VHL News Network

BIREME and the VHL facing the future

The year of 2008 was notable for the BIREME/PAHO/WHO, with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the VHL. The results highlight their mission and technical cooperation program oriented to the equitable access to the scientific information. In 2009 the Regional Portal of the VHL had more than 16 million references to the relevant literature in health sciences, with more than 1 million monthly visits, interoperating with 150 other national and thematic portals from 25 countries. The VHL has been aligning its products and services with the priority health agendas, with emphasis on primary care, addressing the social determinants of health
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Global Forum on Health Research emphasizes Open Access to scientific information

The Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health held in Bamako, Mali, gathered representatives from 57 countries, in November 2008. With the active participation of scientists, representatives of international agencies, research institutions and civil society, a call for action on research was approved, focused on strengthening of researches for health, development and equity. The relevance of policies, programs and actions for open access to information and scientific knowledge and the use of scientific evidence in health systems were also emphasized. Aligned with the call for action, there are global initiatives and the South-South cooperation on scientific information, which have the cooperation of BIREME/PAHO/WHO: networks TropIKA.net, Global Health Library, ePORTUGUÊSe and EVIPNet
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ISSI 2009 in Rio de Janeiro: state of the art in scientometrics and bibliometrics

Recognized as an international reference forum on scientometrics and informetrics research, the 12th edition of the biennial conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) will be held at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil, on July 14-17, 2009. The event is organized by the BIREME/PAHO/WHO and the Instituto de Bioquímica Médica da UFRJ, and sponsored by the ISSI. It aims to disseminate the theoretical advances and applications in scientometrics and informetrics, including Analysis of Citations, Open Access and Online Publications, Collaboration in Science, Productivity and Publications, Indicators (such as the Impact Factor, h-Index, etc.), Research Policies, etc
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The indexing evolution of Latin American and Caribbean journals

The bibliographic indexes and databases play a fundamental role on visibility and impact of scientific journals at national, regional and international levels in several fields of knowledge. For the scientific community, indexing in reference indices represents an important indicator of quality of journals and a constant goal of their editors. In the past six years, Latin America and the Caribbean had a very positive evolution in terms of quantity and quality of indexing of their regional and international journals, such as the Web of Science, MEDLINE, SciELO and LILACS, as mentioned in the portal of Scientific Communication on Health (CCS) of the VHL
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Virtual Library makes available the scientific trajectory of UNIFESP

A historical event in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo that stood out was the launching of the Virtual Library UNIFESP Scientific Path. The initiative is designed to promote democratization of access to information and scientific knowledge produced by researchers of the institution and indexed in the main national and international sources of scientific information, including the LILACS, SciELO and MEDLINE. The project is undertaken by the UNIFESP with the collaboration of BIREME/PAHO/WHO, and uses the VHL methodological and technological platform
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Clinical trials registry advances in Latin America and the Caribbean

Registry and dissemination of clinical trials are an essential part of clinical research conducted with transparency and ethical responsibility towards the scientific community, volunteers who take part in investigations and the society in general. The WHO leads the promotion and standardized operation of clinical trial registry by means of an international platform and is supported by several international institutions related to clinical research, such as the ICMJE. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the PAHO, through the BIREME/PAHO/WHO, has encouraged the development of a regional clinical registry platform that will be the model for the countries to perform their national registries according to the WHO orientations
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