Practical Resources

The Great Plains IDeA-Center for Clinical and Translational Research

This large Nebraska-specific National Institute of General Medical Sciences, U54-funded mechanism provides a research structure to catalyze efforts from people like yourself. The IDeA-Center offers a ton of resources, including a “Research Studio” to give you feedback on your idea from experts. You can explore the IDeA-Center. It also offers grants that are only open to members. If you sign up for a free membership, you get regular, relevant information and opportunities in your inbox.

Grammarly

An online software application that provides an enhanced review of grammar and spelling that exceeds the quality of what Microsoft Word offers. While you will unlikely accept every suggestion, this is a helpful tool. Also, Grammarly offers a plagiarism check capability. This is critical if you collaborate, for example, with inexperienced individuals who may have unintentionally copy-pasted certain elements of a text. You will want to find this out before submitting your manuscript for publication. Grammarly is available free to UNMC campus members.

Grant Writing Support

UNMC is a well-resourced campus. The library here is outstanding. As mentioned above, a consultation with a librarian will be extremely helpful for your research, especially if done early. In addition, the UNMC Vice Chancellor of Research offers grant editing support. The service will edit your extramural grant applications for style. The Lieberman Research Initiative will pay for grant writing editing services for all extramural grant submissions that route through UNMC Anesthesiology – so there is no cost to you. You can also utilize these other grant writing resources at UNMC. If you can attend a grant-writing workshop, this is highly recommended.

Checklists

Most high-quality journals nowadays require that your manuscript follows a checklist. Some of the items required in the checklist will have to be accounted for at the onset of the study. It behooves you to have an intimate knowledge of the checklist requirements at the study design stage. Relevant reporting guidelines differ depending on which type of research you are doing. Even if your favorite journal does not require a checklist, having it covered will alleviate many reviewers’ concerns.

REDCap

A powerful data-collection tool that offers HIPAA-compliant data collection in addition to being integrated into advanced statistical programs such as SAS, SPSS, or R. REDCap also offers an App ideal for investigators and their colleagues to collect data during their regular clinical practice.

How to Write a Research Paper

Having a mentor will be helpful if you have never written a research paper. There are some excellent resources for this available as well. E.g., “Writing Research Reports” by Sessler and Shafer and the Writing Center at Plos. The UNMC library also offers support, including an editing service for your draft manuscripts. If you have questions about who should be an author and who should not and other questions regarding fairness, please visit the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).