The new SciTopics is a free, online expert-generated knowledge-sharing service for the research community that offers scientific, technical, and medical knowledge on a variety of subjects. Designed to complement the traditional peer-review process, the site allows invited experts to develop topic pages offering research summaries with the content moderated through 14 subject editors to ensure high standards and relevancy. The easy-to-use, wikilike resource aims to give authors a platform to showcase their works and to facilitate scholarly debate.

Elsevier, a leading publisher of science and health information, developed SciTopics to offer authors a faster, more informal, dynamic, and interactive ways to publish their thinking on issues and highlight their research. The newly released tool takes advantage of the speed and interactivity of sharing information on the web, but it also addresses the problems of data overload and quality and accuracy of information. It leverages the fast-paced nature of the web, "while narrowing the scope of content and offering the peace of mind that comes with authoritative and moderated material."

SciTopics presents an expert summary on a topic with links to the latest, most relevant journal literature and web sources -- pulled together conveniently onto a single page, along with the opportunity for site members to post comments (here's a sample page on bioactive peptides). Using keywords selected by the author of the topic page, Elsevier provides links to the most recent and most cited published articles on the subject through Scopus, Elsevier's abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Keywords are also used to identify links to relevant web results and news through Scirus, Elsevier's science-specific search engine. These external links are updated each time the page is viewed.

Authors may also post a profile page that includes affiliation, contact details, and a list of his or her publications, providing more visibility for authors.  To become a SciTopics author, send a message to topics@scitopics.com.  For more information, visit the SciTopics FAQ page.

Source: Information Today