Transcript Epidemiology on the internet

ECTE 2002
Epidemiology on the
World Wide Web
- an introduction
Dirk Schoonbaert
ITM Library
September 23, 2002
Major themes
 Internet information resources.
 Epidemiology and related subjects
resources on the WWW.
 Accessibility of electronic journals.
Too much information
 Many millions of webpages are available
on the Internet.
 There are huge differences in quality,
relevance, reliability.
 Every day thousands of pages are
added, updated, removed or have their
address (‘URL’) changed.
Too little information
 Not all data that are published on paper
or in electronic databases are also
available on the Internet.
 Not all electronic resources can be
accessed by everybody (intranets!) or for
free (commercial services!).
Web indexes
Word-based machine-generated indexes:
generally far too many pages are found.
Luckily relevance-ranking is improving all
the time. E.g.:
 Google
 Hotbot
 Teoma
Web directories
Subject-based human intellectual endeavour:
hierarchically structured, often evaluated,
annotated. E.g.:
 General, comprehensive: Yahoo, Open
Directory Project, …
 Biomedical & health related: HealthWeb,
MedlinePlus, Excite – Health, …
 Covering specific topics, e.g. epidemiology,
disease outbreaks, …
Types of available
resources …
 General information: e.g. fact sheets, problem
or disease descriptions, major control or
treatment measures, policy statements, …
 Links, addresses, conference calendars,
course materials, reading lists, software, …
 Publication catalogues: full-text versions may
be available in print only, but descriptions,
summaries and sample chapters are often
offered freely on the website.
…Types of available
resources
 Newsletters: often full-text and free.
 Electronic journals editions (see later).
 Bibliographic databases: Medline,
Popline, Population Index, …
 Factual databases: DHS, UNAIDS, …
 Knowledge databases: Cochrane Library
ITM Library linking pages
 http://lib.itg.be/biblinks.htm
links to selected biomedical websites
 http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm
links to selected journal websites
 http://lib.itg.be/ebooks.htm
links to selected electronic books
Epidemiology
 Biostatistics resources on the WWW
 Epidemiology.Net
 HealthWeb - Epidemiology
 Supercourse: Epidemiology, the Internet
and global health
 WWW Virtual Library – Epidemiology
…
Infectious diseases
 Various CDC divisions
 Various WHO divisions
 Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis &
Malaria
 UNAIDS
 TDR - Tuberculosis
 RBM - Roll Back Malaria
…
Disease outbreaks
 Disease Outbreak News (CSR)
 ENIVD – European Network for Diagnosis of
Imported Viral Diseases
 INCLEN – International Clinical Epidemiology
Network
 PROMED – Program for Monitoring Emerging
Diseases
…
Electronic journals
 Originally ‘experimental’ electronic-only
journals + ‘preprint archives’ (paradigm shift).
 Electronic adverts for established journals.
 Additional contents: tables of contents (TOCs),
abstracts, full-text (HTML vs PDF).
 Additional functionality: searching, alerts
(TOCs or keywords), linking with databases,
electronic submission and peer review,
multimedia, online-only content, …
 Electronic edition >> print edition (e.g. BMJ).
Pricing policy
 Online access free for all: EID; MMWR; …
 Online access free for all after some delay:
Proceedings NAS; ASM journals; …
 Online access included in print subscription:
International Journal of Epidemiology, ...
 Online access as paid supplement to print
subscription: TM&IH (e.g. 110% - 130%).
 Online access only at reduced price: ASM
journals (e.g. 90%).
 Package deals; Consortia (e.g. Science
Direct).
Complications
 Institutional vs. individual: transparant
IP-based registration vs. explicit
username + password combination.
 HTML vs. PDF; figures and tables often
as separate files.
 Backfiles: availability? permanence?
 Higher VAT category: 21% vs. 6% !
New initiatives …
 PubMed Central: free access to established
journals after 6 months.
 HighWire Press: re-empower learned
societies as scientific publishers.
 HINARI – Health Internetwork & SciDev.Net:
special conditions for developing countries.
 BioMed Central: a series of new electroniconly peer reviewed journals, financed by
author fees.
… New initiatives
 SPARC – Scholarly Publishing & Academic
Resources Coalition: offer new alternatives
for expensive journals.
 Public Library of Science: boycot?
revolution?
 Open Archives Initiative: self-archiving, using
global interconnectivity protocols.
 Budapest Open Access Initiative.
…
Conclusion
 Electronic journals as a new improved
distribution medium for scientific information:
no hype – compare e.g. 1994 to 2002.
 Free availability of all journals for everybody:
too naive a vision. Don’t expect too much.
 Authorship, responsibility, recognition ?
 Quality control for biomedical information ?