Note: Large research organizations have become increasingly interested in Research Networking Systems (RNS) such as UCSF Profiles for fostering collaboration and increasing the visibility of individual investigators. Many RNSs are locally installed, which benefits the system by providing credibility through institutional ownership and provenance, but UC San Francisco (UCSF) aims to expand its research collaborations beyond just local institutions. Hence, the "Researcher to Researcher" (R2R) iniative was born where the Clinical and Translational Science Institute's (CTSI) Virtual Home team is hosting and partnering with other institutions to kick-start their research networking systems. The Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) recently announced the completion of USC Health Sciences Profiles through this partnership. Stayed tuned for other institutions' research profiles system launches!
USC Health Sciences Profiles: A Gateway to Collaboration
via sc-ctsi.org
What is USC Health Sciences Profiles?
USC Health Sciences Profiles is a powerful online tool that makes it easy to find USC experts and research in the health sciences. It currently represents more than 2,500 faculty.
Designed to promote interdisciplinary research and collaboration, USC Health Sciences Profiles provides a quick search to discover people, research expertise, and networks of co-authors and related authors who have published on similar research topics
A new, significantly improved version was launched in April 2014. In the first eight weeks since launch, the site has already been visited by users from over 200 universities and colleges with nearly 20,000 pageviews. 1,714 researchers' profiles have been viewed, 127 of them ten or more times.
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USC Profiles is continuing to evolve as a powerful research networking tool, and as a resource for finding and connecting with experts at USC.
“We look forward to partnering with groups on campus as we continue to enhance USC Profiles’ functionality by adding new features and groups such as postdoctoral scholars, residents, and research staff. Potential new features include the capability to promote clinical studies and trials on a researcher’s profile and add CV documents,” said Katja Reuter, PhD, Director of Digital Strategy and the eHome program at SC CTSI who is leading the strategic development and implementation of the tool.
“We also recognize if we truly want to help advance research across disciplines and institutions, we will need to reach beyond our institutional walls. To achieve this, we're working closely with UCSF and others to enable research networks across institutions,” added Reuter.
The tool was implemented by the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) in partnership with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of California, San Francisco (CTSI at UCSF).
The software, originally developed by Harvard Catalyst and further enhanced by the CTSI at UCSF, is a free, open-source product with extensive search engine optimizations. As it extends from a standalone web application into a software platform, it allows developers to add their own content to Profiles in much the same way that developers write Facebook apps.
Read the full announcement here