Resources Top 400,000 in Hopkins International Information Service

One Source Database Includes Research From Around the World, Supports Public Health Abroad

BALTIMORE, March 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An information service containing thousands of scientific articles by African and Asian health researchers, among others, has topped 400,000 resources, announced the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs. The new total makes the service one of the largest of its kind.

The service called One Source (http://www.infoforhealth.org/onesource.shtml) is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Over twenty years in the making, One Source helps researchers of public health problems in low-resource settings find a variety of materials on a topic -- reports, images, news articles, and web sites, among others. Many databases favored by researchers include only journal articles.

"One Source goes beyond the typical scientific databases that have mostly journal articles by U.S. and European scholars," said Earle Lawrence, INFO Project Director at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs. "The real gems of information often are in unpublished documents written by experts in the countries where the public health issues exist. We include those documents in One Source."

Topics covered in One Source include HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and family planning and related reproductive health issues.

The search feature of One Source lets users find distinct types of information and then save items they want to order in a shopping basket, and get documents delivered electronically or by postal mail.

Users living in developing countries can request copies of documents for free. The free document delivery service fills an information gap in regions without reliable Internet access or libraries.

With representatives in more than 30 countries, CCP partners with organizations worldwide to design and implement strategic communication programs that influence political dialogue, collective action, and individual behavior change; enhance access to information and the exchange of knowledge to improve health and health care; and conduct research to guide program design, evaluate impact, and advance knowledge and practice in health communication.