By IANS
Beijing : A web portal to help people identify and use vital information related to tropical diseases has been launched at Forum 11, the annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research.
TropIKA.net, run by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), will provide free information chosen by experts for practical use in infectious disease studies, science portal scidev.net reported.
“It works as a window reflecting what’s going on in this field,” Robert G. Ridley, director of TDR, said Wednesday at the launch event.
Ridley said that increased funding for tropical diseases, along with open-access efforts from publishers and research institutes, has led to large amounts of available information but this is often dispersed across various sources and offers inconsistent conclusions.
At TropIKA.net, leading experts in the field are invited to analyse scientific literature to provide clear information of its worth to researchers in developing countries for their work in tropical diseases.
The website also provides facilities for researchers to exchange their views and collects and classifies literature into topics to form a larger library of specific research areas.
Besides academic literature, the TropIKa.net website also provides overviews of infectious diseases, news, commissioned reviews on key issues in the field, and scientific and strategic policy briefs.
“Unlike an academic search engine, our portal is unique in having strong backup support from top researchers in the field, helping build up a community of people involved in the field of infectious diseases,” Ridley said.