Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, July 19, 2004

Copyright 2004 Manisses Communications Group, Inc. 
Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, July 19, 2004
SECTION: No. 27, Vol. 16; Pg. 1; ISSN: 1042-1394
HEADLINE: Despite protests from researchers, NIAAA discontinues online research database; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

BODY:
 The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) discontinued its comprehensive online resource database, despite past year efforts by alcohol researchers, librarians and other constituents to persuade officials to reconsider their decision.
 However, officials from Cornell University have contacted NIAAA about the possibility of maintaining and continuing the database.
 The Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Science Database, commonly referred to as ETOH, will be retained as an archival source with links to other databases, journals and websites on alcohol research and related topics, according to NIAAA.
 ETOH contains more than 130,000 records and is valued for its multidisciplinary coverage of the universe of alcohol research. The ETOH database is available free to the public and is relied on by researchers, policymakers and advocates in the alcohol field worldwide, many of whom refer to the database as "one-stop shopping."
 NIAAA discontinued updating ETOH because of what it considered a duplication of effort. The ETOH database was last updated in December 2003. The decision to discontinue ETOH prompted an outcry from alcohol researchers, many of whom have written letters urging NIAAA to reconsider (see ADAW, Jan. 19).
 The ETOH database "is there for archival purposes," Diane Miller, chief of the Communications and Public Liaison branch at NIAAA, told ADAW. "It's just not being updated anymore. The overriding reason for the discontinuation was duplication of effort. Costs certainly came into it, but it was not the deciding factor."
 An internal review of the ETOH database revealed that many of the entries included in the monthly ETOH updates are redundant with materials in other databases, including the National Library of Medicine's PubMed, the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI), PsychoINFO, and the Institute for Science Information, said Miller.
 A subcommittee of the National Advisory Council of NIAAA reviewed the internal study and recommended to NIAAA Director Ting-Kai Li, M.D. that ETOH remain on the NIAAA website as an archival, searchable database and that instead of updating ETOH, NIAAA link users to relevant information via a new ETOH web page, said Miller.
 The new site, http:// ETOH.niaaa.nih.gov, has two main sections: one section provides links to current materials through PubMed, pre-programmed PubMed search strategies that generate alcohol-related citations from all relevant fields, NCADI's database, other alcohol and drug databases and websites, and scientific journals.
 The second section provides links to the ETOH archival database, which includes information from 1972 through December 2003, the ETOH Search Guide, basic and advanced searches, and the AOD (Alcohol and other Drug) Thesaurus. The new website became available in time for the RSA (Research Society on Alcoholism) meeting in June, during which time NIAAA demonstrated the site, said Miller.
 According to Miller, officials at the Smithers Institute at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University have contacted NIAAA about maintaining ETOH. "They are exploring the possibility of continuing ETOH, partially or entirely," said Miller. "No decision has been made yet. They're doing a feasibility study."
 Researchers disappointed
 The executive director of the international association Substance Abuse Librarians & Information Specialists (SALIS), told ADAW that researchers and librarians had hoped to persuade the NIAAA to reconsider its decision to discontinue the ETOH database.
 Andrea L. Mitchell said representatives from SALIS had attended an NIAAA Advisory Council Meeting in May to participate in an informed discussion of ETOH's future. During that meeting, they had been informed that a decision to replace ETOH with a web page--a compilation of links to general academic and other databases which index alcohol literature--had been confirmed a week earlier.
 "We wanted ETOH to stay alive [but] it was a done deal," said Mitchell. "We're not happy with the decision NIAAA made to cut the database. We were hoping they would reconsider."
 Mitchell said researchers and librarians had conducted a campaign to keep the ETOH database running by sending letters to NIAAA officials protesting the decision. Mitchell said letters of concern regarding the NIAAA's decision had been sent to 300 constituents via e-mail. Also, more than 50 letters had been sent to Ting-Kai Li, said Mitchell. Editors in the field had also written letters to U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, said Mitchell.
 Letters about ETOH as an important resource to researchers had also been sent to Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R.-Fla.), chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the Housed Energy and Commerce Committee, said Mitchell.
 SALIS released a position paper and another document regarding ETOH's value and economic implications of its discontinuation. Both papers had been prepared for the NIAAA's advisory board meetings held earlier this year.
 In the position paper outlining the value of the ETOH database, SALIS said ETOH "is a unique and irreplaceable resource in the alcohol field and exemplifies the premier status of NIAAA as a world center of alcohol research. ETOH ensures a solid knowledge base for policymaking, prevention and treatment planning, and dissemination of research results."
 While acknowledging that the document about the economic impact of ETOH was prepared with limited access to budget information and other data, SALIS said the annual cost of producing ETOH ($ 0.4 million) is less than 0.1 percent of the total NIAAA budget of $ 430 million.
 Miller said she was disappointed SALIS and other constituents had no input into NIAAA's decision. "We had requested the evaluation on which they based their decision," said Mitchell. "To this day we never received it."
 Although the ETOH site will provide other links for alcohol researchers, Mitchell remains adamant that the database is not an adequate substitute. "There is no comparison between PubMed and ETOH," said Mitchell. "If ETOH goes down, it will be a big headache for those of us on the frontline [of research]. It means going to all these other databases. PubMed indexing isn't as good."
 If you know the article and title of a publication, it would not be difficult to search PubMed, said Mitchell. However, with "subject searching, you've got a problem," said Mitchell. "They're not as good as ETOH [which] has all the terminology in the field. Other databases all have their own terminology. It's a real pain."
 Miller added, "With ETOH, researching is so much easier. You're more likely to connect to a closer hit." Some of the different databases are proprietary, said Mitchell. When you click on to the databases in some countries, they're going to ask for your password, she noted.
 "We're always hoping that NIAAA changes its mind," said Mitchell. "We would love it if NIAAA, looking at how many responses they received, would say, 'Maybe we ought to think about this.'"