Name
Coverage (scope)
Main characteristics
International
Americas, Caribbean Region and African Portuguese speaking countries
The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) is a specialized PAHO center whose mission is to contribute to development of health in LA&C countries through the democratization of access, publishing and use of information, knowledge and scientific evidence.
Main products are the Virtual Health Library, LILACS and DeCS.
Global
United States of America
NLM has been a center of information innovation since its founding in 1836.
The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics that are searched billions of times each year by millions of people around the globe.
Main products: PubMed, MEDLINE, MESH and NLM Classification.
Global
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, or "DCMI", is an open organization supporting innovation in metadata design and best practices across the metadata ecology. DCMI's activities include work on architecture and modeling, discussions and collaborative work in DCMI Communities and DCMI Task Groups, global conferences, meetings and workshops, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and best practices.
DCMI maintains a number of formal and informal liaisons and relationships with standards bodies and other metadata organizations.
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is an open organization managed as a project of ASIS&T, a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
Global
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession.
Founded in 1927 in Edinburgh, Scotland at an international conference, we celebrate our 90th birthday in 2017. We now have more than 1,400 Members in over 140 countries around the world. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in 1971. The Royal Library, the national library of the Netherlands, in The Hague, generously provides the facilities for our headquarters.
United States of America
The Library of Congress occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill. The Thomas Jefferson Building (1897) is the original separate Library of Congress building. (The Library began in 1800 inside the U.S. Capitol.) The John Adams Building was built in 1938 and the James Madison Memorial Building was completed in 1981.
Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 164 million items includes more than 38.6 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 70 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.
International
Americas, Caribbean Region and African Portuguese speaking countries
The Virtual Health Library (VHL) was established in 1998 as a model, strategy and operating platform for technical cooperation of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for management of health information and knowledge in the LA&C Region.
The VHL is a Network of Networks built collectively and coordinated by BIREME.
International
The Global Index Medicus (GIM) published under the auspices of World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Offices, gives access to bibliographical information and in some cases to full text of health material published locally.
It has been compiled to complement the internationally known bibliographical indexes such as MEDLINE, considering that important and valuable medical and health documents from countries outside the major industrialized areas are not included.
Regional
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
Bibliographic index of literature on health sciences, published in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1982. It is a cooperative product of the VHL Network, which currently indexes articles from more than 900 magazine titles from 19 countries of Latin America and Caribbean. LILACS also indexes other types of scientific and technical literature such as thesis, monographs, books and book chapters. papers presented at congresses or conferences, reports, government publications and regional international organizations
Check also My VHL
Caribbean Region
International
MEDLINE is the U.S. National Library of Medicine® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains more than 24 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
MEDLINE is the primary component of PubMed®, part of the Entrez series of databases.
Time coverage: includes literature published from 1966 to present, and selected coverage of literature prior to that period. See OLDMEDLINE Data for coverage details about the pre-1966 citations that are not comprehensive for that time period.
Repository of search strategies on the VHL
(BIREME/PAHO/WHO)
Regional
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
Set of VHL search strategies originally prepared by BIREME to support the definition of VHL thematic areas, health promotion campaigns and scientific studies, among other applications.
Anyone can access and use the search strategies to retrieve scientific and technical information in VHL, which includes over than 60 data bases in health.
Regional
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
LEYES is a regional database on legislation. It is produced by different institutions from the health and legislation areas which are part of LEYES Network and coordinated by HSS/HP fom PAHO/WHO. and BIREME/PAHO/WHO.
It has bibliographic references on health legislation from more than thiry countries from Latin America and Caribbean. In some case it also has the URL to access the full text of documents.
International
Mainly on Biology, Medicine, Genetics, Neglected and Tropical diseases and pathogens
PLOS was founded in 2001 as a nonprofit Open Access publisher, innovator and advocacy organization with a mission to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.
PLOS publishes a suite of peer-reviewed Open Access journals featuring quality research, expert commentary and critical analysis across all areas of science and medicine. Each journal is editorially independent and specialized with regard to both its selection criteria and breadth of content.
