Free communications (other interesting things)

Introduction

In Health Sciences, research collaborations are a common fact, and one of the motivations in the formation of research groups is the free association of researchers with thematic affinity for theoretical and technical complementation [1-2]. In Brazil, there is the incentive on the part of public policy, through the scientific and technological development agencies, in shaping research groups with the aim, among others, to maximize the allocation of resources for research. This study aimed to identify and visualize the networks from research groups in the area of Nursing registered in the Directory of Research Groups, a database maintained by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, an official organism of Science and Technology sponsored by the  Brazilian Government.

Methods

The search in the directory was through 63 keywords of the Nursing area, identifying a total of 429 research groups. The data obtained were treated and standardized to allow their inter-relationship with a tool for Social Network Analysis [3], resulting in a high density network. Next step was performing an analysis of subsets of this network, through the themes of research, to a better visualization of the configuration of the groups involved with each topic.
 

Results

 Results are presented in Figure1.

Discussion and conclusion

It was possible to highlight and view research groups working in nursing in Brazil on 14 different thematics: Fundamentals of Nursing, Nursing Practice, Ethics and Nursing, History of Nursing, Nursing Education, Management of Nursing Services, Nursing Care, Public Health and Nursing, Nursing and Family, Nursing in Mental Health, Nursing in Child Health, Nursing in Adult Health, Nursing in Women's Health and Nursing in Occupational Health. This study indicated which themes have a greater number of groups involved (Fundamentals of Nursing, Ethics and Nursing and Nursing Education), as well as those emerging themes, with the involvement of a low number of groups, as seen, for example, in Nursing in Mental Health and enlightens the configuration of the Health Information generation in Nursing in Brazil.  The study of networks allows a broader exploration of the scientific research environment, offering support for the decisions and assessments, to both educational institutions and research funding agencies.

Introduction

Portuguese is the official language in eight countries (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe) with more than 240 million people. Portuguese is also official language in about 20 Intergovernmental organizations. Portuguese is the sixth spoken language in the World by number of native speakers. However, the presence of Portuguese language in scientific communication, and especially in biomedical literature, is lower than expected. Due to the vast number of scientific journals, access to scientific literature is no longer done through manual search of printed journals tables of contents. The enormous amount of information makes it difficult to find the required information, constituting the Information Paradox. The necessity to create an International Catalogue of Scientific literature appeared in the 19th century (1). Due to the lack of information technologies (IT) at that time, this universal catalogue disappeared few years after its creation. More specific secondary sources were created some years later, such as Index Medicus for medical journals. With the advent of computers and then telematics, Pubmed was created, as well as the more generalist Science Citation Index. The inclusion in those secondary sources is a major goal for journal editors, since not being included leads to their complete obscurity. Secondary sources have a strict journal selection process (2). Several biases were found resulting from this selection process, namely geographic and language biases (number of journals published in the U.S. and in English is disproportionally high). However, publishing in native languages and in local journals is a convenient practice for some types of articles. Epidemiological studies from a restricted geographical area or health economy analysis associated to local policies or local clinical practice guidelines, may not have interest for an international audience, but may be highly relevant for a country interests. We found a considerable amount of papers mapping the literature in Portuguese or by researchers from Portuguese-speaking countries in health sciences. The sources for data gathering are major secondary sources that have different journal selection policies that may exclude many national journals (3,4). Identifying all the biomedical journals in a country, not only those indexed in major databases, is not a simple task (5). To accomplish this task, a search will be conducted in national and international databases.

Objectives

We propose to identify all the biomedical journals publishing articles in Portuguese in countries members of the CPLP [Community of Countries of Portuguese Language] to create a catalogue of biomedical journals in Portuguese language (that should be the first step of our project that aims to improve the visibility of biomedical journals in Portuguese language).

Methods

The methodology adopted could be divided in several steps: identify the national and international resources (databases or websites) to know the biomedical journal in Portuguese language, establish the criteria to select journals and the important fields to retrieve data for the future catalogue. Therefore, we choose Scopus, Ulrich Database, Journal Citation Reports, Pubmed, Free Medical Journals, Índice de Revistas Médicas Portuguesas, DOAJ, Redalyc, Lilacs-Express, Latindex, and Portal de Revistas Científicas em Ciências da Saúde. Regarding journals identification, the first criteria was related with subject area – Biomedical Journals. After that we limited our results to Portuguese language, defined that publication country should be Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal or São Tomé e Príncipe (the eight countries with Portuguese as official language) and, finally we selected only the active publications (since this option was available). These tasks were executed for each selected database/site. The results were exported to an excel file, with the following fields: Title, ISSN, Country, Subject, and indexing database, which allow us to characterize and analyze our set of biomedical journals in Portuguese language. The last step is to eliminate duplicates and supplement each title with the missing information.

