The Covid-19 pandemic has mobilized researchers around the world, particularly those engaged in health sciences and adjacent fields. The output of new preliminary research, trials, Covid-related data and code, as well as tools for visualizing and analyzing these materials, can be overwhelming. The following list of online venues that are hosting and curating Covid-related research and data is not intended to be comprehensive, but is a starting point for those who are engaged in this work, those who have an interest in initiating Covid-related research, or those who may be planning to use these materials in the classroom. With a broad variety of new and interdisciplinary research emerging by the hour, UH Libraries can help you identify, collect, organize research data, as well as archive and share the research data you generate, at the start of a project and at any phase along the way.
Federal repositories for COVID-19 data
Open-Access Data and Computational Resources to Address COVID-19
From the NIH, Office of Data Science Strategy. “Covid-19 open-access data and computational resources are being provided by federal agencies, including NIH, public consortia, and private entities. These resources are freely available to researchers, and this page will be updated as more information becomes available.”
Covid-19 Secondary data and statistics
CDC collection of selected secondary data and statistics sources to help researchers find data on Covid-19 (2019 Novel Coronavirus). Materials listed in these guides are selected to provide awareness of quality public health literature and resources.
Coronavirus (Covid-19) Consumer Complaint Data
The FTC publishes updated coronavirus-related complaint data each weekday based on fraud, do not call, identity theft, and other reports consumers submit to the Consumer Sentinel Network via Complaint Assistant. The aggregated data begins January 1, 2020 and runs to the current date.
Covid-19 Demographic and Economic Resources
The Covid-19 Hub presents selected Census Bureau demographic and economic data to help guide decision making during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data are presented in interactive maps and downloadable resources that users can directly incorporate into their research and data products.
General Data Repositories for Covid-19 data
Dimensions Covid-19 publications, data sets, clinical trials
Dimensions, the sister company to the open data repository Figshare, is a scholarly database that includes awarded grants, patents, and clinical trials alongside publication and Altmetric attention data. Updated daily, this spreadsheet provides access to content from Dimensions.ai that includes a global body of publications, datasets, clinical trials, and grants.
Github Topic for Covid-19
Github is an open community for software and code development, collaboration, and sharing. Commonly, subjects with heavy interest and focus are compiled as a Topic. This Github topic provides a compilation of public repositories that contain code focused around research and awareness of the virus.
Zenodo Coronavirus Disease Research Community – COVID-19
Zenodo is an open access, open source, international “catch-all” repository that was founded by CERN and the OpenAire Project in 2013. Zenodo allows users to create communities of research and sharing within the platform. This community collects research outputs relevant to the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) or the SARS-CoV-2. Scientists are encouraged to upload their outcome in this collection to facilitate sharing and discovery of information.
Harvard Dataverse – COVID-19 Data Collection
Harvard Dataverse is a free data repository open to all researchers from any discipline both inside and outside of the Harvard community. This is a general collection of Covid-19 data deposited in the Harvard Dataverse. Researchers who deposit their related data into Harvard Dataverse will have the content linked to this collection, to increase discoverability of their data.
Research Repositories for Covid-19 Literature
LitCovid
LitCovid is a curated hub for tracking up-to-date and peer-reviewed scientific literature from PubMed about the 2019 novel Coronavirus, providing a central access point to relevant articles.
CORD-19
Covid-19 Open Research Dataset allows you to search scholarly articles, including over 13,000 with full text, about Covid-19 and the coronavirus family of viruses for use by the global research community.
Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 preliminary research posted to medRxiv and bioRxiv
An up-to-the-minute collection of Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 preliminary findings posted to medRxiv and bioRxiv, the two primary preprint servers for biologists, clinicians, and other health science researchers. Note that both medRxiv and bioRxiv receive many new papers on coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 daily, all of which undergo a screening process, but these are preliminary reports and have not been peer reviewed.
Tools for Covid-19 Visualization
Coronavirus world map and US map
Coronavirus world map and US map from John Hopkins University. The interactive world map gives you confirmed cases by country, region, and global death and recoveries. The US map breaks down to the county level and is updated daily.
Coronavirus infographic datapack
Coronavirus infographic datapack from information is beautiful contains a variety of visualizations related to Covid-19, such as infection trajectories, rising and falling of cases and deaths, connections with existing conditions.
CDC graphics
CDC provides graphics associated with Covid-19, including mortality and rates of hospitalization.
Coronavirus tracker by Tableau
Coronavirus tracker provided by Tableau visualizes Johns Hopkins University data to help you stay on top of key Covid-19 metrics, including totals, the spread of Covid-19, and outbreaks around the world. This dashboard will be updated daily.
IHME Covid-19 projections
Covid-19 projections created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. It projects daily infections and testing, daily and total death, and hospital resource use in the world and the US. It also breaks down to states to further investigate the trends for specific areas.
These resources are just the tip of the iceberg of what is available. We can also help you navigate beyond the landscape of Covid-19 research. For additional information feel free to consult our research guides for Finding Data and Data Archiving or schedule a consultation.
Beginning Monday, May 18, the Health Sciences Library will be closed, but staff will be on site from 9 am – 5 pm Monday through Friday.
For assistance, contact Rachel Helbing via email at rrhelbin@central.uh.edu or phone at 713-743-5462.
Those who have received permission to return to campus may request physical materials and/or printing.
Physical materials (books, models, etc.):
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- Send requests to rrhelbin@central.uh.edu. Once a pick-up time has been arranged, materials will be checked out and placed on top of the book drop in the hallway outside the library.
- Materials can be returned in the book drop.
Printing:
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- Send files to be printed as attachments to rrhelbin@central.uh.edu. Once a pick-up time has been arranged, prints will be placed on top of the book drop in the hallway outside the library.
