The topic of this Nature forum — the impact of the Web on the publishing of the results of original research — has, since the emergence of the Internet, filled volumes in the reports of conference proceedings and reams of individual articles. The main aim of this forum is to bring some of the substance of this Brownian motion of Internet issues to a broader grassroots audience and debate the implications for the future dissemination of scientific information. We have invited leading representatives of the main groups of stakeholders and observers from the mainstream Internet industries to express their views in 1,000-word articles. We hope to help identify some of the best opportunities offered by the Internet, and explore what the best public and private strategies might be, in economic and other terms, to ensure that science reaps the most benefits.
Useful Resources
The Nature Publishing Group is pleased to announce the launch of three new review journals: Nature Reviews Immunology and Nature Reviews Cancer will launch in October 2001 and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in January 2002 - ensuring that you receive high quality overviews whatever your discipline.
Medscape HIV/AIDS has posted a new overview of prescribing information, drug-drug interactions, and resistance data.
This is the first edition of the largest global listing of health information resource centres, with data pertaining to about 1,000 centres. The focus is on their missions and objectives, with particular reference to their attitudes to technology, and their capabilities and requirements. You may consult or download the entire Directory at the site, or just pick out letters of the alphabet to select countries that are of interest. The Directory is an ongoing work, and will be updated. We aim to refine the data, and invite all readers to suggest improvements and provide better information. There are questionnaires available on the site in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Swahili.