www.enLINK.org
- the electronic nutrition LINK
A new internet platform
for nutrition information for low income countries
One of the central issues
in the portfolio of the Nestlé Foundation is the transfer
of scientific and technological knowledge to low-income countries.
The Foundation mainly supports research projects with a high long
term public health relevance in which scientists from such countries
play a major role. Despite the enormous developments in information
technology, the knowledge divide between the high- and low-income
countries continues to increase. Several international organizations
(WHO and FAO) have constructed internet based projects (e.g. HINARI
or AGORA) offering affordable full text access of over 2,000 scientific
journals to medical doctors and scientists in low-income countries.
These databases are important initiatives for the transfer of medical
as well as agricultural knowledge and information to low-income
countries. As a welcomed addition to these initiatives the Nestlé
Foundation initiated enLINK, an electronic nutrition LINK offering
free full text access to registered users in low-income countries.
enLINK is a concerted action between a few highly interested nutrition
journals respectively their publishers, Ovid technologies and the
Nestlé Foundation.
enLINK focuses on key
human nutrition journals. At present, the library contains 11 scientific
journals. All these journals are searchable to anyone and registered
users can have full text access to all new and back issues. An important
additional information source is a core list of important internet
links and resources in human nutrition, which will be updated regularly.
Registered as well as non-registered users are able to use the search
mode and obtain abstracts from all articles in the journal collection
as well as further important information and important human nutrition
related links. Important issues regarding the registration to enLINK
are:
Full text
access is only available to registered researchers in human
nutrition from low-income countries according to the world bank
classification. Students are at present not eligible.
An application
form for registration can be obtained and submitted at www.enLINK.org
It is obvious
that not all applications can be accepted. Important criteria for
acceptability of the registration are:
the country
where the application comes from
the CV of
the applicant - the applicant must be actively involved in human
nutrition research
the characteristics
of the academic affiliation (e.g. availability of institutional
support and library services, general infrastructure)
At this time, we would
like to express our sincerest thanks to the publishers participating
in this initiative. It has to be recognized that without the help
and assistance of these publishers offering affordable electronic
access to their journals, this project would have not been possible.
We hope that these outstanding publishers, who have been participating
in enLINK from the very first minute , are going to create a positive
momentum for other publishers and institutions to join the enLINK
initiative. Any feedback is welcomed. For further information and/or
questions contact Paolo M. Suter, MD at the Nestlé Foundation
( nestle.foundation@vtxnet.ch
).
Paolo M.
Suter MD |