PubMed Website - Possible US Government Shutdown

[helvella]

The PubMed website, which can be so useful to us, is a part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and that in turn comes under the National Institutes of Health (NIH). That is, all are directly funded by the US Government.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

If, as many expect, the US fails to get a budget passed, and the stopgap funding bill has just failed, the websites that are part of the NIH might well closedown. This has previously occurred in broadly similar circumstances. They might close immediately, or keep going for a while, or simply not have any maintenance performed for the duration. No new papers. No fixes if it fails.

Very difficult to predict exactly what will happen.

Even if PubMed becomes totally inaccessible, we might have an alternative. The European Union’s similar Europe PMC. The “might” is simply that it could become overloaded.

Being designed later, it has some good design features. For example, the PubMed Central database of actual papers is embedded within the same system. In some ways, I do prefer it to PubMed and PMC separately.

Have a look here – even if PubMed is unaffected!

europepmc.org/

[Zephyrbear]

Will this affect MedScape too?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Zephyrbear]

No - WebScape (and sister company, WedMD) are private companies and not US government funded.

Though it could affect numerous other sites. I often quote the Office of Dietary Supplements - ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/l... - and all or many of them could be affected.

(I just kept the original posts short and simple. But it is right to mention others.)

[Batty1]

This happens every year… nothing new our Gov’t is a bunch of spend thrifts half wits.

[Bob00752]

Thanks for spotting the potential hold up. If only Congress and Senate members were considered public employees (so not paid if there is a failure to pass the funding bill), this political brinksmanship wouldn’t happen. There must be a better way!

[Batty1 in reply to Bob00752]

The Whole group should be impeached.