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bioRxiv2025

Development and Implementation of a Minority Health International Infectious Diseases Research Training Program

From 2014-2019, the University of Hawai`i (UH) at Manoa offered a National Institutes of Health funded Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) Program for undergraduate research experiences in infectious diseases. The goal of the program was to immerse undergraduate students in conducting global infectious diseases research to train a new generation of scientists to combat future global pandemics. The MHIRT program trained educationally underrepresented groups unique in Hawai`i: Native Hawai`ians and other Pacific Islanders, and underrepresented Asian Americans, e.g., Filipinos and Vietnamese. A 12-member Advisory Committee guided the program development, implementation, recruitment strategies, recruitment, retention, and program evaluation. The program provided an eight-month classroom and field based international research training. Students learned about "8 steps of research" and cultural competency, experienced a hands-on research project abroad, and presented their results to the research community in the host country and at UH. Students research topics focused on ongoing projects of UH faculty including those with international collaborations in infectious disease and tropical medicine. Students spent two months on an international research mentors project at an international site under the mentorship of a Hawai`i based research faculty. After eight months, students graduated from the program by presenting their research to family, friends, mentors, and UH faculty and administrators. Trainees in this program pursued academic graduate or professional health degrees. The majority of students pursued further studies related to infectious diseases contributing to workforce development in infectious disease health research. The UH-MHIRT program provides an example of student immersion in international infectious disease research to foster future interest in global health research providing potential benefits for the student and faculty and their research efforts.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

Equity in Action: A Four-Year journey towards Gender Parity and Racial Diversity in Biochemistry Hiring

Recruitment of faculty members in academic departments shapes the department for decades in both research and teaching arenas. Having a diverse department is beneficial for undergraduate and graduate students as representation of underrepresented minority groups in the professoriate can inspire a greater diversity of students to pursue higher levels of education or research-focused careers. Increased diversity benefits research directly as diverse teams have been shown to have better ideas and outcomes. In 2020, our department had lower gender diversity than would be expected based on the pool of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows in Canada. Therefore, we altered our hiring process, primarily by redacting applications, for recruitment into entry-level tenure-track faculty positions. With this change in process, female hires increased from 17% in the previous ten years (5 hires) to 80% in the subsequent four years (5 hires) with no substantial change in hiring of racially diverse individuals (50% to 40%). Overall, combined with retirements, the percentage of female faculty in the department went from 25% to 50% and the percentage of racialized faculty went from 38% to 44%. The new hires have met or exceeded expectations of success with respect to grant funding and are on track to meet or exceed expectations for other metrics of success. Thus, our intervention was very successful in increasing the diversity of our department within a short timeframe. We believe that our experience could provide other departments with a template for making substantive change, even in the absence of internal expertise in the area. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=99 SRC="FIGDIR/small/617211v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (27K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@164c310org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@42585borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b6f6eaorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@10ca067_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2023

Training Doctoral Students in Critical Thinking and Experimental Design using Problem-based Learning

BackgroundTraditionally, doctoral student education in the biomedical sciences relies on didactic coursework to build a foundation of scientific knowledge and an apprenticeship model of training in the laboratory of an established investigator. Recent recommendations for revision of graduate training include the utilization of graduate student competencies to assess progress and the introduction of novel curricula focused on development of skills, rather than accumulation of facts. Evidence demonstrates that active learning approaches are effective. Several facets of active learning are components of problem-based learning (PBL), which is a teaching modality where student learning is self-directed toward solving problems in a relevant context. These concepts were combined and incorporated in creating a new introductory graduate course designed to develop scientific skills (student competencies) in matriculating doctoral students using a PBL format. MethodsEvaluation of course effectiveness was measured using the principals of the Kirkpatrick Four Level Model of Evaluation. At the end of each course offering, students completed evaluation surveys on the course and instructors to assess their perceptions of training effectiveness. Pre- and post-tests assessing students proficiency in experimental design were used to measure student learning. ResultsThe analysis of the outcomes of the course suggests the training is effective in improving critical thinking in experimental design. The course was well received by the students as measured by student evaluations (Kirkpatrick Model Level 1). Improved scores on post-tests indicate that the students learned from the experience (Kirkpatrick Model Level 2). A template is provided for the implementation of similar courses at other institutions. ConclusionsA problem-based learning platform appears effective in training newly matriculated graduate students in the required skills for designing experiments to test specific hypotheses, enhancing student preparation prior to initiation of their dissertation research.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Remote Learning Barriers and Opportunities for Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Learners in Career and Professional Skill Development: A Case Study

