Stewart Brower has launched the PubDrug wiki, as he said he would last week. From his blog post announcing the launch:
For the last several years, I've watched as the cost of drug resources has continued to escalate, reaching a point where even large-scale institutions like the University at Buffalo really cannot afford the licensing for the kinds of resources we need for our educational, clinical and research initiatives.
Yesterday, I conducted a public forum to announce the creation of PubDrug.org, an open access drug resource I hope to develop which would serve as an alternative to other high-dollar drug information sources. As I explained to the attendees, this is only the bare-bones beginning of PubDrug -- We will need to attract the interest of many others for this effort to be a success.
If you see the potential need for something like PubDrug, I would encourage you to take a moment to download my slides and read them over. I see roles for editors, contributors, and developers, and I'm sure there are many more roles I'm not thinking of.
I believe our three most immediate tasks to be:
Developing a robust template for drug monographs
Creating policies and procedures to guide site development without interfering with the viral nature of wiki-building
Recruiting lots of people to assist in building this resource
Again, I'm sure there's a lot I'm not thinking of. If you think this effort has merit, please contact me and let me know if you will be able to help....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/10/2006 12:13:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.