OpenEvidence quietly makes accounts available to medical librarians

OpenEvidence is a large language model (LLM) grounded in the medical literature, with its website self-identifying as an "AI copilot for doctors that helps them make high-stakes decisions at the point of care." The free tool has become increasingly popular within the health sciences, with its website boasting that "This year, more than 100 million Americans will be treated by a clinician using OpenEvidence."

Up until now, OpenEvidence accounts have been restricted to health care professionals with a National Provider Identifier (NPI) or students that provide proof of enrollment to a health sciences college or university, which has made evaluation of the tool particularly challenging for librarians (but even that hasn't stopped us: Exhibits A and B. Librarians are a tenacious bunch!😉).

However, at long last (and likely in consequence of tenacious librarians spamming their inboxes),  OpenEvidence has quietly opened account access to medical librarians. Now, librarians have the option to register as a "medical librarian" so long as they upload proof of their current position title and employment (I was able to create my account by uploading a screenshot of my public staff page, which includes my photo and my position as a health sciences librarian). Not only does this give you unlimited queries (without an account you were only allotted 2 or 3 queries per week), but it gives you access to additional tools in OpenEvidence, such as their calculators, clinical trials locators, etc.

For those who have seen one of our Wild West presentations or our MLA poster session, or read our article on OpenEvidence, you've likely gotten the impression that my colleagues and I are more than a little skeptical of OpenEvidence; and we've actively encouraged others to closely evaluate its outputs.

However, giving credit where credit is due, OpenEvidence opening access to medical librarians is a step in the right direction, and will allow us to get an inside look into the tool. 

Now that we've got the keys to the castle, we can better search for cracks in the foundation. 🔍

Happy sleuthing, everyone! ☕

Open Science Framework (OSF) phasing out projects

Open Science Framework (OSF) recently announced that they would be phasing out projects, with the planned implementation of these changes beginning in November, 2026. 

For those unfamiliar, OSF is an open-sourced project management tool commonly used for sharing and linking research records (including, but not limited to, research projects, datasets, and associated documents). The projects feature in OSF provided a centralized place for collaborating and storing files relating to a  project, with options to make the project private or public. Additional information about OSF projects can be found in OSF's projects documentation. 

Below is a rough timeline of OSF's upcoming changes. For the most up to date information, you can look at OSF's page detailing the changes and in their transition documentation.

• November 16, 2026: OSF will no longer allow users to create new projects or add child components to preexisting projects
• February 19, 2027: All preexisting projects (both private and public) will no longer be editable. You will still be able to access pages as read-only pages, and all links/DOI's should continue to resolve to the pages.
• Unknown time frame: OSF plans to eventually remove all private projects from their site. They state that they intend to give at least 12 months' notice prior to this step.

For those, like me, who use OSF for registering scoping review protocols, OSF will still be allowing for protocol registrations via OSF Registries; however, you will no longer be able to generate a registration from a project (you'll have to register via the OSF Registries option, instead). 

OSF will be hosting a webinar August 27th at 10am (CT) covering these changes. Registration is free but required.

Happy Friday! ☕

Drug Story: Ivermectin

Drug Story: Ivermectin by 98% Invisible 

I've been wondering why MAGA glammed onto Ivermectin as being good for anything that ails you?

Our local Fleet Farm here in Oshkosh had a note on the Ivermectin bin in the horse ailse, stating that it was NOT a recognized remedy for Covid.   I wish I had a photo of that sign o' the time!

Drug Story is an independent documentary podcast from journalist Thomas Goetz that explores the hidden history of medicine one drug at a time. Each episode uses a single medication to examine the science, politics, culture, and human stories surrounding disease and treatment. And they are SO good.

This week, we’re featuring one of their episodes about ivermectin, from Nobel Prize-winning anti-parasitic breakthrough to one of the most polarizing drugs of the COVID era. Along the way, the story travels from hookworm outbreaks in the American South to river blindness campaigns in West Africa, before arriving in the modern world of internet cures, medical distrust, and viral misinformation. It’s a fascinating, deeply reported story about medicine, evidence, and how a genuine wonder drug became tangled up in politics, hope, and conspiracy.