Career and professional development competencies are critical for biomedical PhD and postdoctoral training. In the current educational landscape, programs that meet these competencies are offered and attended in an ad hoc manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying switch to virtual learning, our team observed a surge in interest for our weekly non-sequential programs. In this study, we surveyed our learners to better understand motivators for attending these programs during the pandemic and to identify barriers for participating in such events before and during Work-From-Home. Our data indicate that conflict with research responsibilities, time spent to get to the event location, and planning time to attend are all significant barriers to engagement. Notably, feelings of being overwhelmed, which increased slightly during the pandemic, stood out as an identified barrier. Per our results, the virtual format was an attraction. While 58% of respondents would prefer to access professional development programs virtually in the future, almost 42% indicated a preference for in-person events when normalcy resumes as the physical presence of an instructor and of peers result in a deeper engagement. Our collective analysis here suggests that learners will benefit from a hybrid or combination of synchronous and asynchronous career and professional development programming in the future, even post-pandemic, to reduce identified barriers. Alongside hybrid learning engagements, we strongly recommend structured time for learners to enhance their professional competencies, enabled by a commitment from departments and faculty mentors to enable equity in professional skill building and fostering lifelong growth mindset.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2023

CUR(E)ating a New Approach to Study Fungal Effectors and Enhance Undergraduate Education through Authentic Research

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) integrate active, discovery-based learning into undergraduate curriculums, adding tremendous value to Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (BMB) education. There are multiple challenges in transforming a research project into a CURE, such as the readiness of students, the time commitment of the instructor, and the productivity of the research. In this article, we report a CURE course developed and offered in the University of Massachusetts Amherst BMB Department since 2018 that addresses these challenges. Our CURE focuses on fungal effectors which are proteins secreted by a destructive pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum, one of the top five most devastating plant pathogens. By studying this group of proteins, students are connected to real-world problems and participate in the search for potential solutions. A three-week "standard Bootcamp" is implemented to help students familiarize themselves with all basic techniques and boost their confidence. Next, molecular cloning, a versatile technique with modularity and repeatability, is used as the bedrock of the course. Our past five years of experience have confirmed that we have developed a novel and feasible CURE protocol. Measurable progress documented by students who took this course includes stimulated active learning and increased career trajectory to pursue hypothesis-based research to address societal needs. In addition, data generated through the course advance ongoing lab research. Collectively, we encourage the implementation of CURE among research-intensive faculty to provide a more inclusive research experience to all students, an important element in predicting career success.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2022

The Main Themes and Experiences Shared with the Hashtag #BlackintheIvory: A Qualitative Analysis

BackgroundThe movement #BlackintheIvory gave Black academics an opportunity to connect through a social media platform allowing them to share common experiences in the pursuit of higher education. Through the analysis of Twitter posts, using the hashtag #BlackintheIvory, this study investigates the main themes identified among Black scholars in academia and their shared experiences with teaching, mentoring, collegiality, identity, service, and racism. MethodsUsing the Twitter API, we isolated all publicly available tweets, which can include text, images, and links to websites, posted with the hashtag #BlackintheIvory on the Twitter website (www.twitter.com) from the inception of the hashtag in June 2020 to the end of December 2020. To evaluate the tweets, we categorized the tweets inductively. Based on the content of the posts, we identified 6 themes: Teaching, Mentoring, Collegiality, Identity, Service, and Racism. ResultsOur search yielded a total of 12,538 original posts, including tweets between inception in June 2020 to December 2020 from profiles made public (excluding modified tweets and duplicate tweets). We selected and analyzed the top retweeted 2500 tweets, which is 20% (2500/12538) of the total number of downloaded tweets. The greatest percentage of posts were about Teaching (881; 35%), followed by Service (441; 18%) and Racism (414; 17%). The remaining tweets were categorized as Collegiality (388; 15%), Identity (210; 8%), and Mentoring (166; 7%) of the total number of tweets from June-December 2020. ConclusionThe experiences, perspectives, and narratives among the Black diaspora within #BlackintheIvory are not uniform. The commonality exists within the structural systemic racism which impacts Black academics within the ivory tower, this study is a resounding wake-up call for action. FundingThis study was not subject to any funding

