The Earth Day turns 40 this year. These idea and movement started over a diner, and they have now become a global action day which concern everybody. The Earth Day is a great opportunity to get involved in making the world better. This is as simple as planting a tree, riding a bus instead of your car, taking your kids to Disney’s last movie Oceans, install solar panel on your roof get a convection oven or tracking your energy usage online… I am sure that you will find what to do today on this special day. Beyond one’s involvement for Earth Day, there is all the scientific efforts that are made to improve life on Earth and face the new challenges on Earth. We thought it would be a good idea to share with you 10 Open Access (Free Full Text) articles interesting to read on the Earth Day 2010.

1. Air Pollution: Salt Mist Is the Right Seasoning for Ozone. by Portera Carol in Environmental Health Perspectives
   PMCID: 2453175
2. Room to Grow: Incentives Boost Energy-Efficient Homebuilding. by Schmidt, Charles W. on Environmental Health Perspectives
   PMCID: 2199292
3. Terra Cognita: Using Earth Observing Systems to Understand Our World. by Schmidt, Charles W. on Environmental Health Perspectives
   PMCID: 1277880
4. Cars, corporations, and commodities: Consequences for the social determinants of health by Woodcock, James and Alfred, Rachel in Emerging Themes in Epidemiology
   PMCID: 2289830, DOI: 10.1186/1742-7622-5-4
5. Perchlorate: Health Effects and Technologies for Its Removal from Water Resources. by Srinivasan, Asha and Viraraghavan, Thiruvenkatachari in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
   PMCID: 2681191, DOI:10.3390/ijerph6041418
6. Indirect Potable Reuse: A Sustainable Water Supply Alternative. by Rodriguez, Clemencia; Van Buynder, Paul; Lugg, Richard; Blair, Palenque; Devine, Brian; Cook, Angus, and Weinstein, Philip; in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
   PMCID: 2672392, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph6031174
7. Population policies, programmes and the environment. by Speidel, J. Joseph; Weiss, Deborah C.; Ethelston, Sally A., and Gilbert, Sarah M. in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
   PMCID: 2781834, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0162
8. The ecosystem-service chain and the biological spanersity crisis. by Mooney, Harold A. in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
   PMCID: 2842713, DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0223e
9. Environmental Remediation and Conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into Useful Green Products by Accelerated Carbonation Technology. by Lim, Mihee; Han, Gi-Chun; Ahn, Ji-Whan, and You, Kwang-Suk in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
   PMCID: 2819785, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph7010203
10. Is It Easy to Be Urban? Convergent Success in Urban Habitats among Lineages of a Widespread Native Ant. by Menke, Sean B.; Booth, Warren; Dunn, Robert R.; Schal, Coby; Vargo, Edward L., and Silverman, Jules 1 in PLoS ONE
    PMCID: 2820551, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009194
11. Development of a biomechanical energy harvester. by Li, Qingguo; Naing, Veronica; Donelan, J Maxwell; in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
    PMCID: 2709631, DOI: 10.1186/1743-0003-6-22

These articles were found features of novoseek such as combinations of keywords, filters or advanced search. I also took good care to tag the articles in a “EarthDay” tag in my my novoseek account so I can retrieve them anytime as it is shown below.

Now tell us: What are your picks for 2010 Earth Day among novoseek’s Free Full Text articles? Share them with us!

Welcome to the MedLib’s Round 1.9. This month, the MedLib’s Round did not specify a special theme. This may have encouraged medical librarians and you to submit articles as 13 16 people took part in this round. It is always interesting to read medical librarians’ concerns as they are using state-of-the-art tools and techniques to work better and face the new challenges of communication, information retrieval and are always keen on sharing their impression on new services and debates. You will notice that this month, the MedLib’s Round leaves room for discussions on Social Media, web 2.0 services and Tips for health.

Thoughts

• David Eddy Delivers Controversial Reinertsen Lecture About Future of Evidence-based Medicine posted at ICSI Health Care Blog by Kent Bottles, MD.

Dr. David Eddy is a controversial doctor that questions the reliability of evidence-based medicine. He was invited at the Institute for Clinical System Improvements by Kent Bottles, Chief Knowledge Officer at this institute in early november. His conference was remarkable for two reasons. First one is that more than 300 people gathered to attend it. Second is that no one would have guessed Dr. David Eddy would challenge people to think about the future of ICSI and of evidence-based medicine. An extensive post you should read to keep updated on the future of evidence based medicine. (Follow Kent Bottles on twitter)

• Technology & Medicine: new screens on Alisha764’s blog

Alisha Miles shares with us her interest for new technologies and their interest for medicine and health information. In that case, she focuses on the new screens available or on the market or to be released soon and wonders about their possible uses. (Follow Alisha764 on twitter)

Social Media in health

• How Can We Help? Roles for Librarians in Public Health on PH/HA News by Alison Aldrich

Alison exposes her feelings after she attended the American Public Health Association conferences. Her post is a nice sum up of the conference and the people that were there as lecturers. The amount of conferences about social media for health matters lets us guess its importance in discussions. She raises a great question about the importance of advocating open access to public health research too. Indeed, she spent a time in the National Library of Medicine’s booth in the exhibit hall where she could talk about one common question: “how can I get all of your journal articles for free?“.