Results

As preliminary results were identified all the biomedical journals in Portuguese language, from all the databases. The result shows a predominance of Brazilian Journals. We didn’t found any journal from other CPLP countries, except Brazil and Portugal. At this stage, it was possible to identify 173 Brazilian journals indexed in Scopus, 213 indexed in Scielo, 45 in Medline and 46 in ISI databases. Regarding Portuguese journal, we found 11 indexed in Scopus, 6 in Medline and 3 in ISI (namely, JCR).

Discussion

The results obtained, show us that there is a clear predominance of Brazilian journals. Journals from other countries, except Portugal, were not found. The presence of these journals in international secondary sources is still limited. Not all journals have assigned ISSN. Several errors in the analyzed databases were found, hindering the task of identifying the journals and distinguish the duplicates titles. Various journals with the same title were identified. We also found several equal journals’ abbreviated titles, about different journals. This could contribute to non-distinguish journals title. Since databases have different structure, each one with specific and different fields, it’s very difficult to create a complete and with non-errors file. Also, for the same title, it was identified different information in different databases. Through the journals websites we can identify the incongruous information. However, not all scientific journals have a webpage. In the next stage of this study, we’ll analyze all the titles, one by one, to identify and correct the errors now found. As final remark, it seems really important to create a consistent catalogue of biomedical journals and made it available to research community, librarians and publishers.

Aim

Viikki Campus Library is responsible of the animal health information services in Finland. It started a network consisting of veterinary, medical and linguistic specialists to collaborate in translating veterinary entries in medical thesauri, i.e. FinMeSH. The Library is using its interface Termix to index veterinary books, articles and other material in its databases. Lack of accreditation of the veterinary terms has prohibited the development of ontology projects.

Methods

The Library initiated two meetings in autumn 2011 to discuss the future project. Veterinary authorities, members of the Faculty and the Finnish Veterinary association, information specialists and other interested in translation and linguistics gathered to start planning and forming the network. Without collaboration of as many as possible interesting groups this kind of project would be impossible.
The core of the work is to translate MeSH and other thesauri into Finnish – a language with no structural relations to Indo-European languages such as English, German or French. A consistent, systematic and relatively long tradition of translating medical entries into Finnish is in the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim. Its publications anchor the new medical terms into Finnish language. Outcomes of this work are e.g. Lääketieteen termit and the database FinMeSH, which is used through the interface Termix, created and maintained by Terkko, the medical library.
When the semantical part of the work is reliably done, then it is possible to create user-friendly applications using ontology as means. The ONKI service contains Finnish and international ontologies, vocabularies and thesauri needed for publishing on the Semantic Web.

Results

High quality ontological service will be created based on deep expertise of the veterinary profession and research. User friendly interfaces will upgrade the open access services provided by the University, when self indexing is made easier. Several thesauri as Agriforest, YSA and FinMeSH are the tools that both librarians and veterinarians apply in their daily work in producing, delivering and searching new information.

Discussion

Collaborative network discussing new entries is and ideal tool, but finding right people and motivating them into a voluntary work is not an easy task for the library.

Conclusions

Collaborative development of terminology is a fruitful way of improving the quality of thesauri.

The Toowoomba Clinical Library is part of a publicly funded hospital and health network which employs 4000 staff and which serves a rural and urban population of 280 000 people over 100 000 square kilometres in southern Queensland, a region of Australia. The library has introduced and established a service whereby clinically-oriented digital audio recordings are provided to the health professionals throughout the region it serves. Sir Muir Gray has consistently argued in many forums that in the 21st Century, knowledge is the key element to improving health. He has claimed that the greatest future advances in healthcare will come not from new inventions and discoveries but from the application of what we already know. As well, Jaron Lanier has argued that it is people who are meaningful and not merely abstract networks of information. To that end it is the work of the library and its information professionals to meet the need of putting the right information in the right context and the right container for the right client. This provision of digital audio recordings is one small contribution towards meeting that need. This narrative describes its inception as an occasional project meeting the needs of one client, through to its progression as a fully-fledged library program offering a diverse and detailed collection to all staff.

Where did we start?