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

Bacttle: a microbiology educational board game for lay public and schools

1.Inspired by the positive impact of serious games on science understanding and motivated by personal interests in scienti[fi]c outreach, we developed Bacttle, an easy-to-play microbiology board game with adaptive difficulty, targeting any player from 7 years old onward. Bacttle addresses both the lay public and teachers for use in classrooms as a way of introducing microbiology concepts. The layout of the game and its mechanism are the result of multiple rounds of trial, feedback and re-design. The [fi]nal version consists of a deck of cards, a 3D-printed board and tokens (with a paper-based alternative), with all digital content open source. Players in Bacttle take on the character of a bacterial species. The aim for each species is to proliferate under the environmental conditions of the board and the interactions with the board and with other players, which vary as the play evolves. Players start with a given number of lives that will increase or decrease based on the traits they play for different environmental scenarios. Such bacterial traits come in the form of cards that can be deployed strategically. In order to assess the impact of the game on microbiological knowledge, we scored differences in the understanding of general concepts before and after playing the game. We assessed a total of 169 visitors at two different university open day science fairs. Players were asked to [fi]ll a brief survey before and after the game with questions targeting conceptual advances. Results show that Bacttle increases general microbiology knowledge on players as young as 5 years old, and with the highest impact on those who have no a priori microbiology comprehension.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2022

Defining Predictors of Successful Early Career to Independent Funding Conversion Among Surgeon-Scientists

IntroductionThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides research funding to scientists at different stages of their career through a range of grant awards. Early-stage researchers are eligible for mentored Career Development (K) awards, to aid in the transition to independent NIH funding. Factors such as education, subspecialty, and time to funding have been studied as predictors of obtaining independent awards in nonsurgical specialties. However, in surgery, the importance of these factors has yet to be clearly elucidated. We aim to identify predictors of K to independent award conversion among surgeon-scientists to understand how to better support early-stage researchers transitioning to independent careers. Materials and MethodsIn July 2020, the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools database was queried for individuals affiliated with surgery departments who received NIH Career Development Awards (between 2000 and 2020). The following factors were analyzed: publications, institution, degrees, year of completion of training, and gender. ResultsBetween 2000 and 2020, 228 surgeons received K Awards, of which 44% transitioned to independent funding. On average, surgeons received a K award 4.0 years after completing fellowship training and an independent award 5.4 years after receiving a K grant. The time to receiving a K award was predictive of successfully achieving independent funding, and those with independent funding had a significantly greater number of publications per year of their K-award. ConclusionSurgeons successful in transitioning to independent NIH awards do so approximately 9 years after finishing fellowship. Publication track record is the main factor associated with successful conversion from a K award. Surgery departments should emphasize manuscript productivity and develop strategies to minimize time to independent funding to help K-awardees begin independent research careers.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

Physiotherapists perceptions on informed consent and role in the healthcare system, in Europe

IntroductionPhysiotherapy has developed over the last century, and the physiotherapists professional identity is growing. The heterogeneity of physiotherapy studies in Europe, local government, and health policies have influenced the responsibilities and ethical reasoning of physiotherapists. Our study aims to explore the perceptions and differences regarding informed consent (IC) and the role of physiotherapists in healthcare in an educational, legislative, and health policy context.\n\nMaterial and MethodsA cross-sectional survey was distributed online to physiotherapist graduates in Europe. The survey contained two open questions regarding IC and assumed role in healthcare. The data was operated to and analyzed by using a theory-based approach (open and axial coding), providing a qualitative spectrum of categories for the two items linked on IC and the role in healthcare.\n\nResultsEight categories of issues related to IC and seven categories related to the role in healthcare were identified. The physiotherapist graduates from Romania, France, Belgium, Italy, and other countries from inside and outside European Union response rate was 81.85% (n = 248 from 303) for the item related to IC and 71.62% (n = 217) to the second item related to the role in healthcare. A percent of 24.20% (n=60) are still considering IC a simple patient information process, while 23.40% (58) have linked IC with ethically and legally issues, 21.67% (n=51) of physiotherapists are minimizing their role in healthcare at restoring physical independence, while 6.91% (n=27) are aware of their multidisciplinary role. The country comparison analysis revealed that physiotherapists from UK and Italy are more aware regarding IC and that physiotherapists from Belgium and France are better oriented regarding their role in healthcare.\n\nConclusionsThe study shows that heterogeneity, legislation, and healthcare system differences influence physiotherapists professional development. Future research is needed to establish the reason for the reduced perception of physiotherapists regarding their role as health promoters.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

