Resources

The BLaST Mentoring Handbook is available for those interested in mentoring guidelines, examples of academic-driven contracts, or information that oultines a positive mentoring relationship. Download your free copy below.
Link to PDF: BLaST Mentoring Handbook

The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is part of the NIH Diversity Program Consortium, which serves mentors and mentees and strives to enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce. Please watch this short video on NRMN. BLaST encourages all its participants to join NRMN as either a mentor or mentee. Visit NRMN at http://nrmnet.net/.

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is an NSF Center for Learning and Teaching in higher education which includes resources for mentoring.

Pathways to Science is a project of the Institute for Broadening Participation (IBP), funded by the NSF and NASA. It supports mentoring pathways to the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Clinical and Translational Research provides mentor-mentee training and assessment, and is part of the NIH-funded NRMN.

Suggested Readings

Science Careers Article from the Journal Science: Top 10 Tips for Mentors, including a skills inventory to self-assess

Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges article: The Mentoring Competency Assessment: Validation of a New Instrument to Evaluate Skills of Research Mentors

National Academies guide for mentors: Advisor, Teacher, Role Model, Friend

Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education article: The Intentional Mentor: Effective Mentorship of Undergraduate Science Students

Wisconsin Program for Science Teaching & the Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Entering Mentoring Guide

American Physical Society: Physics Mentor Training

One Health emphasizes that human, animal and environmental health are inextricably linked, and it promotes a strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications to attain optimal health for all. Join us at the One Health Seminars to hear speakers present their research on Mondays from 4-5pm held at the Murie Auditorium - UAF. One Health is also now a separate department, and you can find their information here.

BLaST is funded by the National Institute of Health and more specifically the Common Fund’s Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce program. BLaST has been awarded from 2014-2019 and 2019 -2024 but is in its final year to 2025.

Our BLaST Video, produced August 2017, describes our aims, objectives and the many layers of our program in increasing diversity in the biomedical fields. Check it out and see if you can recognize anyone that was part of BLaST in the early years!

The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN). NRMN is part of a broader NIH consortium serving mentors and mentees that will strive to enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce. It is also part of the NIH Common Fund.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a One Health approach by working with physicians, ecologists, and veterinarians to monitor and control public health threats.

BLaST RAMP Handbook - This is a handbook used by BLaST Research, Advising and Mentoring Professionals, our BLaST Staff for developing a strong relationship with our BLaST Scholars, UREs, and within the institution as collaboration with other programs and departments that focus on undergraduate success.

BLaST is excited to see work published by any of our researchers. However, we need to follow publication guidelines under the NIH.

Why is this important? Following this process is extremely important as the NIH will delay processing and funding for awards that are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy. As BLaST provides support for research, we are required by NIH to ensure work supported is fully acknowledged, even if a portion of research is supported in a project. Any other publication, poster, or other presentation not in scientific peer-reviewed journals (talks, news releases. interviews, and articles, and internet-based communications) of BLaST-supported research do not require a PMID or PMCID.

For Posters/ powerpoint presentations, flyers, brochures, or media to the public presenting your BLAST funded research, the following must be included:

UAF AA/EEO and non-discrimination statement must also be added to the NIH statement (updated 7/1/2019):
"BLaST is supported by the NIH Common Fund, through the Office of Strategic Coordination, Office of the NIH Director with the linked awards: TL4GM118992, RL5GM118990, UL1GM118991. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. UAF is an affirmative action / equal employment opportunity employer and educational institution: www.alaska.edu/nondiscrimination."
BLaST logo Download PNG (484 KB)
Diversity Program Consortium logo Download PNG (70 KB)
CNSM logo or UAF logo (must not be smaller than 1/2 inch): Downloadable image files in several colors/styles can be found on the UAF logos webpage
Word copy of all logos, acknowledgements HERE

Institutions and investigators are responsible for ensuring full compliance with the Public Access Policy when working with a publisher, and that any publishing or copyright agreements are consistent with submitting to PubMED and PubMED Central. All BLaST-funded authors (you, the BLaST researcher) should work with the publisher before any rights are transferred to ensure that all conditions of the NIH Public Access Policy can be met. Authors should avoid signing any agreements with publishers that do not allow the author to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy. Scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals must include a PMID and PMCID, as well as the following acknowledgement of NIH award support:

"BLaST is supported by the NIH Common Fund, through the Office of Strategic Coordination, Office of the NIH Director with the linked awards: TL4GM118992, RL5GM118990, & UL1GM118991. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. UAF is an affirmative action / equal employment opportunity employer and educational institution: www.alaska.edu/nondiscrimination."

