1. ECTE 2002 Epidemiology on the World Wide Web - an introduction Dirk Schoonbaert ITM Library September 23, 2002

2. Major themes  Internet information resources.  Epidemiology and related subjects resources on the WWW.  Accessibility of electronic journals.

3. 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.

4. 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!).

5. 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

6. 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, …

7. 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.

8. …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

9. ITM Library linking pages  http://lib.itg.be/biblinks.htm http://lib.itg.be/biblinks.htm links to selected biomedical websites  http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm http://lib.itg.be/journals.htm links to selected journal websites  http://lib.itg.be/ebooks.htm http://lib.itg.be/ebooks.htm links to selected electronic books

10. Epidemiology  Biostatistics resources on the WWW  Epidemiology.Net  HealthWeb - Epidemiology  Supercourse: Epidemiology, the Internet and global health  WWW Virtual Library – Epidemiology  …

11. Infectious diseases  Various CDC divisions  Various WHO divisions  Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria  UNAIDS  TDR - Tuberculosis  RBM - Roll Back Malaria  …

12. 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  …

13. 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).

14. 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).

15. 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% !

16. 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 electronic- only peer reviewed journals, financed by author fees.

17. … 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.  …

18. 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 ?