• What is Google Wave and why should I care? on Krafty Library.

Michelle sums up what is google Wave about and how you can use it. This article will be perfect for you to discover, understand and start using Wave in a proper way. She describes how medecial librarians have already created dedicated waves but still doubts about usefulness of the tool. (Follow her on Krafty)

• Manhunt: Google Wave for Community (Emergency?) Communication posted at Eagle Dawg Blog by Nicole S. Dettmar.

Nicole took part in the google wave about the manhunt in Seattle that happened in early december. She shows how powerful was the very google wave as to information exchange and how users helped enriching previous content. At the same time, she raises the problem of false information in waves (new email tool from google encouraging real time exchange) and spam that may get into these new communication channels. (Follow EagleDawg on twitter)

• FDASM Highlights for UM Stakeholders, pt. 1: Early Presenters as SWOT-Plus posted at Emerging Technologies Librarian by Patricia F Anderson

Patricia wrote a great post (the second) on the highlights of the FDASM. The FDASM is an initiative from the FDA about the use of internet and social media for health related communications for FDA-regulated products. This public hearing held in early november was a beginning to knowing and discovering how to use social media channels to communicate about products. In that field, she recalls how the FDA has already been providing essential resources online. There is more to learn and I encourage you to read it. (Follow Patricia F. Anderson on twitter)

Web 2.0 services for health

• Biomedical search on Biomedsearch by Dr. Shock on Shock M.D.

In this article, we learn with Dr Shock about a new tool that wants to provide free access to documents relating to the biomedical field. He explains the functions of this search engine and wonders about whether it can be an alternative to the redesigned pubmed.

• How to switch from one to the other antidepressant by Dr Shock.

There’s one common problem with antidepressant which is either that the antidepressant does not work or provokes side effects. When that happens, you have to switch from one to another. This can be a tricky task and Dr. Shock presents us some great resources websites to manage it. (Follow Dr. Shock on twitter)

• Medpedia Now Includes News & Analysis, Alerts, Q&A by Walter Jessen on HighlightHealth

Walter Jessen focuses here on new functionalities brought recently to Medpedia and create a richer experience for users. Mepdedia is a medical wiki and has useful functionalities. You will now be able to use in Medpedia the following features: News & Analysis from over 150 professionals, Alerts from real time web platforms and Answers (a kind of medical Yahoo Answers). He then wonders about the possibility for Medpedia to become a medical wikipedia thanks to the amount of reliable information it has. (Follow HighlightHealth on twitter)

Tips

• Adding Methodological Filters to MyNCBI posted at Laika’s MedLibLog by Jacqueline

Jacqueline has created a great tutorial to learn how to add methodological filters to MyNCBI. MyNCBI is one’s account on Pubmed. Obviously, creating filters is a must-use option when you are keen on research and need to automate search processes. In that case, she shows how Pubmed allows to create and run advanced filters to save time. It is always nice to read well detailed techniques that will turn the reader in a better prepared person for searches. Jacqueline writes a lot about Pubmed and she has a great experience with it. Enjoy learning with her. (Follow Laikas on twitter)

• How to follow Twitter users in Google Reader on Clinical Cases and Images Blog by Dr. Ves Dimov.

In this post, Dr. Ves Dimov (who has a great blog in medicine) makes us discover a way to easily read Twitter updates without even following the people via Google Reader. Dr. Ves Dimov explains how this approach makes it easier for him to manage multiple information streams. Plus, Google Reader is web-based and can be accessed from any devide with an interent connection. (Follow Dr. Ves Dimov on twitter)

• How to make and maintain a Library Twitter account on DigiCMB by Guus Van Den Brekel

Guus shows in this example of a new twitter account how to fine tune parameters to receive all the possible interesting updates and twitts right into your twitter account. This tutorial will definitely take you to the best practices in terms of interconnection and follow up! (Follow DigiCMB on twitter)

• Allergy Notes: If you think blogs don’t matter, think again: this blog is the number one search result for “allergic rhinitis guidelines” on Allergy News Updated Daily Blog Dr. Ves Dimov.

Interesting reflexion by Dr. Ves Dimov on the role of blogs when looking for information online through search engines. From the example “allergic rhinitis guidelines” which is the first result on Google, and a blog post -hence listed before NEJM- he shares with us his vision of the future of search results. Blogs and fresh content can play a significant role but better quality source should always be sought for. (Follow Dr. Ves Dimov on twitter)

• A review of the main reference management softwares on Knowledge beyond words by Valentin.

