Funding was approved for 29 employees to have their work published in eight journals last year, covering topics such as canine mast cell tumours, imaging of canine intracranial intra-axial haemorrhages, electrochemotherapy as a treatment option for feline nasal melanoma and antimicrobial use in female canine urinary tract infections.

The OAPC scheme has now been extended with a fund of at least £30,000 available this year….”

Frontiers | Open Science for Veterinary Education Research | Veterinary Science

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“The manifesto for reproducible science (15) details a range of approaches that can be used to support more open research practices. For veterinary education, there are a number that can be integrated into our current practice….

Data sharing is another aspect of reporting which supports openness within education research. While data sharing is highly prevalent in some fields, there are complex ethical considerations regarding human data within social science contexts (32, 36). Where participants are informed and have consented to share their data, and where reasonable precautions are taken regarding ethical concerns (37), sharing data can help reduce unnecessary data collection, support the development of researchers in areas like the Global South (38), and help to catch errors within the research process (39).

Finally, dissemination and reporting can be further improved through pre-printing, the process of making articles available prior to peer-review. Pre-printing has a host of benefits (40, 41) including enhancing sight of the findings and facilitating open review, improving the transparency of peer review, and facilitating the publication of controversial findings. Pre-printing also allows for the sharing of author’s final version manuscripts, as they can be updated post peer-review. This will support the availability of research beyond paywalls. Unfortunately, not all journals support pre-printing. In the author’s experience, both Medical Teacher and Journal of Veterinary Medical Education have in 2020–2021 discouraged the use of pre-printing by considering it prior-publication, thus making pre-printed papers unable to be published by those journals. However, other journals, such as Frontiers in Veterinary Science support the use of open publishing approaches. Researchers must be cautious in pre-printing to ensure they are not inadvertently cutting themselves off from their desired audience, but should also participate in journal communities to encourage pre-printing where appropriate….”

All for One…Health for All: The Role of Open Access, Evidence-Based Information to Improve Health for All Species – NLM Musings from the Mezzanine

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“Beyond personal experiences caring for animals at home or at work, One Health is a critical framework for providing timely, open, high-quality information during times of wildfires and natural disasters that can affect all species. Responding to natural disasters brings together teams who work primarily with humans and teams who typically work with animals. Many veterinary schools provide emergency preparedness education in addition to deploying veterinary emergency teams to respond to emergency situations that may be all species-focused or primarily a human health oriented mission. Central knowledge resources like the American Red Cross also provide apps and information to support people and pets during times of crisis.

Libraries who participate in the NLM-supported Network of the National Library of Medicine are essential resources for people seeking information online from trusted sources. Health sciences librarians, particularly the members of the Medical Library Association’s Animal and Veterinary Information Specialist Caucus, support the health of all species by addressing questions raised by people who live, work, and share the broader environment with companion animals and wildlife. These questions may come to public, community college, and university libraries who rely on free and direct access to high-quality resources written for a variety of audiences….”

Repurposing the open access malaria box reveals compounds with activity against Tritrichomonas foetus trophozoites – PubMed

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Abstract:  The protozoan parasite Tritrichomonas foetus causes early embryonic death in cattle which results in severe economic loss. In the United States, there are no drugs are approved for treatment of this pathogen. In this study, we evaluated in vitro anti-protozoal effects of compounds from an open access chemical library against T. foetus trophozoites. An initial high-throughput screen identified 16 compounds of interest. Further investigation revealed 12 compounds that inhibited parasite growth and 4 compounds with lethal effects. For lethal compounds, dose-response curves were constructed and the LD50 was calculated for laboratory and field strains of T. foetus. Our experiments revealed chemical scaffolds that were parasiticidal in the micromolar range, and these scaffolds provide a starting point for drug discovery efforts. Further investigation is still needed to investigate suitability of these scaffolds and related compounds in food animals. Importantly, open access chemical libraries can be useful for identifying compounds with activity against protozoan pathogens of veterinary importance.

 

IDEAL, the Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock Project Open Access Database and Biobank – PubMed

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Abstract:  The Infectious Diseases of East African Livestock (IDEAL) project was a longitudinal cohort study of calf health which was conducted in Western Kenya between 2007-2010. A total of 548 East African shorthorn zebu calves were recruited at birth and followed at least every 5 weeks during the first year of life. Comprehensive clinical and epidemiological data, blood and tissue samples were collected at every visit. These samples were screened for over 100 different pathogens or infectious exposures, using a range of diagnostic methods. This manuscript describes this comprehensive dataset and bio-repository, and how to access it through a single online site ( http://data.ctlgh.org/ideal/ ). This provides extensive filtering and searching capabilities. These data are useful to illustrate outcomes of multiple infections on health, investigate patterns of morbidity and mortality due to parasite infections, and to study genotypic determinants of immunity and disease.

Open Data – is it worth it for everyone? | Allan Williamson

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“So last night’s open data forum made me think a little bit. Open data seems great and even almost imperative for fields with large volumes of data being collected, such as bioinformatics, social sciences, geography and population medicine. Access to large volumes of sanitized and known valid data could be a huge boon to researchers looking at similar endpoints to published studies or even just for highlighting interesting and different cues hidden within that data that researchers may have missed.

That’s all well and good for larger fields, but what about smaller ones? Many, maybe even most, researchers are working on a small scale, with small sample sizes and maybe even just collecting a limited amount of data. If all you have is a few Western blots, or a few physiological variables, when does developing the infrastructure to store and make available that data become worth it? In totality, if enough researchers make their data available it may be worth it because you might be able to collect a bunch of samples and through meta-analysis start drawing connections overall where individual studies may have been underpowered or simply not looking for a certain variable, but that’s a rather tenuous possibility at the moment.

For my field, I’m currently unconvinced. There’s too much inconsistency inherent in the systems we look at even on a population level to make it feasible to start pooling data, and the development of an infrastructure necessary to support open access to data likely exceeds the limited budget most researchers have. I’m curious what others think about their fields though”