High School Science Fair: Positive And Negative Outcomes

The goal of our ongoing research is to identify strengths and weaknesses of high school level science fair and improvements that can help science educators make science fair a more effective, inclusive and equitable learning experience. In this paper, we confirm and extend our previous findings in several important ways. We added new questions to our anonymous and voluntary surveys to learn the extent to which students had an interest in science or engineering careers and if science fair participation increased their interest in science or engineering. And we surveyed a national rather than regional high school student group by incorporating our survey into the Scienteer online portal now used by Texas and some other states for science fair registration, parental consent, and project management. We learned that about ~60% of the more than 300 students in the national cohorts completing surveys in 2017 and 2018 said that they were interested in a career in science or engineering, and ~60% said that participating in science fair increased their interest in science or engineering. About two-thirds of the students were required to participate in science fair, and that requirement reduced the frequency of students who said that science fair increased their interest. In the worst case, ~10% of the students who said that they were not interested in a career in science or engineering and required to participate in science fair engaged in research misconduct (i.e., plagiarism and making up their results). Students positive comments about competition in science fair focused on the competition incentive, whereas their positive comments about science fair that was non-competitive focused on learning about the scientific process and learning in general. We discuss the findings in the context of National Science Teaching Association guidance about voluntary science fair participation and begin to identify features of science fair practice consistent with increased student interest in the sciences or engineering.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2022

A scoping review of the "at-risk" student literature in higher education

Institutions inclination to fulfilling the mandate of producing quality graduates is overwhelming. Insistent petition for institutions to understand their students is about creating equitable opportunities for the diverse student bodies. However, "at-risk" students ubiquitously co-exist. This article conducted a scoping review of literature published locally and internationally that sought to understand "at-risk" students in higher education. The study examined the aims, participants, variables, data analytics tools, and the methods used when the topic on "at-risk" students is studied. Broadly, we sought the bigger picture of what matters, where, when, why, and how so. The Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) framework was considered for demarcating appropriate literature for the concept and context of "at-risk" students. The JBI protocol was chosen for selecting relevant literature published between 2010 and 2022, searched from the EBSCOhost and ScienceDirect databases. A search tool was developed using the litsearchr R package and screening proceeded guided by the PRISMA framework. Although 1961 articles were obtained after applying the search criteria, 84 articles satisfied the stipulated inclusion criteria. Although Africa is lagging, research on "at-risk" students is exponentially growing in America, Europe, and Asia. Notably, relevant articles use academic data to understand students at risk of dropping-out or failing in the first year. Often, statistical and machine learning methods were preferred. Most factors that determined whether a student is at risk of failing or dropping out were found to be highly correlated with high school knowledge. Also, being "at-risk" connoted ones geographical context, ethnicity, gender, and academic culture. It was noted that autonomously motivated students, with good time management, succeed. Ideally, institutions need to identify areas that need intervention, including courses where special tutoring programmes are needed. Institutions should detect staff who need further training. Nonetheless, psychosocial well-being programmes should augment institutional investments to improve students success. Precisely, institutional environments should be stimulating, conducive, and motivating.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

Biology exams rarely use visual models to engage higher-order cognitive skills

Visual models are a necessary part of molecular biology education because submicroscopic compounds and processes cannot be directly observed. Accurately interpreting the biological information conveyed by the shapes and symbols in these visual models requires engaging visual literacy skills. For students to develop expertise in molecular biology visual literacy, they need to have structured experiences using and creating visual models, but there is little evidence to gauge how often undergraduate biology students are provided such opportunities. To investigate students visual literacy experiences, we surveyed 66 instructors who taught lower division undergraduate biology courses with a focus on molecular biology concepts. We collected self-reported data about the frequency with which the instructors teach with visual models and we analyzed course exams to determine how instructors incorporated visual models into their assessments. We found that most instructors reported teaching with models in their courses, yet only 16% of exam items in the sample contained a visual model. There was not a statistically significant relationship between instructors self-reported frequency of teaching with models and extent to which their exams contained models, signaling a potential mismatch between teaching and assessment practices. Although exam items containing models have the potential to elicit higher-order cognitive skills through model-based reasoning, we found that when instructors included visual models in their exams the majority of the items only targeted the lower-order cognitive skills of Blooms Taxonomy. Together, our findings highlight that despite the importance of visual models in molecular biology, students may not often have opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of these models on assessments.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2022

The faculty-to-faculty mentorship experience: a survey on challenges and recommendations for improvements