For several years the library had loaned, first audio cassette and later audio CD programs as a regular part of the circulation service. With the increasing ubiquity of the MP3 player, either as stand alone or as part of smart-phones and computers, for music and entertainment, we had begun to investigate whether there was a role for that technology in the health information arena. A paper published in November of 2007 by Ashok and Priya Roy seemed to reinforce our still nebulous thoughts. They quoted a Pew Internet study that found more that 22 million American adults owned iPods or MP3 players, and 29% of them have downloaded podcasts from the web. They explored a number of intersections of training and podcasting in adult education, including a program at Duke University where all incoming first year students where supplied with iPods, but much of their discussion surrounded possibilities rather than extant services. It wasn’t until a request from a palliative care doctor, one of Lanier’s “meaningful people”, that our thoughts took a concrete direction. This doctor was travelling frequently and wanted to redeem the time by listening to material relevant to his field. There was next to nothing available in established collections and not wanting to return to the client empty-handed library staff began browsing the web trying to ascertain what was available for health professionals. Amongst some obscure material were enough quality resources to convince this doctor of its worth, so once a week two or three audio CDs were created from MP3 files which had been found on the web and downloaded. From the library’s perspective this experience proved mutually beneficial. Sourcing the material was low-cost, and through evolving search strategies an increasing wealth of sources of freely available MP3 files relevant to our professional community was discovered.

What did we do?

In reflecting upon this work we realised this individual and very particular occasion of service was eminently scaleable. It seemed clear there was enough quality and relevant content available to be worth our investment in time and resources. By the late 2000s shared and shareable information was no longer the sole domain of the printed word and for some time the spoken word had been recorded and published online. We also speculated that many busy practising clinicians would value listening to scholarly communication either instead of or alongside the written word, as such information presented as conversation or lecture can be easier to digest and taps into modes of learning which differ from the printed or screened word. We also suspected most of the content was “grey” and not being listened to by those who could most benefit from it. Not all health professionals are tech savvy, and those who are may still not have the time and intellectual energy to practically acquire and play these recordings.

To this end we set about determining the best way to link our clinicians with this audio information. We realized CDs had many limits so pursued the idea of purchasing iPods and making them borrowable. We bought ten iPods but again it was Lanier’s insight of people who are meaningful which gave our ideas and the technology the direction and focus it needed. We sharpened our attentions onto junior doctors. They rotate through the major clinical areas of the hospital so building a collection of podcasts around their needs would ensure most of the clinical disciplines would be addressed. We imagined residents or interns starting a new rotation coming to borrow an iPod preloaded with audio material relevant to each particular discipline. We knew not all the material would be directly applicable to their circumstances and abilities, but enough would, and sometimes it is good to be stretched and exposed to exotic instruction, and one press of the skip was always available. In adopting this approach we also knew that having subject-specific iPods would mean consultants or nursing staff who specialise in those areas would find the players just as useful. 

With an audience in mind and iPods accessioned and available for circulation, we turned our attention to content. This we built through intensive searching and much browsing, trying a variety of techniques and terms and learning where sites typically post their audio content. The vast majority of material collected has been freely available on the web, but we do maintain a small number of subscriptions to commercial audio medical education providers that deliver regular material in MP3 format. The collection is now beyond 1800 files but is not static, and we are continually adding to the files as new material is posted or as we come across new troves. The type of material we download varies greatly and includes specialist presentations, summaries from key journals, lectures from conferences and specialist societies, continuing medical education sessions, and interviews with leading researchers. By and large the content is rich in diversity, of good quality and well-presented.

What have we achieved?

In mid 2008 we launched the availability of the iPods with a viral marketing campaign, which generated substantial interest. We were worried the idea would flare and die away quickly, but this has not proven to be the case. At least seventy-five staff have borrowed one of the ten iPods the library has populated with subject-specific content and made available for loan. One aspect we were slow to grasp initially but have quickly capitalised on is the number of staff who have their own MP3 players, particularly with the proliferation of smart phones. Consequently it was the content alone they were interested in. With this access mode in mind we have built an Endnote library that not only helps track and describe the collection, but allows staff to browse what is available and generate their own “playlist”. This is increasingly the dominant mode of access, with over two hundred additional clients having received content independent of the borrowable iPods. Feedback received informally and through a structured survey has been uniformly positive, with comments typically highlighting the ease of access and quality and relevance of the material provided. As well, increasingly interactions with this content are not static but iterative, with clients coming back asking for more material after their initial exposure. As this service has matured it has diversified, with targeted sub-sections of the collection placed in specific department areas to allow staff easy browsing and access, while the library has also begun making consumer-oriented audio material available for distribution to patients. This extends the scope for librarian – clinician collaboration which can only improve the nature of the service and enhance the involvement of the library in the clinical community.

Description of this project in industry publications has led to opportunities for collaboration with other hospital libraries throughout Australia. The audio collection and model of service have been shared, while methods for comparative evaluation are being explored. It is also encouraging to note this project was runner-up in the 2010 ALIA/IOG Excellence award and was the recipient of the 2011 HLA/HCN Innovation prize.

Conclusion

Through this project, clinicians in Toowoomba have had the opportunity to listen to digital audio recordings they would never otherwise have heard. This has expanded the knowledge base of the local clinical community, which in turn results in better-informed decisions for patient care. Ultimately patient care is where health library best practice should be measured, and it is where we believe that this project has made a significant contribution.