PMID/PMCID: When submitting a manuscript to peer-reviewed scientific journals, you as the author can request a PubMED ID, as well as a PubMed Central (DIFFERENT from PubMed) ID immediately upon acceptance for publication. To comply with this policy, you will need to follow these three steps:

1) Address Copyright

2) Deposit Paper Upon Acceptance for Publication

Method A : Publish in a journal that deposits all NIH-funded final published articles in PMC without author involvement.
Method B : Make arrangements to have a publisher deposit a specific final published article in PMC. See also Information for Publishers.
Method C : Deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in PMC yourself via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) or visit their FAQs to start the process.
Method D : Complete the submission process for a final peer-reviewed manuscript that the publisher has deposited via the NIHMS.

3) Cite Article

Include the PMC number (PMCID) for applicable papers in BLaST applications, proposals and reports, as described at http://publicaccess.nih.gov/citation_methods.htm. Please see website for further information on Submission options: How Papers get into PMC, or the NIH users guide for any further clarifications. A Step-by-step tutorial process is also available.

Visit NIH Public Access for full access policy, or contact Amy Topkok at aktopkok@alaska.edu with any questions.

Publication Examples

As we are completing our fifth year of our five year grant, we are excited to see more publications in journals. Here are a few below. Way to go!

Jerome, S. P., Sticka, K. D., Schnurr, T. M., Mangum, S. J., Reynolds, A. J., & Dunlap, K. L. (2017). 25(OH)D levels in trained versus sedentary university students at 64° north. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 76(1), 1314414. http://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1314414

Goldsmith EW, Renshaw B, Clement CJ, Himschoot EA, Hundertmark KJ, Hueffer K. 2016 Feb. Population structure of two rabies hosts relative to the known distribution of rabies virus variants in Alaska. Mol Ecol. Vol. 25(3):675-88. doi: 10.1111/mec.13509. PubMed PMID: 26661691; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4738172.

Coker RH, Weaver AN, Coker MS, Murphy CJ, Gunga HC, Steinach M. 2017 Feb. Metabolic Responses to the Yukon Arctic Ultra: Longest and Coldest in the World. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Vol. 49(2):357-362. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001095. PubMed PMID: 27669446; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5491706.

Podlutsky A, Valcarcel-Ares MN, Yancey K (U), Podlutskaya V, Nagykaldi E, Gautam T, Miller RA, Sonntag WE, Csiszar A, Ungvari Z. 2017 Apr. The GH/IGF-1 axis in a critical period early in life determines cellular DNA repair capacity by altering transcriptional regulation of DNA repair-related genes: implications for the developmental origins of cancer. Geroscience. Vol. 39(2):147-160. doi: 10.1007/s11357-017-9966-x. PubMed PMID: 28233247; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5411369.

Hansen CM, Himschoot EA, Hare RF, Meixell BW, Hemert CV, Hueffer K. 2017 May. Neisseria arctica sp. nov., isolated from nonviable eggs of greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) in Arctic Alaska. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. Vol. 67(5):1115-1119. doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.001773. PubMed PMID: 28056218; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5775901.

Raven Shaw, a previous Fall 2016 - Spring 2017, and Summer 2017 Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) student and a 2017-2018 Scholar, has been working with the tribal organization Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA) and the Southeast Alaska Tribal Oceanic Research (SEATOR) Center informing the public in Southeast Alaska on the dangers of Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs). Please see this plankton identifying booklet that was illustrated by Raven, working with Esther Kennedy, the environmental specialist at STA.