Regional
PAHO HQ, Country Offices and Centers (including the former ones)
International
WHO Regional Offices literature
International
UN bodies, documents and multimedia
Inter-American Bank of Development (Repository of Institutional Knowledge)
Regional Americas Region
BRIK, the Bank Repository of Institutional Knowledge, is the new home for all IDB knowledge products. These include books, working papers, technical notes, discussion papers, annual reports and many more.
For IDB members, BRIK provides single-point access to the knowledge products of the Bank. Employees no longer need to look in multiple places or depend on your network of contacts to find the knowledge the Bank's produces.
World Bank Repository (Open Knowledge Repository)
International
International
Regional
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
Regional/Ibero-American
SciELO Public Health is an electronic library online covering health science articles published by scientific journals. Its primary goal is to provide universal and integrated access to scientific journals in the health science area within Ibero-american countries.
SciELO Public Health library uses SciELO methodology which has been developed as a joint venture project by FAPESP - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo and BIREME - Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) is a specialized PAHO.
Format
International
Commonly in medicine and science. Main databases using this style are: PubMed and MEDLINE
The Vancouver Style is formally known as Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations). It was developed in Vancouver in 1978 by editors of medical journals and well over 1,000 medical journals (including ICMJE members BMJ, CMAJ, JAMA & NEJM) use this style.
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) offers guidance to authors in its publication Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations), which was formerly the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts. The recommended style for references is based on the National Information Standards Organization NISO Z39.29-2005 (R2010) Bibliographic References as adapted by the National Library of Medicine for its databases
International
Commonly in social science publications and most historical journals
Now in its 17th edition, The Chicago Manual of Style—with more than a thousand pages in print or more than two thousand hyperlinked paragraphs online—has become the authoritative reference work for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. This hundred-plus- year evolution has taken place under the ongoing stewardship of Chicago’s renowned editorial staff, aided by suggestions and requests from the Manual’s many readers.
Typically, Chicago style presents two basic documentation systems: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date. Choosing between the two often depends on subject matter and the nature of sources cited, as each system is favored by different groups of scholars.
International
Also used in Public Health and Medicine journals
Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style rules, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension.
It concerns uniform use of such elements as selection of headings, tone, and length, punctuation and abbreviations, presentation of numbers and statistics, construction of tables and figures, citation of references, and many other elements that are a part of a manuscript.
International / USA
Widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature
MLA (Modern Language Association) style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature. MLA style features brief parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of the work.
Works today are published in a dizzying range of formats. On the Web, modes of publication are regularly invented, combined, and modified. MLA style was updated in 2016 to meet the challenges facing today’s researchers. Itrecommends one universal set of guidelines that writers can apply to any type of source. Entries in the list of works cited are composed of facts common to most works—the MLA core
elements. Works are cited in the text with brief parenthetical citations keyed to the list of works cited.
Name
Coverage (scope)
Main characteristics
International
Good source for formatting bibliographies, finding full text, and searching for references
There is a free version (limited features) and paid version
International
Zotero is free software that helps you collect, cite, and share research
To learn how to use Zotero free version within PUBMED please contact libraryhq@paho.org (from personal laptops)
International
Regional
Public Health and priority issues of the Americas
Established in 1922, it is a peer reviewed, free and open access, which accepts paper written in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
The Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health (RPSP/PAJPH) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal, published as the flagship scientific and technical periodical publication by the Pan American Health Organization.
International health with a special focus on developing countries
International
Commonly used by Scientific Journal on Sciences, Medicine and Public Health
ICMJE developed these recommendations to review best practice and ethical standards in the conduct and reporting of research and other material published in medical journals, and to help authors, editors, and others involved in peer review and biomedical publishing create and distribute accurate, clear, reproducible, unbiased medical journal articles. The recommendations may also provide useful insights into the medical editing and publishing process for the media, patients and their families, and general readers.
Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research
International
The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network is an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines.
