Internet Reviews

Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, email: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, email: cdrost@willamette.edu

Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP). Access: http://ceepr.mit.edu.

Based at MIT, the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR) was established in 1977. With cosponsorship by the MIT Energy Initiative, MIT’s Department of Economics, and the Sloan School of Management, CEEPR receives federal and state funding as well as corporate contributions. Most research funding comes from “unrestricted contributions,” giving authors independence in their research decisions and output.

Focusing on topics relating to energy and environmental policy, CEEPR publishes working papers authored by MIT faculty and research affiliates. The list of external research affiliates includes faculty and researchers from European and U.S. universities and organizations. A disclaimer explains that working papers are not subjected to a selection process upon submission but are made available with the intent to “enable timely consideration and reaction to energy and environmental policy research.” Full content of working papers from the last six months is available to registered associates only, but older papers are freely available for download. Associate status is granted to members of the private and public sector who provide support to CEEPR. CEEPR’s site also features reprints, primarily from journals, with full text available as copyright permits. Reports of the MIT Energy Initiative, MIT’s research and education “hub,” may be downloaded as well.

CEEPR’s landing page makes it easy to discover new content, as it prominently features new working papers via a slideshow with compelling images and brief synopses. A news scroll highlights recent publications and events. The top menu serves as a clear navigation aid to browse publications, news, and information about the Center. The site is fully responsive, making browsing and reading easy on a smartphone or tablet. The main search box does not allow for keyword input, but provides a topic menu. Navigating to each topic page using this menu provides a full list of publications for that topic, with keyword filtering available within that set of results. No additional search options are available.

Despite the lack of peer review, CEEPR working papers are authored by faculty and research specialists with impressive professional and academic qualifications. While sitewide keyword searching is not available, the options for browsing and keyword filtering help with the targeting of relevant resources. As a resource for research in the fields of energy and environmental policy, CEEPR’s website is a good recommendation for graduate students and faculty.—Ann Flower, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, aflower@miis.edu

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Access: https://www.ifpri.org/.

IFPRI is a U.S.-based think tank. Established in 1975, the focus is on solutions to “sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition.” IFPRI identifies five key research areas: fostering climate-resilient and sustainable food supply; promoting healthy diets and nutrition for all; building inclusive and efficient markets, trade systems, and food industry; transforming agricultural and rural economies; and strengthening institutions and governance.

The site’s search tool enables users to perform a keyword search and filter by nine material types/formats, including journal article, which may be most useful for college research assignments. Designed to quickly identify key information in the returned results, the title, material type, and date are prominently displayed and color-coded on the results page. For each result there is a link to the published article. Although accessing the full text on the journal publisher’s site through this link may require an institutional subscription, IFPRI notes when content is open access.

IFPRI highlights current research through the use of newsletters, blogs, active social media accounts, videos, and, most notably, a new monthly podcast where IFPRI researchers discuss their recent work. The podcast provides an additional learning opportunity for students because it examines the research questions, methodology, and challenges behind the finished products.

Because of the multidisciplinary approach and large organization size (more than 600 employees working in more than 50 countries) this resource is potentially useful to many fields: development studies, economics, food studies, public health, environmental studies, and public policy. In addition, when discussing the five strategic research areas that guide their work, IFPRI notes that each area “considers gender within all research questions and throughout the research process,” so it may be of interest in gender studies.

Advanced researchers, such as graduate students and faculty, will find value in the fact that the IFPRI’s datasets are shared through an online open access repository, Harvard Dataverse. According to IFPRI’s Research Data Management and Open Access Policy, “IFPRI views the products of its research as international public goods and is committed to enabling their widespread distribution and use by providing unrestricted public access.” —Lucy Rosenbloom, Loyola University New Orleans, lrosen@loyno.edu

Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Science Information (LILACS). Access: https://lilacs.bvsalud.org/en/.

The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Science Information, also known as Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciencias da Saude (LILACS), is an impressive, high-quality, and comprehensive regional collection of health science literature that pertains specifically to the Latin American and Caribbean communities. The main health topics covered by this resource are medical (nursing), dentistry, and psychology. There appears to be good representation of literature in each field of study.

Most of the website can be viewed in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French. Each document contains equivalent information in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, such as research objectives, methods, results, conclusion, abstract, and a link to full text if available.

What makes LILACS different is that the majority of the literature is available in Portuguese (390,000 documents) and Spanish (380,000 documents), with a minority of English literature (160,000 documents), French, and other languages. There is a strong emphasis on current literature. More than one third of the content has been published within the last ten years, and everything has been published within the last 34 years. In addition, more than half of the 900,000 documents are available in full-text.

While articles make up the majority of the collection, it also includes a large amount of technical reports, government publications, dissertations and theses, and guidelines. Clinical studies are also highlighted on the homepage for quick access, and results can be limited to specific types of study like systematic reviews, case-controlled studies, and cohort studies. Researchers can also create an account, which allows them to save documents from LILACS in one convenient location.

LILACS is maintained by a network of educational, research, government, and health institutions. It also collaborates with the Virtual Health Library. Researchers interested in Latin American and Caribbean health sciences, particularly in the areas of medicine, dentistry, and psychology, will find this resource useful.— John Repplinger, Willamette University, jrepplin@willamette.edu