SciVal, a product of Elsevier publishing that is being labeled ReSEARCH Connect at the School of Medicine, enables its researchers to find scientists who are conducting research in similar areas, or have useful complementary expertise, whether at the IU School of Medicine or other universities that participate in SciVal.
“This is an age of collaboration in medical research,” said David S. Wilkes, M.D., executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine. “Successful science increasingly demands that investigators work in multi-talented teams, especially if they want their discoveries to be translated into new medical treatments and procedures and not languish in the laboratory.”
At the same time, with hundreds of scientists at the IU School of Medicine working in 27 different departments doing highly specialized work, it’s easy for people to be unaware of others at the school with relevant expertise, not to mention scientists at other universities, Wilkes said.
“We believe ReSEARCH Connect will prove to be an important tool to help us develop new avenues of research, take discoveries out of the lab to the patient bedside and make the most of opportunities to realize their commercial potential,” said Mervin C. Yoder Jr., M.D., Richard and Pauline Klingler Professor of Pediatrics, director of the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research and assistant dean for entrepreneurial research.
Just over 830 IU School of Medicine faculty members who conduct research are included in the ReSEARCH Connect database. Using data from the researchers’ scientific publications and grants from the National Institutes of Health, ReSEARCH Connect creates a research profile that reveals connections to other investigators working in similar research areas.
In addition to textual information, the site includes graphics meant to help visualize an investigator’s connections to other scientists – and to whom those scientists are connected – and to show what research concepts have been important to the scientist’s work over time.