All remaining library services will continue to be provided remotely, both on and off campus.
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- Reference/access questions
- Research consultations
- Instruction
- Literature search assistance
Thank you, and stay healthy!
The Health Sciences Library space is closed until further notice.
Please check this blog for updates.
Library services are still available!
We are working remotely to continue providing library services to our health sciences faculty, staff, and students.
Contact us for questions about electronic resources access, instruction requests, research consultations, literature search assistance, etc.
Ways to reach us:
- Contact your liaison librarian directly.
Rachel Helbing
713-743-5462
Health & Human Performance
Health Education
Medicine
Optometry
Pharmacy
Stefanie Lapka
713-743-8334
Communication Sciences & Disorders
Nursing
Social Work
- Contact our general email address. It will be monitored from 7 am – 6 pm Monday through Friday.
Try to stay healthy, everyone!
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has been developing an updated version of PubMed which will replace the current interface sometime in early 2020.
New features will include enhanced search results and a responsive design for mobile devices.
The new site is currently available to preview and use at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?otool=uhulib
Be sure to click on the green “Feedback” button in the lower right corner of the page to let NLM know what you think, or if you encounter any problems.
To help you get ready for this change, the Health Sciences Librarians will be hosting PubMed demonstration & help sessions in December (at the Health Sciences Library) and January (in the Faculty Café).
New PubMed demo drop-in sessions,
Held at the Health Sciences Library conference room:
Monday, December 2……….12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Tuesday, December 3……….12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Thursday, December 5……..3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Tuesday, December 10……..11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Thursday, December 12……12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Friday, December 13…………9:00 am – 11:00 am
Monday, December 16……..10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Wednesday, December 18..12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
New PubMed demo drop-in sessions,
Held at the Faculty Café:
Thursday, January 9…………8:30 am – 10:30 am
Friday, January 10……………8:30 am – 10:30 am
Wednesday, January 15……11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Thursday, January 23……….2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Not ready to make the switch? You can still access full-text articles through the current version of PubMed by using UH Libraries’ custom link, https://libraries.uh.edu/pubmed
Please stop by one of our upcoming sessions, or contact the Health Sciences Library with any questions.
Rachel Helbing, rrhelbin@central.uh.edu, 713-743-5462
Stefanie Lapka, slapka@central.uh.edu, 713-743-8334
As of this morning, the glass study room walls in the Health Sciences Library are now frosted. The effect is mostly opaque (although the glass on the doors is still clear).
We hope this will help you stay focused as you work in the rooms.
We’ve implemented a new process for faculty and staff to reserve the conference room (2221-A) in the Health Sciences Library.
Going forward, please visit https://uh.libcal.com/reserve/hsl-private/2221A and use the calendar at the bottom of the page to schedule the room.
Description
The Health Sciences Library Conference Room is equipped with a Polycom HDX 8000 conferencing system with Zoom integration. Can utilize both camera and room microphones for interactive Zoom meetings. CougarNet-login desktop computer, laptops available for checkout, cables and adapters to connect your own laptop. 82 inch monitor on the wall as well as a glass markerboard.
This room can be reserved by faculty and staff. The capacity is 14.
Directions
Located in Health 1/Health 2 inside the Health Sciences Library. The Health Sciences Library is room # 2222; the Conference Room # is 2221-A.
Go to https://libraries.uh.edu/pubmed
You can tell you’re in the right place if the URL looks like this:
Enter your search as usual:
Click on the title of an article you’d like to read:
Click on the “UH Find This Item” button on the right side of the page:
A new tab will open.
This is the page that looks different. Look at the links under the “View Online – Full text availability” headings. Choose one that has appropriate date coverage for the article you’re trying to get. In this case, either one would work, so I just went with the first one on the list.
Look for the link to download the PDF.
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Here’s another example. Click on a title from your PubMed results list:
Click on the “UH Find This Item” button on the right side of the page:
Look at the links under the “View Online – Full text availability” headings. Pay attention to the notes, if there are any. Choose one that has appropriate date coverage for the article you’re trying to get. In this case, I chose the second link, because the first link has a note saying it is “For UH Clear Lake users.”
Click on the “Download PDF” button to get the full text article.
We are still tweaking some of the settings on this new system. I will update with more information (especially on requesting interlibrary loans through PubMed) as it becomes available.
If you have questions, please contact Rachel Helbing at rrhelbin@central.uh.edu or 713-743-5462.
- There are 4 group study rooms available for checkout in the Health Sciences Library.
- Each room contains a table, chairs, whiteboard, and monitor.
- Room capacity is 2-6 people.
- You may reserve a room for up to 2 hours per day.
- You may renew the room for up to 2 more hours per day, pending availability.
- We also provide the following for checkout:
- HDMI cable and adapter
- Whiteboard kit containing markers and an eraser
- Overdue fines are $3 per hour, per checked-out item
Visit https://uh.libcal.com/reserve/spaces/hsl to check availability and reserve a room.
Are you a morning person?
Trying to avoid being outside in the heat once the sun has fully risen?
Have you resolved to be an early bird and finally get that worm?
We’ve got great news for you!
Starting with the Fall 2018 semester, the Health Sciences Library now opens at 7:00 am on weekdays.
We’ll still stay open late-ish and be open 7 days per week for all your studying needs.
Our current hours:
Mon-Thu: 7 am – 9 pm
Fri: 7 am – 6 pm
Sat: 10 am – 5 pm
Sun: 12 pm – 7 pm
The Health Sciences Library opened on January 8, 2018. We are pleased to serve the Colleges of Nursing, Optometry, Pharmacy, and other health-related programs at the University of Houston. Please watch this space for news and content related to our library, its collections, and services.