It is the first coordinated attempt to tackle the problems of inadequate reporting systematically and on a global scale; it advances the work done by individual groups over the last 15 years.
International
The main product of CONSORT is the CONSORT Statement, which is an evidence-based, minimum set of recommendations for reporting randomized trials. It offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial findings, facilitating their complete and transparent reporting, and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation.
The CONSORT Statement comprises a 25-item checklist and a flow diagram. The checklist items focus on reporting how the trial was designed, analyzed, and interpreted; the flow diagram displays the progress of all participants through the trial.
International
Commonly used by Scientific Journal on Sciences, Medicine and Public Health
STROBE stands for an international, collaborative initiative of epidemiologists, methodologists, statisticians, researchers and journal editors involved in the conduct and dissemination of observational studies.
The STROBE Statement is being endorsed by a growing number of biomedical journals.
International
Widely used by biomedical journals
The World Medical Association (WMA) has developed the Declaration of Helsinki as a statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, including research on identifiable human material and data.
The Declaration is intended to be read as a whole and each of its constituent paragraphs should be applied with consideration of all other relevant paragraphs.
Consistent with the mandate of the WMA, the Declaration is addressed primarily to physicians. The WMA encourages others who are involved in medical research involving human subjects to adopt these principles.
International
Countries with free access to Cochrane Library: ARG, BOL, ECU, GUY, PRY and SUR
Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, careers, and people interested in health.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) is the leading resource for systematic reviews in health care. The CDSR includes Cochrane Reviews (the systematic reviews) and protocols for Cochrane Reviews as well as editorials. The CDSR also has occasional supplements. The CDSR is updated regularly as Cochrane Reviews are published ‘when ready’ and form monthly issues; see publication schedule.
International
PAHO Staff interested on search in EMBASE please contact libraryhq@paho.org
For users looking for adverse drug events, drug efficacy studies, medical device and disease-related biomedical research information, Embase delivers immediate access to a range of intuitive search tools that help them find exact answers to their research questions quickly and easily.
•Uncover drug-disease relationships and drug-drug interactions – Discover more biomedical evidence by searching comprehensive, relevant and up-to- date biomedical research.
•Monitor literature for adverse events more efficiently – Adverse events are much easier and faster to identify using the world's most comprehensive biomedical literature database.
Regional
Latin America and the Caribbean Region
The trilingual and structured DeCS vocabulary- Health Sciences Subject Headings - was created by BIREME to be used in the indexing of scientific journals articles, books, congress proceedings, technical reports, and other types of materials, as well as for searching and retrieving subjects from scientific literature in LILACS, MEDLINE and other data bases.
International
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) is the NLM controlled vocabulary thesaurus used for indexing articles for PubMed
International/USA
Using Library of Congress Authorities, you can browse and view authority headings for Subject, Name, Title and Name/Title combinations; and download authority records in MARC format for use in a local library system. This service is offered free of charge.
Bibliographic databases such as LILACS and national databases of the Latin American countries following the VHL/LILACS model
LILACS methodology is a Virtual Health Library component and is composed by standards, manuals and softwares, which guide the identification, selection, bibliographic description, document indexing and databases development.
Currently, LILACS System is integrated by the following databases: LILACS, BBO, BDENF, MEDCARIB and national databases of the Latin American countries.
Bibliographic databases and scientific/institutional repositories
The word "metadata" means "data about data". Metadata articulates a context for objects of interest -- "resources" such as MP3 files, library books, or satellite images -- in the form of "resource descriptions".
As a tradition, resource description dates back to the earliest archives and library catalogs. The modern "metadata" field that gave rise to Dublin Core and other recent standards em
Bibliographic databases and scientific/institutional repositories
MARC 21 is the product of the integration of USMARC, UKMARC and CANMARC (Canadian MARC). It is the most extensively used MARC format in the world and a de facto standard. It has been designed to be both a production format and an exchange format. There are five MARC 21 formats: Bibliographic, Authorities, Holdings, Classification, and Community Information.
The current maintenance agency for MARC 21 is the Library of Congress.