Domains of Professional Practice: Analysis of Publications in the Journal of the Medical Library Association from 2010 to 2019

Monday, August 10, 2020

2:30 PM – 3:00 PM CT

Presenter and Author(s)

Katherine Goold Akers

Biomedical Research & Data Specialist
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan

Slides Slides and Audio

Author(s)

Jill Boruff, AHIP

Liaison Librarian
McGill University
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Roy Eugene Brown, AHIP

Research and Education Librarian
Virginia Commonwealth University
North Chesterfield, Virginia
Alexander J. Carroll, AHIP

Librarian for STEM Research
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
John W. Cyrus

Research and Education Librarian
VCU Libraries
Richmond, Virginia
Melanie J. Norton

Head of Access and Delivery Services
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
HT

Holly Thompson

Information Services Librarian
USC
Los Angeles, California

Background: The Medical Library Association (MLA) has defined seven domain hubs aligning to different areas of information professional practice. To assess the extent to which content in the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) is reflective of these domains, we will analyze the magnitude and temporal dynamics of JMLA articles aligning to each domain hub over the last 10 years.

Description: Bibliographic records for 453 articles published in JMLA from 2010 to 2019 were downloaded from Web of Science and screened using Covidence software. The title and abstract of each article was screened by two reviewers, each of whom assigned the article with up to two tags corresponding to an MLA domain hub (i.e., information services, information management, education, professionalism and leadership, innovation and research practice, clinical support, and global health and health equity). Articles not related to any domain hub were classified as “other”.

Results: We found that JMLA articles aligned well with six of the MLA domain hubs: information services (n= 136), information management (n = 123), education (n = 109), innovation and research practice (n = 109), clinical support (n = 97), and professionalism and leadership (n = 85). Few JMLA articles aligned with the global health and health equity domain hub (n = 18). Twenty articles did not relate to any domain hub.

Conclusions: These results inform the MLA community about our strengths in health informational professional practice as reflected by articles published in JMLA. We plan to fill gaps in JMLA content related to global health and health equity by issuing a call for submissions and parterning with related MLA Caucuses.