Health Information Resources on the Internet

(Advanced Course: Module 4 )

Table of Contents – Section ABackground

• Grey Literature – definition• Types of health resources on the

Internet• Open Access journals• Journal article retraction• DSpace• Egranary

Section BAgency Sources (a brief sampling)

• Inter-governmental agencies• Governmental agencies• Non-governmental agencies

• Databases • Search engines • Gateways• Discussion groups

Section CSearching & Discussion Tools

(a brief sampling)

Section DFree E-journals Access

• Directory of Open Access Journals• BioMed Central• PubMed Central• HighWire Press• PubMed search options

• Consumer Health/Patient Education• HIV/AIDS, Nutrition• Public Health• Infectious Diseases

Section E - Health Information Sources by Subject (a very brief sampling)

• Meta (Search) Sites• Annotated Bibliography – Additional

Resources

Section F – Grey Literature Search Tools

Section G - Annotated Bibliography of Additional Resources:

• Grey Literature Databases• Useful Databases• PubMed Pre-formulated Searches

Section ABackground

• Grey Literature – definition• Types of health resources on the

Internet• Open Access journals• Journal article retraction• DSpace• Egranary

Grey Literature

• Is defined as ‘that which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers.’

Grey Literature Report, New York Academy of Medicine,

www.greylit.org/about (accessed 02 January 2015)

• Examples include technical reports from governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental agencies or research groups, working papers from research groups or preprints, thesis/dissertations and conference papers.

Grey Literature (continued)

• Is a body of materials that cannot be found easily through conventional channels – e.g. indexed databases or publishers’ lists

• Lacks strict bibliographic control - basic information such as author, publication date or publishing body and location may not readily available

• Is increasingly found on the Internet but can be difficult to identify, access and evaluate

Free Health Resources on the Internet

• Library catalogues (WHO and regional offices)• Journals and books (see other module)• Bulletins, newsletters• Governmental, intergovernmental and non-

governmental information resources• Discussion groups• Research databases• Publishers’ databases• Ready reference material e.g. encyclopedias

Open Access Journals• ‘Open Access’ (OA) journals are scholarly

journals that are available without financial or technical barriers other than Internet access

• Articles either are directly accessible from the publisher (e.g. PLOS – OA Gold) or archived in a repository (e.g. PubMed Central – OA Green)

• In most cases, the copyright is owned by the author, not the publisher (Creative Commons copyright licensing)

• Some OA journals are subsidized by academic or governmental institutions

OA Journal Options

• ‘Non-fee based OA journals’ – no fee required by authors; journals funded by governmental or inter-governmental agencies or NGOs

• ‘Fee-based OA journals’ require payment by the author - often paid by a grant or institution

• These OA journals accept articles from authors in low-income countries; the number varies from journal to journal; peer-reviewers (theoretically) do not know if authors have requested fee waivers

• ‘Delayed open access journals’ where the articles are available between 6 – 24 months

• ‘Hybrid open access journals’ contain some current articles that are free access (e.g. The Lancet)

Sponsored by several governments, GOAP is a current snapshot of the status of Open Access (OA) to scientific information around the world. It is organized by region, funding mandates, key organizations, thematic areas plus OA news articles and key publications.

This is a cautionary note. Retraction Watch is a website that tracks the retraction of peer-reviewed papers due to fabrication, faulty research and/or statistics. All types of journal publishers (open access and commercial) must deal with these issues.

‘The national affiliations of authors and reasons for retraction of papers accessible through PubMed that were published from 2008 to 2012 and subsequently retracted were determined in order to identify countries with the largest numbers and highest rates of retraction due to plagiarism and duplicate publication. Authors from more than fifty countries retracted papers. While the United States retracted the most papers, China retracted the most papers for plagiarism and duplicate publication. Rates of plagiarism and duplicate publication were highest in Italy and Finland, respectively. Unethical publishing practices cut across nations.’Amos, K. The ethics of scholarly publishing: exploring differences in plagiarism and duplicate publication across nation. J Med Library Association. Apr 2014 102(2) 87-91

Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, DSPACE (www.dspace.org) is a software to build open access repositories - for academic and non-profit organizations . The software is free/downloadable from this site, can be installed ‘out of the box’ and customized locally.

From this DSPACE page, you can download the software and documentation plus learn about new features and improvements.

Displayed is the initial page of Makerere University Institutional Repository (MAKIR). Note the Communities within this repository.

This is the initial page of the College of Health Sciences Community. Note the various Sub-community – units in the College of Health Sciences. Material also is accessible by Date, Authors, Titles, Subjects and a keyword search tool.

We have displayed the egranary home page. This is a tool for building a digital library that captures information from the Internet and stores it locally. The project is a useful option for low-bandwidth institutions and has been installed in 700+ organizations.

Section B - Agency Sources(a brief sampling)

• Inter-governmental Agencies – WHO, UNAIDS

• Governmental Agencies - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S)

• Non-governmental Agencies – INASP

The WHO site contains current news information plus links to statistics, publications, programs, health topics and guidelines.

The UNAIDS webpage is the site of an inter-organization consortium. It includes significant epidemiological, statistical, logistical and clinical information on HIV/AIDS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage contains a wealth of information on numerous infection diseases.

INASP is an NGO that focuses on communication, knowledge and networking projects in low-income countries.

• Databases – Global Health Library, PubMed and MetaLib

• Search engines – Google Scholar and Google custom search

• Gateways – Health Sciences Online and Essential Health Links Gateway

• Discussion groups – Dgroups, GHDonline, HIFA2015

Section CSearching & Discussion Tools

(a brief sampling)

This is the searchable platform for the Global Index Medicus/WHO. It is a compilation of all the WHO and Regional Libraries catalogs. Seaching is via keyword and contains links to many full-text documents.

Displayed are the 1594 results. In the left column, the results are ‘refined’ by Index, Region, Type of Article and Type of Study. Also included are links to the full-text documents.

The PubMed database contains over 23,000,000 indexed articles. The search results contain links to free articles. In the past 15 years, the scope has been broadened to include more journals covering global health. See Basic Course Module 4 for details.

MetaLib is a gateway to numerous U.S. governmental agencies’ databases including PubMed and EPA Publications and Newsletters. Search results will lead you to citations in the other databases which may or may not be linked to full-text articles. The Advanced Search page is displayed.

Google Scholar provides access to scholarly literature including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Customized Google custom search: Non-governmental Organizations Search Engine - for students, faculty, researchers and officials..

Customized Google custom search: Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine - for students, faculty, researchers and officials.

Health Sciences Online is a searchable portal with over 50,000 reviewed articles on courses, references, guidelines and other learning resources. It was launched in late 2008 and includes the Google Translation option.

Results of a type 2 diabetes AND developing countries search. Note the Refine Resource Type and other options.

Essential Health Links

The Essential Health Links gateway contains over 750 links to relevant WWW sites for the health community in developing and transitional countries. Annotated links are organized in Health General Health Resources, Library and Publishing Support and Specific Health Resources categories.

This displays the Essential Health Links Table of Contents for Library and Publishing Support and Specific Health Resources.

Dgroups is an organization with multiple development-related discussion groups. After registering, you can join any groups that are of interest to you.

GHD Online is an online platform of communities where health professionals share proven practices, connect with colleagues and find resources for improving outcomes in resource limited settings. Note link to the communities on the initial page.

HIFA2015 is an international discussion group and resource geared toward the health information needs of low-income countries. Registration is required but free.