[Scientific editors in Italy: identity, certification and roles.] / Editor scientifici in Italia: problemi di identità, certificazione e ruoli.

This study is developed as part of the activities of the Italian Chapter of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) with the aim to provide an overview of the Italian scientific publishing in biomedicine and highlight the need for professional training and certification. Even at European and international level, in fact, there is a general lack of training and accreditation programs for the certification of professional editors. After defining the editor's role (term that in the Italian language has a certain degree of ambiguity) and the different professionals involved in the publication process, the paper analyzes the biomedical production in Italy, reporting the results of a survey on professional associations, institutions, scientific societies, and others. Also reported are the results of a first hearing on views expressed by the publishers themselves. From this study the need of a constructive discussion with all stakeholders emerges not only to improve the quality of publications in the biomedical field, but also to enhance and recognize the editor's profession, both in Italy and in other countries.

[Mobile applications for the health sector: apps to support scientific information and medical practice]. / Iniziative "mobili" a supporto della salute: le app per l'informazione scientifica e la pratica medica.

The market of mobile applications (apps) and wireless technology infrastructures is rapidly widening and diversifying to better meet users' needs. Over the last few years, the use of mobile technologies and applications has been increasingly expanding in many professional fields. Research and academic institutions, hospitals, and drug companies are heavily investing in this sector, also in Italy, even though the offer seems to be still limited at the moment. As far as the industry of scientific publishing is concerned, the main Italian publishing groups show an increasing interest in developing apps aiming at spreading their own products, following the example of international publishing companies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the mobile applications and services available in the domain of scientific information relating to health disciplines and medical practice, especially within the Italian context. This study intends to inform professionals and users in the health sector about the benefits offered by the mobile technology, and to help them to become familiar with these tools. The two main online markets (iTunes and Google Play) have been analysed; search engines for apps and Italian STM publishers' websites have also been considered. Within this fast moving scenery, innovation is supported by the pressing demand for mobile access technology which has increased enormously. Not surprisingly, the most promising target of mobile technology is represented by scientific information tools relating to health.

Where on earth to publish? A sample survey comparing traditional and open access publishing in the oncological field.

BACKGROUND: The paper intends to help scientific authors to make the best choice of journals in which to publish, by describing and comparing journal features in the area of oncology. For this purpose, the authors identified impact factor (IF) ranking, cost options and copyright conditions offered to authors wishing to publish in full open access (OA), subscription-based or hybrid journals. METHODS: Data referring to articles published in 2010 by three Italian research institutions (National Institute of Health - Rome (ISS), Regina Elena National Cancer Institute - Rome (IRE), National Cancer Institute - Milan (INT) in journals (78) managed according to different business models, all listed in the Journal Citation Reports, subject category Oncology, were collected and analysed. The journals surveyed were ranked according to IF, position in quartiles, publication charges, usage rights in published articles, self-archiving conditions in OAI-compliant repositories digital archives. RESULTS: Almost half (34) the journals surveyed were included in the first quartile, thus revealing authors' preference for journals with a high IF. The prevalent journal business model was the hybrid formula (based on subscriptions but also offering a paid OA option) with 51 journals, followed by subscription-based only journals accounting for 22, while just 5 full OA journals were identified. In general, no relationship was found between IF and article publication charges, in terms of correspondence between more expensive fees and higher IF. CONCLUSIONS: The issue of OA journals as compared with traditional subscription-based journals is highly debated among stakeholders: library administrators facing financial restrictions, authors seeking to locate the best outlet for their research, publishers wishing to increase their revenues by offering journals with wider appeal. Against this background, factors such as the quest for alternatives to high-cost business models, investments in setting up institutional repositories hosting the published versions of articles and efforts to overcome copyright barriers and gain free access to scientific literature are all crucial.

Dissemination of public health information: key tools utilised by the NECOBELAC network in Europe and Latin America.

BACKGROUND: Open Access (OA) to scientific information is an important step forward in communication patterns, yet we still need to reinforce OA principles to promote a cultural change of traditional publishing practices. The advantages of free access to scientific information are even more evident in public health where knowledge is directly associated with human wellbeing. OBJECTIVES: An OA 'consolidation' initiative in public health is presented to show how the involvement of people and institutions is fundamental to create awareness on OA and promote a cultural change. This initiative is developed within the project NEtwork of COllaboration Between Europe and Latin American Caribbean countries (NECOBELAC), financed by the European Commission. METHODS: Three actions are envisaged: Capacity building through a flexible and sustainable training programme on scientific writing and OA publishing; creation of training tools based on semantic web technologies; development of a network of supporting institutions. RESULTS: In 2010-2011, 23 training initiatives were performed involving 856 participants from 15 countries; topic maps on scientific publication and OA were produced; 195 institutions are included in the network. CONCLUSIONS: Cultural change in scientific dissemination practices is a long process requiring a flexible approach and strong commitment by all stakeholders.

