Health Information Resources
on the Internet
(Advanced Course: Module 4 )
Table of Contents – Section A
Background
• Grey Literature – definition
• Types of health resources on the
Internet
• Open Access journals
• Journal article retraction
• Egranary
Section B
Agency Sources (a brief sampling)
• Inter-governmental agencies
• Governmental agencies
• Non-governmental agencies
Section C
Searching & Discussion Tools
(a brief sampling)
• Databases – IRIS (WHO Global Digital
Library), PubMed and MetaLib,
• Search engines – Google Scholar and
Google custom search, Open i
• Gateways –Medline Plus and Health
Sciences Online
• Discussion groups – Dgroups,
GHDonline, HIFA2015
Section D
Free E-journals Access
•
•
•
•
•
Directory of Open Access Journals
BioMed Central
PubMed Central
HighWire Press
PubMed search options
Section E - Health Information
Sources by Subject (a very brief sampling)
• HIV/AIDS, Nutrition
• Public Health
• Infectious Diseases
Section F – Grey Literature Search
Tools and Additional Resources:
•
•
•
•
•
Grey Literature Databases
Useful Databases
PubMed Pre-formulated Searches
Other Resources (annotations)
Appendix: DSpace
Section A
Background
• Grey Literature – definition
• Types of health resources on the
Internet
• Open Access journals
• Journal article retraction
• DSpace
• Egranary
Grey Literature
Grey Literature is a field in library and
Information science that deals with the
production, distribution, and access to multiple
document types produced on all levels of
government, academics, business, and
organization in electronic and print formats not
controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where
publishing is not the primary activity of the
producing body.
GreyNet http://www.greynet.org/greynethome.html
(accessed 15 September 2015)
Finding the Hard to Finds: Searching for Grey Literature – 2012 Update
hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/images/5/5b/Greylit_manual_2012.doc (accessed 03 November 2015)
Open Access
• The literature that should be freely accessible
online. Scholars give to the world without
expectation of payment including peer-reviewed
journal articles and un-reviewed preprints online for comment or to alert colleagues.
• “Open Access" to this literature means free
availability on the public internet, permitting any
users to read, download, copy, distribute, print,
search, or link to the full texts of these articles…
without financial, legal, or technical barriers
• The authors retain control over the
integrity of their work and the right to be
properly acknowledged and cited.
• Two complementary strategies:
• Self-Archiving: Scholars deposit their
refereed journal articles in open
electronic archives. Search engines and
other tools can treat the separate
archives as one.
• Open-access Journals: Scholars launch a
new generation of journals committed to
open access, and to help existing OA
journals … These new journals will no
longer invoke copyright to restrict access
to and use of the material they publish and
will not charge subscription or access
fees, and will turn to other methods for
covering their expenses.
"Budapest Open Access Initiative," 14 February 2002,
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml. Accessed 16
September 2015)
OA Journal Business Models (a sampling)
• Advertising - publication uses advertising on the
journal's web site or article pages in order to
generate income
• Endowments - publication builds an endowment
and use the annual interest to cover its expenses.
• Hybrid OA journals - publish some OA articles and
some non-OA articles; the choice between the two
is the author's rather than the editor's
• Institutional subsidies - an institution subsidizes an
OA journal, in whole or part, directly or indirectly
• Publication fees – to cover the cost of
production, the journal charges a fee upon
acceptance of an article for publication; in
practice, this might cover more or less. The
publication fee must cover the costs of
publishing the accepted article plus the cost of
reviewing the number of submissions rejected
oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/OA_journal_business_mode
ls (Accessed 03 November 2015)
Some words of caution
• With the development of Open Access publishing, some
unscrupulous publishers take advantage of authors
• Examples are stand-alone (one title) publishers, the
publisher is the editor, no formal editorial/review board,
lack of transparency of publishing operations no policy
for digital preservation, name of journal is inflated or
incongruent with journal’s mission, false claim of
indexing, poor journal standards or practices,
excessively broad titles, etc.
• For further info, go to: scholarlyoa.com/ or
• libguides.wits.ac.za/openaccess_a2k_scholarly_com
munication/Predatory_Publishers
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.
This is part of an article
published by the
Washington Post – 27
March 2015. It discusses
the retraction of 43 papers
by BioMed Central.
‘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
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.
Section C
Searching & Discussion Tools
(a brief sampling)
• Databases – IRIS (WHO Global Digital
Library), PubMed and MetaLib, Open i
• Search engines – Google Scholar and
Google custom searches
• Gateways – Medline Plus and Health
Sciences Online
• Discussion groups – Dgroups, GHDonline,
HIFA2015
This is the platform for the IRIS - WHO’s Global
Digital Library with online access to WHO
published material. Note the Search WHO IRIS
box and the ability to Refine you search to
various regional WHO offices or programs.
Displayed are the 4062 results for a
hypertension AND developing countries
search. In the right column, the results are
‘refined’ by WHO region and organization.
The PubMed database contains over
24,000,000 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: Nongovernmental Organizations Search Engine for students, faculty, researchers and officials..
Customized Google custom search:
Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine
- for students, faculty, researchers and officials.
Open i is an Open Access Biomedical
Image Search Engine supported by
the U.S. National Library of Medicine
Limits for searches include Rank by,
Image Type, Subsets, Collections,
License Type and Specialties.
Developed and maintained by the
National Library of Medicine (USA),
MedlinePlus is an invaluable resource
for consumer health information. Access
is by topic or keyword search engine.
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.
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.