NIH Biosketches with SciENcv and My Bibliography

The new NIH biosketch format requirement allows applicants to include a link to a full list of their published work as found in a “publicly available digital database” such as My Bibliography.

SciENcv is a tool to generate an NIH or NSF biosketch using information in your My Bibliography account and eRA Commons account. My Bibliography should be set up before you set up SciENcv. The tools can be found in your MyNCBI account.

Visit the Research Guide on NIH Biosketches for instructions on formatting, content, and examples of fellowship and non-fellowship biosketches.

A brief overview of creating a Biosketch is available through Carrie Price's Five Minute Fridays series, along with one on using your articles in PubMed to populate it.

Setting up My Bibliography:

1. Log in to MyNCBI.
2. Search for all of your publications in PubMed. For each, use the Send To menu on the search results page to send the references to My Bibliography.
3. In MyNCBI, click on “Manage My Bibliography," which should now be populated with your references.
4. If you have authored additional publications that aren’t included in PubMed, you can manually add them to My Bibliography by clicking on “Add Citation” OR you can upload a file of references in RIS format. Step-by-step directions for adding references to My Bibliography are available.
5. By default, My Bibliography pages are set to private. To make them public and viewable by others, such as grant proposal reviewers, click on "make your bibliography public" at the top of the page.
6. My Bibliography will generate a publicly-viewable URL that can be pasted into your biosketch.
7. Keep your My Bibliography account up-to-date by periodically adding citations for newly-published articles.

SciENcv is designed to facilitate the creation of biosketches for grant applications and annual progress reports. It links to your biographical information from eRA Commons (education, work experience, award history) with your PubMed publications that have been saved in your My Bibliography account.

While having an eRA Commons account can expedite the process, it is not required to have one to use SciENcv to generate a biosketch. Additional information can be added to your biosketch throughout the process.

Once your My Bibliography page has been created and populated, follow these steps.

Creating a new SciENcv

1. Log into My NCBI.
2. If you have an eRA Commons account, ensure it is linked to your MyNCBI account: click on your user name in the upper right hand corner, go to Account Settings, click on the Change button in the Linked accounts, then search for "eRA Commons."
3. In My NCBI, find the SciENcv box, click on Manage "SciENcv," then create new document.

Linking information

1. Document name: this name will be used to identify your various SciENcv projects in MyNCBI but will not appear in the final exported biosketch.
2. Format: SciENcv can be used to create biosketches for multiple agencies, including NIH and NSF. Select the appropriate format for your grant. 
3. Choose data source: you can choose one of three options: start with a blank document, copy an existing SciENcv in your account, or link to an external source like eRA Commons or ORCID. Choosing an external source will automatically populate data into your SciENcv.
4. Sharing: set your SciENCv to private or public.

Populating your SciENcv

1. You can now begin adding your information to the various biosketch sections. Please see our guide on NIH biosketches for more information about sections and requirements.
2. If you have populated your My Bibliography, you can use it to automatically add citations to sections allowing references (e.g., Personal Statement and Contribution to Science in NIH biosketches). Click on "Select citations" and choose the relevant citations to add by clicking on the checkbox next to the publication.
3. Complete list of published works: the new NIH biosketch format allows you to add a link to your full list of publications if they are hosted on a .gov site, such as My Bibliography. To add your My Bibliography link to the biosketch, scroll to the end of Contributions to Science and click on the checkbox next to "Include link to complete list of published work in My Bibliography." Note that your My Bibliography must be set to public to have the link generated and should be left as public after the grant has been submitted so reviewers can see it.

Exporting

1. Once your sections have been populated, you can export your biosketch in PDF, Microsoft Word, or XML formats in the upper right corner.
2. Downloaded files can still be edited outside of SciENcv. You can also return to your SciENcv page in the future to edit previous biosketches.

Links

Full NIH My Bibliography instructions, including additional screenshots

Full NIH SciENcv instructions, including additional screenshots

Two-page NIH flyer

Integrating ORCID with SciENcv (video)

Useful Features and Notes on Using SciENcv

• You control the content of your SciENcv profile and can edit it as needed.  This includes the ability to hide selective citations or add non-NIH research awards.
• You choose whether or not to make your SciENcv profile visible to the public.  It is private by default.
• You can create multiple profiles within SciENcv so that you can tailor your biosketch for each new grant application. 
• You can export your SciENcv profile as a PDF file and use it when submitting a grant application through the grants.gov website. 
• Once you create a SciENcv profile, it's static, but you can reuse it or parts of it.
• When you add references to My Bibliography, those references will also be available in SciENcv.  Click on "show/hide entries" to see them.

Please contact your library liaison or submit your question using the HSL comment box.