Science, institutional archives and open access: an overview and a pilot survey on the Italian cancer research institutions.

BACKGROUND: The Open Archive Initiative (OAI) refers to a movement started around the '90 s to guarantee free access to scientific information by removing the barriers to research results, especially those related to the ever increasing journal subscription prices. This new paradigm has reshaped the scholarly communication system and is closely connected to the build up of institutional repositories (IRs) conceived to the benefit of scientists and research bodies as a means to keep possession of their own literary production. The IRs are high-value tools which permit authors to gain visibility by enabling rapid access to scientific material (not only publications) thus increasing impact (citation rate) and permitting a multidimensional assessment of research findings. METHODS: A survey was conducted in March 2010 to mainly explore the managing system in use for archiving the research finding adopted by the Italian Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care (IRCCS) of the oncology area within the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN). They were asked to respond to a questionnaire intended to collect data about institutional archives, metadata formats and posting of full-text documents. The enquiry concerned also the perceived role of the institutional repository DSpace ISS, built up by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) and based on a XML scheme for encoding metadata. Such a repository aims at acting as a unique reference point for the biomedical information produced by the Italian research institutions. An in-depth analysis has also been performed on the collection of information material addressed to patients produced by the institutions surveyed. RESULTS: The survey respondents were 6 out of 9. The results reveal the use of different practices and standard among the institutions concerning: the type of documentation collected, the software adopted, the use and format of metadata and the conditions of accessibility to the IRs. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian research institutions in the field of oncology are moving the first steps towards the philosophy of OA. The main effort should be the implementation of common procedures also in order to connect scientific publications to researchers curricula. In this framework, an important effort is represented by the project of ISS aimed to set a common interface able to allow migration of data from partner institutions to the OA compliant repository DSpace ISS.

Scientific research on human subjects and ethics procedures at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità: a survey of the articles issued in 2001.

Principles promoting the protection of subjects involved in biomedical research are interpreted differently within the scientific community. The purpose of this paper is to describe the attitudes of researchers working at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) regarding the ethical implications of studies involving human beings, with particular emphasis on aspects concerning informed consent (IC) and ethics committee (EC) review. In 2001, ISS researchers published a total of 733 articles, 93 (12.7%) of which were studies involving human beings. Nearly 2/3 (60/93) were epidemiological, while the remaining 35.5% were based on laboratory data. Half (47/93) reported physical or psychological interventions or treatments on study subjects. 40.9% of articles mentioned that informed consent had been obtained and only 12.9% that approval had been given by an ethics committee. The low proportion of articles on which a protocol had been submitted the EC was due in part to the type of studies, but also to the absence of an institutional EC prior to 2001. Ethical procedures were more present in laboratory than in epidemiologic studies (IC: 69.7% vs 25.0%, p < 0.001) (EC: 27.3% vs 5.0% p = 0.004). Those differences were more likely due to the less interventionist nature of the epidemiologic studies rather than in poor ethical awareness on the part of epidemiologists. Further efforts are needed to develop and enforce clear institutional policies regarding ethical procedures.

[Italian Thesaurus of Bioethics, TIB]. / Thesaurus Italiano di Bioetica (TIB).

The article aims at illustrating the characteristics and functions of a monolingual thesaurus, focusing on the Italian Thesaurus of Bioethics (Thesaurus Italiano di Bioetica, TIB) the controlled vocabulary used to index and retrieve documents within SIBIL (Italian Online Bioethics Information System). TIB includes controlled terms (descriptors) translated from the Bioethics Thesaurus adopted by the Kennedy Institute of Ethics of the Georgetown University of Washington and revised according to the Italian context of study and scientific debate in the field of bioethics. The overall amount of TIB terms consists in over 1600 headings. Methods to link thesaurus terms hierarchically, by association and by showing synonyms as recommended in ISO standards are applied with reference to descriptors drawn from TIB. Future plans to make the English version of TIB available online within European networks are also illustrated, aiming at spreading information relating to bioethics at an international level.