Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: The German Cochrane Centre (GCC) hosts and maintains its own web site for the German language speaking countries in Freiburg, Germany to provide information about the activities of the Cochrane Collaboration (CC) and about other important sources in the field of evidence-based medicine (EBM). At the beginning of 1997 we decided to mirror the international web site of the CC on our webserver. Since that time the German webserver has been installed as one of the international online resources of the Cochrane Collaboration. Objective: i. To analyse and visualise the access counts and growth rates of the German and the international CC web pages. ii. To derive potential improvements for the structure of the web site.
Methods: he GCC maintains its own webserver that is directly attached to the backbone of the German research network (Deutsches Forschungs-Netzwerk, DFN). This webserver is designed as 'state of the art' UNIX webserver (UNIX is one of the established, professional computer operating systems). The webserver software used is the 'Apache Webserver'. Since the launch of the web site in 1996 we have collected data concerning the use of the national and the mirrored international web site. The analysis of the available web access data was done in two ways: The log-files of the webserver were analysed by script language programs we developed for this purpose and also by using freely available software for analysing and visualising webserver statistics (Analog V 1.9). Graphics and plots were digitally produced by using commercial statistics software from Jandel Scientific Inc. (SigmaStat/ SigmaPlot).
Results: (preliminary) The German (Freiburg) webserver log-files of the years 1997 to 2000 were analysed. In this time frame we could observe continuous growth of the web access on the German and the international web pages of the CC exceeding 75.000 single page requests in May 2000. More specific results for particular pages or categories of pages will be presented. The results of this analysis will be presented as figures and charts.
Conclusions: The present data demonstrate that the web access on the German and the international web site is continuously growing. Especially the abstracts of published Cochrane systematic reviews become more and more frequently used sources of information. The Collaboration's web site is an important information and communication channel for internal and external use. There is an obvious need for providing CC web pages on 'high end' webservers on strategic locations spread over the world. The redesign of the Collaboration web pages to provide advanced search functions and to make them better structured and easier to use for people who are new to the Cochrane Collaboration would further enhance the existing impact of the international web site on the scientific output of the Collaboration.
Methods: he GCC maintains its own webserver that is directly attached to the backbone of the German research network (Deutsches Forschungs-Netzwerk, DFN). This webserver is designed as 'state of the art' UNIX webserver (UNIX is one of the established, professional computer operating systems). The webserver software used is the 'Apache Webserver'. Since the launch of the web site in 1996 we have collected data concerning the use of the national and the mirrored international web site. The analysis of the available web access data was done in two ways: The log-files of the webserver were analysed by script language programs we developed for this purpose and also by using freely available software for analysing and visualising webserver statistics (Analog V 1.9). Graphics and plots were digitally produced by using commercial statistics software from Jandel Scientific Inc. (SigmaStat/ SigmaPlot).
Results: (preliminary) The German (Freiburg) webserver log-files of the years 1997 to 2000 were analysed. In this time frame we could observe continuous growth of the web access on the German and the international web pages of the CC exceeding 75.000 single page requests in May 2000. More specific results for particular pages or categories of pages will be presented. The results of this analysis will be presented as figures and charts.
Conclusions: The present data demonstrate that the web access on the German and the international web site is continuously growing. Especially the abstracts of published Cochrane systematic reviews become more and more frequently used sources of information. The Collaboration's web site is an important information and communication channel for internal and external use. There is an obvious need for providing CC web pages on 'high end' webservers on strategic locations spread over the world. The redesign of the Collaboration web pages to provide advanced search functions and to make them better structured and easier to use for people who are new to the Cochrane Collaboration would further enhance the existing impact of the international web site on the scientific output of the Collaboration.