Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Importance of access to biomedical information for researchers in research groups of molecular medicine Annikki Roos Turid Hedlund Swedish School of Economics and B.A. Helsinki, Finland

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Contents Background Motivation for the choice of MM Biomedicine – molecular medicine Information environment Case study and survey results Conclusions

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna We asume that Disciplines have differencies –In research traditions –In research processes –In publishing practices –In information environments It is profitable to understand the nature of a discipline

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Molecular medicine (MM) A sub-discipline of biomedicine Biomedicine + molecular biology (biochemistry + cell biology + virology + genetics) Studies biological processes and mechanisms of diseases Usage of the molecular and genetic techniques

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Why MM? Because –The huge amount of information –Variety of information objects and tools –Tehnology driven, expensive –Tradition and need for sharing data and working globally -> Possibilities and challenges for open access -> supports progress in MM

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Information environment Data Metadata Databases Documents –Published –Unpublished Programs and tools

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna The nature of information objects DataDocumentsTools NumberExpanding HomogenityLack of harmonizat ion CompatibleDivergent StabilityChangingStableChanging OpennessMainly shared & open Mainly restricted Open as well as restricted

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Information access Activities –Seek, Retrieve, Search –Use Analyze Combine Compare Filter –Interact, share, disseminate –Manage store

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Methods used in the case study Study object: Finnish research unit in MM Survey sent to about 80 researchers in the unit Answers recieved from 63 or 75% of the researchers Questions asked about the information environment, used sources, present research projects and work tasks

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Results from the case study : The most useful resource Juniors 1.PubMed 2.UCSC Genome Browser 3.Google Seniors 1.PubMed 2.Google 3.UCSC Genome Browser

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Results regarding the use of information sources 53 % of researchers use dominantly articles 23 % do not follow particular titles 91 % had used research databases during their current project 43 data resources 67 tools

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Results: The most popular databases and tools The NCBI and Entrez databases UCSC Genome Browser In general: proteomics and sequence databases Primer3 (a PCR primer designer tool)

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna 1. working in the laboratory 2. searching information from literature databases or other sources 3. reading literature 4. writing an article or a report 5. searching data from data collections/databases 6. scientific computing 7. developing of programs or other tools 8. planning (e.g. a new project) 9. research administration 10. other Results: Current work tasks %

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Publishing strategy of scientific articles for the coming year Group leaders100 % minimum 1 article as main author (1 & 2 or last) Senior Researchers100 % minimum 1 article as main author Post doc83,3 % minimun 2 articles as main author Doct.students88 % minimum 1 article as main author Graduate stud.73,3 % minimum 1 article as main author

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Top Journals with most suitable scope of publishing Journal titleNumber of nominationsImpact factor the journal Nature genetics Human molecular genetics Molecular psychiatry American journal of human genetics European journal of human genetics Nature

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Conclusions Various data resources and tools Use of these resouses is an integral part of research in MM Strong reliance on traditional journals

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Research process in the information environment

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna RESEARCH PROCESS Research process in the prevailing information environment

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna Some future requirements Homogenization of data Homogenization of concepts More integration btw data and other i- objects Integration between databases Software integration (tools) Metainformation about bioinformatics resources Open information environment

Annikki Roos & Turid Hedlund ELPUB 2007 Vienna …would lead to acceleration of the research process new inventions new knowledge