Transcript Bytes for Biologists 26 BIOLOGICAL ABSTRACTING SERVICES

Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
WISER Science
Electronic Resources for
Biology
Roger Mills and Kate Williams
January 2006
Oxford University Library Services – Information Skills Training
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Types of resource
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Electronic journals
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Some packages with own search interface
Bibliographic databases with abstracts
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Various search interfaces
‘Hard’ data bases
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Especially in molecular biology
Gateways to web sites
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Some subject-specific e.g. BIOME
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Getting together
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The different types are converging
Molecular biology model likely to
extend
Important to be clear what you are
searching; the same data can be
accessed in different ways and
interfaces look very different
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E-journals
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Access via TDNet
Publisher packages – Elsevier
ScienceDirect
Subject-based packages – BioOne
TOUR links from other bibliographic
databases
Alerts available from most collections
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RSS feeds
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Increasingly popular for ‘keeping up’
Easy to set up, use an RSS reader or
Firefox
Look for the RSS logo
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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Secondary sources
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Bibliographic databases:
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Web of Knowledge (sub)
SCOPUS (sub)
Electronic Reference Library (sub)
SciFinder (Chemical Abstracts) (sub)
PubMed (free)
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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
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Hard data sources
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Entrez
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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
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Gateways to web sites
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Resources selected by subject
specialists
Much more focussed than Google
Independent evaluation
UK Resource Discovery Network
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BIOME
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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Why use an abstracting service?
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Plus points:
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Wide coverage
Content chosen by independent subject
specialists
Publisher independent
Long back runs
Minus points:
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No full text within database
Complex searching
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Biological abstracting services
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Leading products available in Oxford
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Biological Abstracts
CAB Abstracts
Zoological Record
Forest Science Database (TreeCD)
Medline
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
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Access
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Via OxLIP
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Biological Abstracts
CAB Abstracts
Zoological Record
TreeCD
Medline [moving to OVID Web gateway Feb 06]
All above are on ERL (using Ovid [SilverPlatter]
software)
CSA uses different software
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Access outside Oxford
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For ERL use Virtual Private Network
(VPN) – set up BEFORE leaving
Oxford
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http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/vpn/oucs-service/
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For CSA use ATHENS
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/athens/
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ERL databases
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Choice of web or windows software
Multiple database selection
Cross- searching of different services
simultaneously possible BUT
Thesauri will not work
Some fields are database-specific
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Main scope
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Very broadly:
Biological Abstracts: pure science
CAB Abstracts: applied science
Zoological Record: zoology
Forest Science Database: forest science
Medline: medicine
CSA: all, particularly environmental
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Overlap
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Significant across all, but:
High proportion of references unique
to one database
Duplicates may be abstracted/indexed
from different viewpoints
No automatic de-duplication
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Today
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Biological Abstracts (BA)
CAB Abstracts (CAB)
Zoological Record (ZR)
For others see other talks
For more detail on above see
individual talks
www.plantlib.ox.ac.uk/courses
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Biological Abstracts
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Over 5.5 million records from 1980 to
date
Annual growth c. 360,000 records
OXFORD:
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electronic version 1985-date
print version 1926-1984 (in RSL)
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BA geographical coverage
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4000 journals from
90 countries
North America (31%)
Asia, Australasia
(14%)
Central & S. America (2%)
Europe &
Middle East (52%)
Africa (1%)
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BA subject coverage
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Traditional topics:
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Molecular biology, Botany, Zoology,
Ecology and the Environment,
Microbiology
Interdisciplinary areas
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Experimental, Clinical and Veterinary Medicine,
Biotechnology and Genetics,
Agriculture and Nutrition, Biochemistry,
Pharmacology, Public Health
Related areas
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Methods, Instrumentation
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Zoological Record
 Over 1.5 million records from
1978-present
 Annual growth c.72,000
 Monthly updates
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ZR
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First published 1865 as The Record of
Zoological Literature
Originally produced by a group of zoologists
associated with the Zoological Society of
London and the British Museum
From 1980-2002 published jointly by
BIOSIS and the Zoological Society of
London
2003- published by BIOSIS
2004 BIOSIS sold to Thomson
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ZR in Oxford
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Available in Oxford
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Printed version: 1864 – date:
RSL pt. 1-20. (1864- date)
OUM (1864-1965) pt. 1. Comprehensive
Zoology; pt.12. Aracnida; (1864-1989) pt.13.
Insecta; pt. 20; List of new taxonomic names
ZOO-AL (1870-1998) pt.18. Aves
ZOO-EL (1902-1990 imp.) pt.19.Mammalia
Electronic version: 1978 – date
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ZR subject coverage
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All aspects of zoology and animal science
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Experimental and domestic animals (and humans)
generally not included
Behaviour, biodiversity, biochemistry, conservation,
ecology, evolution, freshwater biology, genetics,
marine biology, morphology, palaeontology,
parasitology and diseases, reproduction,
systematics, techniques, zoogeography
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ZR geographical coverage
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Source material
from 100+
countries
North America (20%)
Asia, Australasia
(19%)
Central & S. America (4%)
Africa (2%)
Europe &
Middle East (55%)
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CAB Abstracts
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Over 4 million abstracts
Print publication in numerous separate
subject sections, with different start
dates – 1930’s on
Online since 1972
Certain sections from vol 1, including
forestry (1939-)
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CAB subject coverage
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Plant Science, Animal Science,
Human Health, Parasitology, Ecology,
Forestry, Soil Science, Food Science
& products, Agricultural Economics,
Biotechnology, Agricultural
Engineering, Leisure and Tourism.
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CAB geographical coverage
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Source material
from 100+
countries
North America (26%)
Asia, Australasia
(22%)
Central & S. America (4%)
Africa (2%)
Europe &
Middle East (46%)
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Common fields
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AU, TI, SO, PY, AB
Sort by these to identify duplicates
when cross-searching
Note that author names are always in
the form Bloggs-AB
Controlled terms linked with hyphen if
more than one word
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e.g. forest-ecology
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Database-specific fields
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Indexing terms differ
Field labels for controlled terms MAY
differ
They may be the same e.g. DE but the
contents may not be equivalent – so
hyperlinks may mislead
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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
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In general
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Start with a general search across all likely
databases
Refine by searching within individual
databases on their own
Use the help to discover what is in index
fields and how the controlled vocabularies
work
More help on database websites
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See links from www.plantlib.ox.ac.uk/courses
Today’s search topic
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Research into establishing the
feeding behaviour of elephants.
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What are the 3 key concepts to use in
your search?
Search terms
 The
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•
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main concepts to search for:
elephant
feeding
behaviour
Searching techniques
 To
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•
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combine search terms:
AND, OR (Boolean connectors)
AND to narrow the search
OR to broaden the search
(British/American spellings, synonyms)
OR, AND
elephant
feeding
behaviour
Search tips
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Wildcards
 Use a question mark (?) to replace a single
character
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Use an asterisk (*) to truncate terms

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E.g. Wom?n finds woman or women
E.g. enzym* for enzyme, enzymes, enzymology etc
Search for an exact phrase using double quotes

E.g. “feeding behaviour” will retrieve different results
from feeding behaviour.
Search string
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Search terms:

elephant*
AND
 Behavio?r OR habit*
AND
 eating OR feeding OR diet*
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You will probably find more search terms from
retrieved records while searching.