The circumpolar health movement comes full circle. Part I: Historical relevance of the proceedings of the International Congresses on Circumpolar Health.
OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the course of the International Congress on Circumpolar Health (ICCH) Proceedings in the context of the concomitant historical events. Make recommendations for future circumpolar health research.


METHODS
Medline search and historical archive search of International Congress on Circumpolar Health Proceedings.


METHODS
Search of all PubMed resources from 1966 concerning the circumpolar health movement. Two University of Alaska, Anchorage Archive Collections were searched: the C. E. Albrecht and Frank Pauls Archive Collections.


RESULTS
Eleven sets of Proceedings manuscripts and one set of Proceedings Abstracts were evaluated. There was a trend toward consistent use of existing journals with indexing in Index Medicus; shorter intervals between the Congress and Proceedings manuscript publication; and increased online availability of either the Table of Contents, or Proceedings citations. Recent additions include online publication of full-length manuscripts and two instances of full peer review evaluations of the Proceedings manuscripts. These trends in Proceedings publication are described within the course of significant events in the circumpolar health movement.


CONCLUSIONS
There has been a trend toward more rapid dissemination of scientific content, more analytic documentation of epidemiologic study design, and a trend toward wider dissemination of scientific content through the Internet. Significant progress in each of those areas is still possible and desirable.
Murphy
Neil J
NJ
PCC-WH, Anchorage, Alaska 99508, USA. nmurphy@southcentralfoundation.com
D001110:Arctic Regions; D003081:Cold Climate; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000266:history*; D006296:Health Services; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011642:Publications / Q000266:history; D012106:Research / Q000266:history*