Faculty at research institutions play a central role in advancing knowledge and careers, as well as promoting the well-being of students and colleagues in research environments. Faculty members must balance a host of activities - such as performing research, teaching, sourcing funds, administrative and service duties - with their roles as educators and mentors. Mentorship from experienced peers has been touted as critical for enabling these myriad roles to allow faculty development, career progression, and satisfaction. However, there is little information available on who supports faculty and best ways to structure a faculty mentorship program for early- and mid-career academics. Furthermore, the extent to which mentorship and mentoring programs have been offered to faculty members has not been widely characterized. It is also unclear what challenges faculty receiving mentorship may face and which aspects could be further improved. In the interest of advocating for increased and enhanced faculty mentoring and mentoring programs, we surveyed faculty (i.e., group leaders) around the world to gather data on whether and how they receive mentoring from peers, senior researchers, informal mentoring programs, or formal mentoring programs at their institutions. We received responses from 457 early- and mid-career faculty and found that a substantial portion of respondents either reported having no mentor or a lack of a formal mentoring scheme. Qualitative responses on the quality of mentorship revealed that the most common complaints regarding mentorship included lack of mentor availability, unsatisfactory commitment to mentorship, and non-specific or non-actionable advice. Our findings further identified key mentorship elements desired by faculty mentees. Based on these suggestions, we identify a need for training for faculty mentors as well as strategies for individual mentors, departments, and institutions for funding and design of more intentional and supportive mentorship programs for early- and mid-career faculty.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

To Tweet or Not to Tweet, That is the Question: A Randomized Trial of Twitter Effects on Article Engagement in Medical Education

Many medical education journals use Twitter to garner attention for their articles. The purpose of this study was to test the effects of tweeting on article page views and downloads.\n\nThe authors conducted a randomized trial using Academic Medicine articles published in 2015. Beginning in February through May 2018, one article per day was randomly assigned to a Twitter (case) or control group. Daily, an individual tweet was generated for each article in the Twitter group that included the title, #MedEd, and a link to the article. The link delivered users to the articles landing page, which included immediate access to the HTML full text and a PDF link. The authors extracted HTML page views and PDF downloads from the publisher. To assess differences in page views and downloads between cases and controls, a time-centered approach was used, with outcomes measured at 1, 7, and 30 days.\n\nIn total, 189 articles (94 cases, 95 controls) were analyzed. After days 1 and 7, there were no statistically significant differences between cases and controls on any metric. On day 30, HTML page views exhibited a 63% increase for cases (M=14.72, SD=63.68) when compared to controls (M=9.01, SD=14.34; incident rate ratio=1.63, p=0.01). There were no differences between cases and controls for PDF downloads on day 30.\n\nContrary to the authors hypothesis, only one statistically significant difference in page views between the Twitter and control groups was found. These findings provide preliminary evidence that after 30 days a tweet can have a small positive effect on article page views.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2024

Student experiences with an interactive 3D immersive biotechnology simulation and its impact on motivational beliefs

The development and use of virtual laboratories to augment traditional in-person skills training continues to grow. Virtual labs have been implemented in a number of diverse educational settings, which have many purported benefits including their adaptability, accessibility, and repeatability. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of virtual laboratories outside of academic achievement and skills competencies, especially in biotechnology. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of content experts, video game researchers, instructional designers, and assessment experts developed a 3D immersive simulation designed to teach novice scientists the technical skills necessary to perform sterile mammalian cell culture technique. Unique to the simulation development process is the recreation of an immersive experience through the capture of details in the real-world lab where participants have the freedom of choice in their actions, while receiving immediate feedback on their technical skills as well as procedural execution. However, unlike an in-person laboratory course, students are able to iterate and practice their skills outside of class time and learn from their mistakes. Using a mixed-methods study design, over the course of two semesters we evaluated student attitudes of the simulation and their science motivational beliefs including self-efficacy and science identity after engaging with the simulation prior to the physical laboratory. Our results show that students science identity remained unchanged while their science self-efficacy increased. Furthermore, students had positive perceptions of the benefits of the virtual simulation. These data suggest that the virtual cell culture simulation can be a useful pedagogical training tool to bolster students motivational beliefs that is both accessible and easy to implement.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2019

