The increasing interest for bioethical issues connected with biomedical research and scientific discoveries brings about a great demand for an easy and feasible access to information on this matter. Access to reliable and up-to-date information is essential for participation in ethical debates concerning life sciences, taking place at a national, European and international level.
In this context the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) in 2001 launched a research project aiming at the creation of a website entirely devoted to bioethical information, through the joint work of bioethics experts, physicians and information professionals. The site is called SIBIL (Sistema Informativo per la Bioetica In Linea – Online Bioethics Information System) and it is available at the URL www.sibil.iss.it.
The site provides an updated overview of informative resources and educational activities in the field of bioethics, with links to the main sources of information.
SIBIL core is represented by the homonymous database, searchable through Italian, English and French interfaces, recording and indexing all bioethical literature produced in Italy since 1995 (www.bioetica.iss.it ).
References are drawn from journal articles, monographs, ethical committees opinions, ethical guidelines, grey literature, laws and regulations (most of them in full-text), relevant international legislation and electronic resources as well. Indexing is based on an internally developed thesaurus, including over 1500 terms: an English translation of the Italian descriptors and relevant scope notes is under way.
A survey of advanced informative resources in the different European countries was carried out in the SIBIL project framework. The establishment of contacts with the leading institutions in this field, lead to the idea of promoting a network of networks connecting the already existing resources. This integrated multilingual system will be an information tool, linking together the major European documentation centres on bioethics.
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