DigitalCommons@UNMC, an online repository of the scholarly output produced or owned by members of the University of Nebraska Medical Center community, has recently reached a milestone of 500,000 downloads since its inception in 2014.
Sponsored by the McGoogan Health Sciences Library, DigitalCommons@UNMC contains journal articles, conference posters and presentations, reports and student work such as graduate theses and dissertations, Master of Public Health capstone projects, and the Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner final projects. The repository also hosts journals, such as the Graduate Medical Education Research Journal, which is published by the office of graduate medical education.
"The DigitalCommons@UNMC has been an essential resource for me as a faculty member and educational researcher," said Tanya Custer, associate professor and distance education director of the UNMC Department of Allied Health Professions Education, Research and Practice. "By adding my work to the DigitalCommons repository, I have been able to reach a wider audience and share my research with not only colleagues, but students (both current and potential), university partners and funding agencies. It is so interesting to view the DigitalCommons dashboard to track my reader distribution. People from all over the world have read my work. I would encourage all faculty to consider adding their work to the DigitalCommons."
Authors’ works are exposed to a global audience by thorough indexing in Google and Google Scholar. Top country downloads outside of the United States include India, France, the United Kingdom and China.
Linda M. Love, EdD, director of faculty development, states "Our THRIVE book — a collection of focused career development pearls written by 50-plus of our faculty members — has been downloaded over 2,000 times across the globe. This would not have been possible without the assistance of the McGoogan Health Sciences Library and the online platform of DigitalCommons. Now that we know what is possible, we are able to move beyond the ‘if’ to ‘how’ we can leverage all the advantages of a global network.
"Not only is the knowledge sharing valuable, DigitalCommons is an essential part of how UNMC showcases its talent and helps faculty, researchers and health care providers grow their careers with 2050 in view."
Faculty, staff, and students who are interested in including their work in DigitalCommons@UNMC can contact digitalcommons@unmc.edu and read the FAQ.
Awesome! I may account for some of those 🙂