Conflict of Interest Policies at German medical schools - A long way to go

BackgroundMost medical students are in contact with the pharmaceutical or medical device industry during their studies. Medical schools play an important role in protecting students from undue commercial influence and educating them about pharmaceutical marketing practices. Such influence has been shown to affect later prescribing behaviour with potential adverse effects for patient care. While in North America, many medical schools formulated and implemented conflicts of interest (COI) policies, only few such institutional policies have been reported in Germany. We aimed to analyze the quantity and quality of policies and curricula on COI at medical schools across Germany. MethodsWe collected relevant COI policies and teaching activities by conducting a search of the websites of all 38 German medical schools using standardized keywords for COI policies and teaching. Further, we surveyed all medical schools deans offices and adapted a scoring system for obtained results with 13 categories based on prior similar studies. ResultsWe identified relevant policies for one medical school via the web-search. The response rate of the deans survey was 16 of 38 (42.1%). In total, we identified COI-related policies for 2 of 38 (5.3%) German medical schools, yet no policy was sufficient to address all COI-related categories that were assessed in this study. The maximum score achieved was 12 of 26. 36 (94.7%) schools scored 0. No medical school reported curricular teaching on COI. ConclusionOur results indicate a low level of action by medical schools to protect students from undue commercial influence. No participating dean was aware of any curriculum or instruction on COI at their respective school. The German Medical Students Association and international counterparts have called for a stronger focus on COI in the classroom. We conclude that for German medical schools there is still a long way to go.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

A rapid urban biodiversity blitz using aquatic environmental DNA

Background As global biodiversity declines, there’s an increasing need to create an educated and engaged society. Having people from all ages participate in measuring biodiversity where they live helps to create awareness. Recently, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for biodiversity surveys has gained momentum. Here, we test whether sampling eDNA and metabarcoding can be used for rapid urban biodiversity surveys for educational purposes.Materials & Methods We sampled 2×1 L of water from each of 15 locations in the city of Trondheim, Norway, including a variety of freshwater, marine and brackish habitats. DNA was extracted, amplified in triplicate for the COI gene and sequenced. The obtained data were analysed on the novel mBRAVE platform, an online open access software and computing resource.Results The water samples were collected in two days by two people and the lab analysis was completed in five days by one person. Overall, we detected the presence of 501 taxa identified as belonging to 435 species, representing 90 orders and 18 phyla. On average, only 5.4% of the taxa were shared among six replicates per site. Based on the observed diversity, three distinct clusters were detected and related to geographic distribution of sites. There were some taxa shared between the habitats, with a substantial presence of terrestrial biota.Discussion Our results match expected patterns of biodiversity in the landscape and show that with minimal sampling effort, hundreds of species can be detected. Thus, using eDNA analysis of water is promising for rapid biodiversity surveys, and it is likely that more detailed results could be obtained by optimising field and lab methods for particular groups of interest. We recommend that rapid eDNA surveys, with openly available services and softwares, can be used to raise awareness in the importance of biodiversity.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2017

Wikipedia as a gateway to biomedical research: The relative distribution and use of citations in the English Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a gateway to knowledge. However, the extent to which this gateway ends at Wikipedia or continues via supporting citations is unknown. Wikipedias gateway functionality has implications for information design and education, notably in medicine. This study aims to establish benchmarks for the relative distribution and referral (click) rate of citations--as indicated by presence of a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)--from Wikipedia, with a focus on medical citations.\n\nDOIs referred from the English Wikipedia in August 2016 were obtained from Crossref.org. Next, based on a DOIs presence on a WikiProject Medicine page, all DOIs in Wikipedia were categorized as medical (WP:MED) or non-medical (non-WP:MED). Using this categorization, referred DOIs were classified as WP:MED, non-WP:MED, or BOTH, meaning the DOI may have been referred from either category. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.\n\nOut of 5.2 million Wikipedia pages, 4.42% (n=229,857) included at least one DOI. 68,870 were identified as WP:MED, with 22.14% (n=15,250) featuring one or more DOIs. WP:MED pages featured on average 8.88 DOI citations per page, whereas non-WP:MED pages had on average 4.28 DOI citations. For DOIs only on WP:MED pages, a DOI was referred every 2,283 pageviews and for non-WP-MED pages every 2,467 pageviews. DOIs from BOTH pages accounted for 12% (n=58,475) of referrals, making determining a referral rate for BOTH impossible.\n\nWhile these results cannot provide evidence of greater citation referral from WP:MED than non-WP:MED, they do provide benchmarks to assess strategies for changing referral patterns. These changes might include editors adopting new methods for designing and presenting citations or the introduction of teaching strategies that address the value of consulting citations as a tool for extending learning.

scientific communication and education↗