HSLS Update

BioMed Central Available Through HSLS

The University of Pittsburgh and the UPMC now have access to the contents of the BioMed Central (BMC) Journal Collection and BMC databases.

BioMed Central is an independent publishing house, committed to rapid peer review, immediate publication, and open access to the scientific literature. Access to research articles in the BioMed Central journals is freely available to anyone. Access to other content, including the Current Reports journals, which provide reviews of recent literature in a number of medical fields, requires a subscription. HSLS users have access to both free and subscribed content in the BioMed Central journal collection.

To view the full list of available journals and databases, go to the BMC Gateway <www.biomedcentral.com/inst/gateway/>, or from the HSLS Web site <www.hsls.pitt.edu>, go to the “databases” list and select BioMed Central. In addition, you may access individual titles from the HSLS electronic journals list <www.hsls.pitt.edu/resources/ejournals/titles>. BMC is also available via remote access login by using your HSLS user name and password.

Through our agreement with BioMed Central, HSLS users also have access to five journals in the Current Treatment Options series from Current Science, Inc., BioMed Central’s sister company. These journals provide up-to-date information on the care and treatment of numerous conditions. The Current Treatment Options titles are at <www.treatment-options.com/index.cfm>. (NOTE: these titles are not available directly through the BioMed Central Gateway).

Authors interested in publishing original research through BioMed Central can submit manuscripts for publication directly through the BMC Web site. The “Submit a Manuscript” link provides the information needed to complete this process. Please note there is a fee to utilize this feature. Articles published in BMC are indexed in PubMed and are archived by PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s digital archive of life sciences journal literature. Authors who publish original research in BMC journals retain copyright to their articles.

HSLS also has access to three BMC databases:

Faculty of 1000 - a database that is international in scope, and that highlights the most significant papers published in biology, based on the recommendations of over 1400 scientists. This bibliographic database has signed and dated article evaluations, and a link to PubMed.

Current Controlled Trials - a searchable international register of ongoing randomized controlled trials in all areas of health care. Free registration is required to access this file.

Images M.D. - an online encyclopedia of images that contains more than 48,000 graphs, charts, illustrations, and photographs covering the entire spectrum of clinical medicine. A detailed descriptive paragraph with a cited reference accompanies each image. This site has Boolean search capabilities and allows unlimited personal use of the images. Registration, which is free, is required.

--Alice B. Kuller

BioMed Central is one of a number of emerging open access resource centers dedicated to making important research available to the scientific community at no charge to the viewer. In future issues of HSLS Update we will be looking at some of these resources, and at open access as a publishing strategy for researchers.