[Insight-users] IMAGINE... "THE INSIGHT JOU"

[Luis Ibanez]

WYSITOTYG:

    What you See (in a traditional Journal)
    is the Only thing you Get...


-----------------------

FROM:
The Scientist
Volume 18 | Issue 4 | 10 | Mar. 1, 2004
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/mar/letters1_040301.html

Publishing research in a journal usually archives minimal qualitative
and quantitative amounts of an experimental record. Yan Sun emphasized
the importance of keeping research data for future personal discoveries.
(1) These behaviors limit access to research data. The following
experiences illustrate the societal needs for permanent institutional
archiving.

A report of ultraviolet (UV)-A protection of 18 UV-A light sensitive
patients (2) and a review of its unpublished study records revealed an
unrecognized sunburn (Ultra-B) protection for this relatively large
group of patients over a 7-month clinical trial with repeated, nightly,
separate use on their skin of dihydroxyacetone, followed by lawsone, to
maintain their storage stability to chemically produce keratin-fixed
melanoidins. A 1969 report(3) showed minimal UV-B protection with the
same drugs but with a chemically unstable mixture used in a US Army
restricted study(4) of a small group of four subjects in a 3-day test
trial. A release of the latter's archive revealed the trial used
degenerated medications, applied them erroneously in two subjects just
prior to sun exposure, and combined both results inappropriately for
comparison(2) with a PABA sunscreen. A calculation of the comparison
results showed no statistically significant difference in UV-B protection.

The purposes of universities are to generate, store, and disseminate
knowledge. Institutional archiving of all faculty research data allows
proper cataloging and preservation for future analyses. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a DSpace
institutional repository system (www.DSpace.org) that is a useful
computer storage model for universities. Permanent institutional
repositories(5) are collab-orations among faculties, librarians,
information technologists, archive/record managers, and university
administrators. Recent knowledge may verify, negate, and change
published research results; how-ever, institutional archiving allows
cost-effective monitoring and/or reviewing by other scientists to
provide possible new useful information for society.

Ramon M. Fusaro
Dept. of Preventive Medicine, Creighton University Medical Center
Dept. of Medicine,
Nebraska University
rmfusaro at creighton.edu

James A. Bothmer
Director,
Health Science Library

Susan E. Puumala
Dept. of Preventive and Societal Medicine


References

1. Y.Sun, "To toss or to archive," The Scientist, 17[23]:10, Dec. 1, 2003.

2. E.G. Rice, "Dihydroxyacetone naphthoquinone protection against
photosensitivity," Dermatologica, 153:38-43, 1976.

3. N Engl J Med, 280:1459-63, 1969.

4. Contract No. DA49-092-ARO-85, Army Research Office, Arlington, VA. 1968.

5. Lynch, Clifford A. "Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure
for Scholarship in the Digital Age" ARL, no. 226 (February 2003): 1-7.
<http://www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html>.  www.arl.org/newsltr/226/ir.html.

6. Atkins, Daniel E., et al., "Revolutionizing Science and Engineering
through Cyberinfrastructure: Report of the National Science Foundation
Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure," January 2003,
<http://www.communitytechnology.org/nsf_ci_report/>.