HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme
Health Information Resources on the Internet
(Advanced Course: Module 4)
Table of Contents:
 Free Health Resources on the Internet
 E-Journal Sources
 Google Custom Searches
 Other Grey Literature Resources on the Internet
Health Information on the Internet
There are numerous invaluable health information resources available on the WWW
that fall into the general categories previously mentioned (gateways, databases,
search engines). This is a vast topic that, in this section, only will be addressed in a
limited way. Examples of the types of information on the WWW are listed below:
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Agency Sources
Databases, Search Engines & Gateways
E-journal Sources
Subject Sources
1. Free e-journal Options
Besides the HINARI program, there are a number of useful e-journal gateways that
contain access to freely available full text articles on the WWW. In the following
example, you will access Directory of Open Access Journals, BioMed Central,
PubMed Central and Highwire Press. You will view these in the following exercise.
Exercise 1
 Connect to the Internet and open your internet browser.
 Type or copy/paste http://doaj.org/ into the address box, click on “GO” or
hit the Return key.
 The Directory of Open Access Journals lists journals that make content
two years after publication date.
 How many journals are listed in this gateway and how many are
searchable at the article level?
 In the DOAJ Search box, enter diabetes AND weight loss or a search
of interest to you and click on the question mark.
 How many citations are listed for this search?
 How is the access to the journals organized?
 Type or copy/paste http://www.biomedcentral.com into the address box,
click on “GO” or hit the Return key.
 This links to BioMed Central, an open access publisher; published
articles are freely available on the Internet as the authors pay BioMed
Central to publish them.
 How is the access to the journals organized?
 What broad subject area would be most useful to you?
 Can you complete a keyword search in BioMedCentral?
 Can an author submit a manuscript through this website?
 Type or copy/paste http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/ into the address box,
click on “GO” or hit the Return key.
 This links to PubMed Central, a free archive of biomedical and life
sciences articles deposited in this repository
 Who is the sponsor of this digital archive?
 How many articles are in this database and how many journals are in the
Full Participation journals list?
 In the PMC Search box, enter foodborne zoonoses AND prevention or
a search of interest to you and click on Search.
 How many citations are listed for this search?
 Click on article for one of the titles - to go to the PMC abstract and link to
the full-text article/
 From the HINARI Contents page, go to the Free Collections drop down
menu and click on Highwire Free to Developing Economies orType in
or copy/paste http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/devecon.dtl into the
address box, click on “GO” or hit the Return key.
 You will be redirected to the Free Access to Developing Economies list.
The Highwire Press website has opened a list of journals that you will be
able to use for free as it is based on the IP address of the computer. .
Note: For eligibility, see
http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-and-lending-groups#Low_income
Not all HINARI institutions qualify for access in this category.
 What HighWire Press journals would be of interest to you and why?
 Which of the following journals are accessible in Highwire Press?
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American Journal of Epidemiology
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Infectious Diseases
Lancet
Molecular Pathology
Science ((American Association for the Advancement of Science)
Note: many of these may also be available in HINARI.
The Internet also hosts many publisher sites for which you have to subscribe or pay a
fee in order to access published information. These include electronic journals,
reference collections, databases and electronic text books.
2. Access to numerous Grey Literature Sites – via Google Custom Searches
Exercise 2
 Copy the following url to access the Google Custom Search Nongovernmental Organizations Search Engine:
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=012681683249965267634:q4g16p
05-ao
You also can access this by searching in Google for Google Custom
Search Non-governmental Organizations Search Engine
 Enter Stroke AND second hand smoke in the Google Custom Search
box and click on Search.
 How many citation search results are listed?
 What types of publications are list on the 1st page of search results?
 From a public health prevention program, would some of these resources
be of use?
 Complete a search of interest to you. What types of material was listed
on the 1st page of the search results? Would some of these resources be
of use?
 Copy the following url to access the Google Custom Search
Intergovernmental Organizations Search Engine:
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=006748068166572874491:55ez0c
3j3ey
You also can access this by searching in Google for Google Custom
Search Inter governmental Organizations Search Engine
 Enter Ebola AND transmission prevention in the Google Custom
Search box and click on Search.
 How many citation search results are listed?
 What types of publications are list on the 1st page of search results?
 Would some of these resources be of use for an Ebola prevention
program?
 Enter Ebola AND transmission control in the Google Custom Search
box and click on Search.
 How many citation search results are listed? Are these documents similar
to the Ebola AND transmission prevention results? Is this a broader or
narrower keyword search?
 Enter Ebola prevention AND control in the Google Custom Search box
and click on Search.
 How many citation search results are listed? Are these documents similar
to the previous two searches? Is this a broader or narrower keyword
search?
 Which search terms would you use (especially since the numbers are
large)? How could you narrow this search?
 Complete a search of interest to you. What types of material was listed
on the 1st page of the search results? Would some of these resources be
of use?
3. Access to numerous Grey Literature Sites – via other Internet sources
Exercise 3
 Open the WorldWideScience.org website at worldwidescience.org - a
global science gateway comprised of 99 national and international
scientific databases and portals
 Enter tobacco use AND oral cancer in the search box and click on the
Search icon. Note that 99 sources are searched (and can take several
minutes).
 How many documents are displayed by this search? Click on Topics/Full
text available (left column). How many full text articles are available?
Note that many of them are from Open Access Journals sources such as
DOAJ and SCIELO.
 Scroll down the Topics left column until you reach Dates. How many
resources have been published in 2013 and 2014?
 Return to the search page and complete a search for a topic of interest
to you.
 What are your search terms? How many documents are listed in your
search results? How many full text articles are available? Would this be
a useful source to full-text resources?
Exercise 4
 Open the Open Grey website at www.opengrey.eu - a database of
700,000 grey literature references in Europe with links to many full-text
documents
 Enter prenatal care in the search box and click on the Search icon.
 How many documents are displayed by the search results?
 What types of organizations are listed in the left-column Refine your
search list?
 Scroll down the Refine your search column to the language limit. How
many of these sources are in English? In the doctype limit, how many
are thesis?
 Enter a similar search for infant care in the Search box and click on the
Search icon.
 How many documents are displayed by the search results?
 What types of organizations are listed in the left-column Refine your
search list?
 Are these documents similar to the prenatal care results? Is this a broader
or narrower keyword search?
 Return to the search page and complete a search for a topic of interest
to you.
 What are your search terms? How many documents are listed in your
search results? Would this be a useful source to full-text resources?
Assignment
You now have completed Advanced Course Module 4 and finished 4 exercises. This
has given you an overview of access to free e-journal sites on the Internet and
numerous (grey literature) health-related Internet resources.
Updated 2015 04