Canadian universities adopt JoVE, an innovative method of scientific communication

November 15th, 2011

Twenty-two percent of Canadian research universities now subscribe to the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), due to its growing popularity among faculty and students.

JoVE is the most recent innovation in academic science journals, producing and publishing peer reviewed experimental procedures in video format. It is the first and only video journal indexed in PubMed and MEDLINE.

"I've probably had more graduate students requesting JoVE than any other resource," said Collections Librarian Jim Brett, at the University of Guelph. "The last time I looked at our research statistics for JoVE, I was surprised to see that they were better than we see with some of our top-tier science journals."

The University of Guelph first subscribed to JoVE in March 2010, and this year they upgraded their subscription to include Bioengineering. Other subscribers include leading Canadian academic institutions such as the Universities of Toronto, McGill, Ottawa and Saskatchewan.

"Many JoVE video articles describing advanced research methodologies are authored by scientists from leading Canadian institutions," said JoVE co-founder and CEO, Dr. Moshe Pritsker, "so it's natural that our content is in big demand there too."

Health Librarian Mary Chipanshi from the University of Regina said the school librarians evaluated JoVE extensively and ran a free trial before deciding to subscribe. The positive feedback she got from three institutions on the Canadian Medical Library Listserve, including the Universities of Saskatchewan and Calgary, clinched her decision.

"We are advertising it right now," said Chimpanshi, "and the faculty members are excited."

Provided by The Journal of Visualized Experiments