CTSpedia: The Knowledge Base for Clinical and Translational Research

Welcome to the CTSpedia.

The CTSpedia is a collaborative vehicle for the CTSA's Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research/Design (BERD) Online Resources and Education taskforce to identify and share resources across the national consortium and community researchers world-wide. With the support of the national BERD consortia, the project obtained funding and support from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) to expand the original scope and content of CTSpedia and foster collaboration amongst CTSAs. For more information about the history and goals of the CTSpedia see About Us.

As a wiki, the project develops through the collaboration and commitment of the users. The wiki structure is a flexible environment that allows all users to share and update the information. Let me give you a short tour of this environment. The wiki is composed of one or more webs. In this case, the public webs (on the right bar) are:

• BERD Consortia - Web designed for BERD collaborative work development.
• CTSpedia - This is the primary web and entrance to CTSpedia projects and it includes Research Topics, Articles, and Statistical Tools.
• Forum - This web contains the Ask the Experts section, which is also a topic in the CTSpedia web.
• Main - This web contains site maps and user information.
• Ontology Mapper - This web is in development and will provide conversion of local data into standard data encodings.
• Research Ethics - This web contains educational materials on the Responsible Conduct of Research collected by the Clinical Research Ethics Educational Materials group.
• Sandbox - This web offers users a space to try out and test the development of new materials.
• System - This web contains information about Foswiki, the operating system.

Most of the time you will be navigating in the CTSpedia web. The top bar in the CTSpedia web contains topics or sections of the CTSpedia:

• Research Topics - List of research topics commonly found in clinical research.
• Articles - Articles of interest to clinical reserachers.
• Ask the Experts - Answers to specific clinical research questions.
• Links and Resources - Lists of CTSAs and other external resources.
• About Us - Goals of the CTSpedia.