Through a detailed post, we describe the main citation managers available out there and their particularity. You should consult this article if you are to decide what is the citation managers most adapted to your needs and uses. There is also the results of a poll launched on twitter asking people what is their favorite citation manager. (Follow novoseek on twitter)

Thank you for reading this MedLib’s Round on Knowledge beyond words. We’d like to help spread Jacqueline’s message who is looking for ideas for a logo and a new name for the MedLib’s Round which is according to Berci, one of the important things of a blog carnival. So feel free to submit her your ideas, it will be much appreciated.

Feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed of MedLib’s Round Blog Carnival. Next MedLib’s Round will be published next January 5th on Dr. Shock’s blog and you can already submit your materials via this form.

We have recently added to novoseek new articles from PubMed Central. This new feature provides the ability to access “full text publications” and we have noticed that there is quite some misunderstanding regarding what has actually been indexed. So let us explain it in detail.

Indeed, we have included the Open Access subset of PubMed Central. What is that? Well, Open Access is the free online access to research papers. Obviously, this definition has driven some confusion and misuse of the term “open” access as it is often considered a synonym to “free” access.

The first definition for open access came up at the Budapest Open Access Initiative which was later revised in Bethesda and Berlin. This led to what Peter Suber calls the BBB open access definition for which most of the Open Access Movement agreed on.
The Open Access definition stands around two ideas:

• Free of charge accessibility
• Tears down permission barriers

Consequently, these ideas make distribution, copying and derivative work production possible to anyone.

Interestingly, we’ve observed that most of the time, open access is used as a synonym to free access. This is not quite correct since open access goes beyond just free access to content. For a better understanding of the differences between them, have a look at the graphic below.

PubMed Central is a free peer reviewed digital archive of biomedical and life sciences literature developed and managed by the NIH. It gives free access to articles among which some are open access. As we have discussed in previous posts, the NIH public access policy has ensured the access to published results of NIH funded research. However it does not say whether it has to be through a free access or an open access policy.

In novoseek, we have analyzed with our text mining algorithms the full text of the open access subset and we have made it public. So now you will find full text articles in which you will be able to highlight all the relevant keywords, and enjoy the great features of our technology.

We hope you like this new data set and we will more than welcome your comments and suggestions.

Dodo bird

The NIH’s recent measure responds to a paradox in the field of scientific publications.  It is the classic “chicken or egg” scenario.

First, much of the content generation is done so at no cost to the “publishing house”.  Researchers, sponsored mainly by public institutions – and driven by their own interests and search for knowledge – create new research.  The new content creation is usually based on “free” generation, collaboration and assessment of content.

Second, the publishing companies then add value by managing, editing and distributing that content. In this process, “end-user” scientists have willingly paid publishers for the ability to access this “approved” content.

So the paradox before us is…if the free content is based upon paid content (made available through publishing houses), should the new content be made available for free or follow the publishing payment model?

In fact, there is no black and white answer – but new technologies are creating an even more heated debate.

New technologies and the Internet have simplified the editing  and distribution processes, opening new possibilities for additional  formats and business models, such as open access publications, in  which access to contents is free and redistribution is at your fingertips.  Will the new technologies be able to handle the role that traditional publishers have successfully handled for nearly 100 years in the areas of managing, editing and distributing that content?

In the new model – what becomes of peer review?  In  the traditional method, public institutions fund the management and the peer-review  editing process, since these publications charge researchers for the  distribution and circulation of their work once it is considered  scientifically relevant.

Through PubMed Central, the NIH has generated a centralized system aimed to distribute scientific works which have already undergone a peer-review process, and have made scientists sponsored by the NIH add a clause regarding the copyright’s release to publishing companies, before the last version of their work can be  placed in this repository 12 months before the publication. Congress’s proposal wishes to avoid this kind of measure.

We must take into account that the research process is strongly supported in the maintained publication of new results, which daily becomes the base for additional discoveries by scientists. Better access to information and the implementation of easier conversations, such as access offered by the Internet would accelerate research, as mentioned  by Mr. Akst in The WSJ: “knowledge dissemination is crucial for the creation of wealth and can’t reproduce in isolation.”

It is true that the management of any peer-review process is necessary if willing to maintain the quality and excellence of scientific works,  but it is in any case a process in which scientists collaborate  voluntarily, a process in which new technologies have enabled a new,  easier distribution. And if there is an entity willing to lead the centralization of contents, is it sensible to approve measures not favoring this access to content?

Unfortunately I don’t have an answer.  To deny access to valuable medical information, just doesn’t seem right.  Neither does denying a commercial business the right to operate when it provides a valuable service.

So – chicken or egg?  All I know is this debate is not likely to go the way of the dodo bird anytime soon.