Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter vol
81 2007
University of Guelph
We have developed a searchable database, online at www.MaizeLink.org, linking maize experts with their colleagues from around the world. Developed at the University of Guelph, the aim of MaizeLink.org is to provide an online environment where researchers can share their challenges, questions and resources with other researchers across sub-disciplines.
MaizeLink.org provides a very easy to use searchable interface to access researcher information from 80 sub-disciplines, including molecular genomics, abiotic stress, agronomy, breeding, ecology, food safety, nutrition, plant disease, agribusiness and social issues. Users have the ability to search by name, institution, country, research keyword or area of technical expertise. Alternatively, users may browse by research subject area. Query results consist of a researcher list linking to individual profile pages. A profile page contains the following customized information, some of which is entered into the database by researchers at the time of registration:
�researcher contact details
�a summary of a researcher's key challenges
�a summary of the researcher's interests
�links to the best introductory publications or URLs in the researcher's area of interest or technical expertise
�links to a researcher's favorite URLs
�links to useful technical protocols
In addition, a query auto-generates the following information:
�links to researcher publications in popular databases (e.g., PubMed, Agricola, MaizeGDB)
�links to researcher patents (e.g., U.S., European, Japanese and worldwide patent databases)
�researcher grant abstracts from around the world
MaizeLink.org integrates a bulletin board, a forum to post messages or questions and exchange information online. The bulletin board is completely searchable. Our objective is to make the MaizeLink bulletin board the central communication portal for the world's maize research community by pooling expertise from diverse sub-disciplines.
MaizeLink also includes LifeSciLink, a function that provides access to publications, patents and grant abstracts for all researchers in the life sciences, not only those registered in MaizeLink. A user simply enters a researcher's name, and the system automatically searches a collection of public databases from around the world, returning results on a single page. This functionality is also available separately at http://www.LifeSciLink.org.
In addition, MaizeLink incorporates EquipmentLink, a place for researchers to donate and seek equipment and materials to/from other researchers and educators around the world. The infrastructure required to perform research can be expensive, especially for researchers in developing nations. We hope that EquipmentLink will help to meet this challenge.
Over the coming months, MaizeLink.org will grow to include at least 20 major crops and research model systems, part of the CropLink Global Initiative. Our goal is to make CropLink into the world's most comprehensive online researcher-to-researcher portal for plant science and agriculture.
All of these databases are publicly accessible, and registration is not required to conduct searches. An effort has been made to include Open Source journal databases. Having a customized profile page does require registration, but is open to all graduate students, research fellows and associates, faculty, and private sector scientists with a shared interest in maize. Because many researchers, particularly in the developing world, do not have a webpage/lab page, the profile page is an attempt to provide a basic, free website for all of the world's agricultural researchers. All of our databases are secure and designed to prevent third-party users from sending batch Spam emails. MaizeLink.org is a nonprofit initiative intended solely for research purposes.
We must feed more people in the next 40 years than we have in the last 10,000 years combined. This great challenge will require more extensive collaboration between researchers across diverse crops, subdisciplines and nations. It is our hope that MaizeLink, CropLink, LifeSciLink and EquipmentLink will be useful tools in this endeavor.
Please Note: Notes
submitted to the Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter may be cited only with
consent of authors.