Types of content organized in the Sources of Information

At the VHL, scientific and technical publications are organized in databases used for the bibliographic control of the scientific and technical production on health of the LA&C countries. The bibliographic databases are composed of references of several types of documents, such as journal articles, books, theses, papers presented at scientific events, technical and scientific reports, projects, and other non-conventional documents.

LILACS - Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature is the main database of scientific and technical production in the field of health published in Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as the main source of information for the VHL. LILACS is coordinated by BIREME and has the collaboration of the cooperating centers that integrate LILACS Network.

Moreover, the institutions of the VHL Network can, in a decentralized manner, create specialized databases on topics of interest to the field of health. These databases not only use the LILACS Methodology but also complement the LILACS database. In these cases, the coordinating institution of the database if responsible for defining the scope of the database, establishing the operation flows and updating.

LILACS and other bibliographic databases of the VHL are operated through a system of Administration of VHL Sources of Information (FI-Admin) using the LILACS Methodology.

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About the LILACS Methodology: http://red.bvsalud.org/lilacs/en/
LILACS Portal: http://lilacs.bvsalud.org/

Data on the scientific journals and collections of journals in the Network libraries are made available at the VHL through the source of information Portal of Scientific Journals of Health Sciences, which registers and organizes collections of serial publications, allowing the creation of a collective catalogue of the VHL Network libraries. This catalogue contains the bibliographic description of journal titles (title, ISSN, publisher, city, periodicity, etc.), and information on the availability and access to the full text in electronic format of the journals, contributing to the visibility and access to the full texts of the articles, in addition to promoting the rationalization of resources among the entire Network.

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About the Portal of Scientific Journals of Health, access: http://red.bvsalud.org/en/secs-serials-in-health-sciences/

Scientific events such as congresses, seminars, conferences, and symposia are registered in the Health Sciences Events Directory. The main objective of this source of information is to report scientific events in the field of health, presenting basic information about them to promote the exchange of knowledge among professionals and specialists on updated themes and ongoing research.

The VHL Events Directory is operated through the FI-Admin system and the DirEve methodology.

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About the DirEve Methodology, visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/en/direve-science-health-events-directory/

The Legislation at the VHL is provided in a source of information called LEYES - Latin American and Caribbean Basic Health Legislation. LEYES is a regional thematic database produced in a network by institutions in the areas of legislation and health that contains the references of the legislation in health and may also contain the full text or link to it.

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The LEYES database is operated by means of an FI-Admin application, from the LeisRef methodology and data interoperability processes.

Regarding the LeisRef Methodology, visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/en/leyes-health-legislation/ 

Contents such as Questions and Answers (known by the acronym FAQs, Frequently Asked Questions) are registered at the VHL following the model of the source of information originated from the Programa Telessaúde Brasil Redes, called Formative Second Opinion - SOF. Currently, this source is exclusive for Primary Health Care (PHC) themes, in Portuguese, and contextualized to the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).

The questions are questions from family health teams, which were previously answered based on the best evidence, by the Teleconsulting service of the Programa Telessaúde Brasil Redes. The answers are adapted and formatted as a source of information, based on teleconsultations selected for their relevance and pertinence to PHC topics in SUS.

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The SOF is available at the instance VHL APS do Brazil < https://aps.bvs.br/ > and integrated to the regional VHL index. 

About the SOF, visit: https://aps.bvs.br/segunda-opiniao-formativa/

At the VHL, the educational materials and contents, such as courses (complete or in part), support materials, software (for the creation, registration, and organization of educational resources and for the development of online learning communities), and implementation resources, like intellectual property licenses, among others, are provided at the VHL through Educational Resources Repositories.

From the production and organization of this type of content by the LA&C countries, they are gathered and offered, freely and openly, at the portal of the Open Educational Resources Repository Network CVSP/BVS, available at https://sites.bvsalud.org/rea/en/.

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About this initiative, visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/en/educational-resources/

Internet resources, such as websites, portals, blogs, databases, repositories, and other types of resources with information on health are organized in a catalogue called LIS - Health Information Locator.

The main objective of LIS is to provide quick visibility and access to scientific, technical, and factual information on Internet resources. With content evaluated according to quality criteria, the LIS complements the flow of scientific communication with non-conventional materials, which are generally not published in scientific communication channels or should only be published after a validation period.

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The LIS at the VHL is operated through the FI-Admin system and the LIS Methodology. For further information, visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/en/lis-health-information-locator-in-english/

Images, videos, and presentations published on the Internet and freely accessible produced by the VHL network and/or on themes that make up the scope of the VHL activities are offered at the VHL through the source of information Multimedia Resources Catalogue. The Multimedia methodology is an adaptation of the LILACS Methodology with fewer fields and unfolded others to provide a better description of the specific characteristics of this type of publication.

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The multimedia resources are registered through the FI-Admin system and the Multimedia for WordPress plug-in, using the LILACS Methodology.

For further information please visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/es/multimidia/

Testimonials, reports of relevant situations and cases that can serve as reference and lessons learned for managers and health professionals are made available at the VHL through the source of information Reports of Experiences. Through this, it is possible to provide and integrate different formats of complementary narratives: a main text that contextualizes the central axis in question, videos of testimonials from managers who share their experience at the head of the project, photos and a content selected to go more in-depth into the material.

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For additional information, visit: http://red.bvsalud.org/relatos-de-experiencias/

Bibliographic search strategies contribute to the development of systematic reviews, definition of health policies, situation analysis, production of evidence maps, infometrics, definition of thematic structure for a VHL Network Instance, construction of research filters, among other applications.

For this reason, search strategies prepared by specialists for the retrieval of information on different themes at the VHL and other sources of information are made available in the Repository of Search Strategies https://bvsalud.org/queries. This repository has the following objectives:

• To give visibility to the search strategies elaborated by the VHL Referral Professionals Network, in different health themes;
• To enable the reuse of searches by different audiences, in different places and contexts; and
• To promote the cooperation and contribution among members of the VHL network, associated networks, and specialists for the updating of published search strategies, and the publication of new strategies in different information contents.

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About Search Strategies as an information resource at the VHL: http://red.bvsalud.org/refnet/