Introduction

The Mother-Child Health International Research Network was established to provide an outlet where scientists can share, discuss and disseminate information related to their research, and to promote interaction between researchers.

As such, we provide a 'weblog' facility for researchers to post any information, news and views about their research, and a 'researcher directory' to find other scientists working in similar fields.

What is a weblog or 'blog'? A blog is an easily updated online journal consisting of categorized, date-stamped posts, which can then be commented on by others. Blogs allow you to write about whatever aspect of Mother-Child Health you choose to, to reach anyone, anywhere in the world and have conversations with your readers about each and every one of your posts.

By registering an account on the Mother-Child website, you also get your own blog and the ability to comment on other researcher's blogs.

The researcher directory is self-explanatory; it contains the membership list and data for all registered users on the site, allowing you to find, interact with and meet other like-minded researchers.

Read on to find out how to create your account!

Getting Started

Getting Started - Creating your Account.

Before you can use the features of the Mother-Child Website, you must create an account on our network. This account allows you to find and contact other researchers in the directory, create weblog entries and comment on other scientists' entries.

To create your account, click on the link in the sidebar at the right of the page (or in the middle of the front page):

You'll then be brought to the 'User Account Creation' page.

Fill in your information on this page - fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory - and when you have completed your profile, you will be emailed your password which can then be used to log into the network.

Note that your email address is kept confidential; no one can see it without your consent.

Return to the site, and log in by entering your username and password into the fields provided.

You may want to click on the 'My Account' link and then the 'Edit' tab to change your assigned password to something else of your choosing.

Now that your account is created, it's time to start blogging and meeting other researchers!

Creating Your Weblog

Creating your weblog couldn't be more simple, because it's already done!

That's right, when you registered your account, we automatically created your weblog for you!

You can find it at http://mother-child.info/weblog/[your_username] . As an example, if your username is 'rhamilton', then your own blog would be at http://mother-child.info/weblog/rhamilton . You can access it directly via the "My blog" link at the top of your usermenu when you are logged in.

The next step is to create your first blog entry; this, too, is very easy. All you need to do is click on the 'blog!' link that appears in your user menu once you've logged in:

You'll then be taken to the 'blog entry' page.

Here, you'll start by entering the title of your weblog post. Keep it short, descriptive and concise; a good title would be something like 'Study of perinatal transmission of HIV/AIDS in Uganda'.

Once you've entered a title, select the category of Mother-Child Health your post belongs to. You can select several categories if you wish by holding down the 'Control' key ('Apple Key' on Mac) and clicking the desired categories.

The body of your post is the main text; this is the actual post.

Once you are done, click the 'Submit' button to create your entry, or click on the 'Preview' button to see how your entry will look before submitting it.

Your entry will appear on your blog, as well as on the front page of the Mother-Child Website and under its research categories.

If your post is relevant, other users will then start to comment on your blog; you will be advised via email when you receive a comment. You can then reply to the comment - and so on - thus creating a conversation about your topic with your readers.

Commenting on other blogs is just as simple. If you read another researcher's post and you would like to comment on it or ask a question, simply click on the 'add new comment' link at the end of the post (if there are already comments on the post, this link will change from' add new comment' to 'n comments'. You can still add another comment of course!).

Every comment has a subject and a comment body, just like a regular entry.

Now that you're an expert on weblogs, find out how you can meet other researchers via the network!

Finding and Contacting Other Researchers

Finding and contacting other researchers can be done in many different ways.

You can click on the link under 'View Researcher Database' from the front page to see all researchers registered on the site or sort them by research specialty or country. You'll see a page displayed showing all the researchers, and by clicking on their username you'll be able to access their profile, view their recent blog entries, and contact them. You can also search through this list.

Likewise, anywhere you see a user's name - on a blog entry, on a comment, etc. - you can click on that username to view the researcher's profile, and get a better idea of what they do.

Once you've viewed a user's profile, you may wish to contact them personally for more information, outside of the framework of the network. You can do so at any time while viewing a user's profile by clicking on the 'contact' tab, which will bring you to a page where you can enter your message to that user.

Note that 'your' email address will be made available to the user so that they can reply to you; when they do reply you will have each other's email addresses and can then continue the conversation however you wish.

Need More Help?

Need more help?

If you:

• Are still having trouble using the Mother-Child website,
• Have some comments or suggestions on how we can improve this site,
• Have other questions, or
• Would like to contact us for any other reason,

Then please send us an email using our Contact Form.

We're looking forward to hearing from you!