VHL News Network

SciELO and JCR/ISI indicators identify Brazilian scientific information flow

The December 2006 issue of the journal Scientometrics published the article "International versus national oriented Brazilian scientific journals. A scientometric analysis based on SciELO and JCR-ISI databases". The study highlights the importance of these SciELO indicators for full analysis of the country's scientific production, which is not possible to be performed only through ISI/JCR indicators. Of the 144 journals indexed in the SciELO Brazil collection at the end of 2005, 19 were also indexed by the ISI/JCR. The authors of the article, Rogerio Meneghini, Rogério Mugnaini and Abel L. Packer, from BIREME, reported that this group of journals presents two well-defined standards for distribution of citations received and granted: one relates to national journals and another to international journals, according to fields of knowledge. The article suggests that national research evaluations should value more the national journals and the use of SciELO indicators
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Development of cooperation technologies on the Web strengthen the VHL

Launched in 1998, the VHL uses the Web as the main means for network production and operation of products, services and flows of scientific and technical information on health. In the past years, the Web has been improved by a set of information approaches, methodologies and technologies (XML, Web Services, SOAP, RSS, AJAX, Wikis, Blogs, Mashups, etc.) which enhance users' capacity in processes of online interaction, publication and cooperation. This trend favors the development of the VHL model which has promoted, since its launching, the converging operation of thousands of institutions and individuals as producers, intermediaries, and users of information as regards to cooperative products, services and events to make access to information and knowledge on health more democratic
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SciELO Social Sciences promotes international insertion of social sciences and social scientists from Latin America

The SciELO Social Sciences English Edition collection, launched during the second semester of 2005, aims to publish, in English, an annual selection of articles published in the best social sciences journals from Latin America and the Caribbean. The project represents an innovative and collective effort to promote visibility and accessibility of the Latin American production in Social Sciences all over the world. Most of them are published in scientific journals in Portuguese and Spanish, which is a barrier for international insertion of Latin American Social Sciences. In the beginning of 2007, the SciELO Social Sciences collection is in process and already it has 28 journals and 125 articles published in English. The collection includes 18 journals from Brazil, two from Uruguay, two from Chile, two from Bolivia, and one from Venezuela. In the last months of 2006, the collection received a monthly average of approximately 10,000 visits. This figure is likely to increase in the future as the number of articles and titles grows in the collection
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VHL will support Brazilian telehealth program

The Brazilian Ministry of Health launched in 2006 the National Telehealth Program Applied to Primary Care which will be implemented in the National Health System (SUS) in 2007. The main objective of the program is to contribute to improve the quality of primary care provided by the SUS by increasing qualification of family health teams, with the support of a network of university centers and the intense use of telemedicine. The program plans to develop in the VHL a collection of information products, services and events, as well as scientific evidence specifically directed to enhancing primary health care in Brazil
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SciELO Brazil is close to achieving 200 titles

The SciELO Brazil collection has 17 new titles and will now index and publish 195 titles of Brazilian journals. Hence it is getting closer to the historical mark of 200 journals published online, in open access. This new achievement will be celebrated in 2007, when the SciELO program completes its 10th anniversary. The SciELO Brazil collection is part of the SciELO Network, which operates eight national and thematic collections, adding up over 300 titles available. The inclusion of new titles was approved at the 12th Meeting of the SciELO Brazil Advisory Committee, held at BIREME/PAHO/WHO, on November 23-24, 2006. The Committee made several decisions to improve the process of selecting and maintaining the collection titles
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PAHO Project "Faces and Places" includes Argentinean cities

"Faces and Places" is a PAHO project that aims to promote sustainable improvements in public health, reduce inequality, strengthen social inclusion of deprived communities in Latin America and the Caribbean and help them to reach the Millennium Development Goals. In Argentina, the project was presented to the local communities of the municipalities of Rosario Vera Peñaloza - Chepes, La Rioja province, and Palpalá, in Jujuy province, in the beginning of January 2007, by a group of specialists in health promotion and healthy cities, composed of Marco Akerman, of PAHO's Area of Sustainable Development and Environmental Health (SDE) and working at the BIREME/PAHO/WHO, Yael Grünhut and Laura Waymsztok, from the Ministry of Health and Social Development in Argentina. The visits addressed actions and local proposals to trigger a technical cooperation plan
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