Bibliographic database

If users are inexperienced in searching for information, they should first consult search engines, meta-databases or portals (Table 5-6). Searchers who are familiar with databases may consult known databases (numeric databases, bibliographic databases, etc.) directly, being aware that they might miss new data sources (see Section 5.18). The reliability and quality of data are only given in peer-reviewed data sources. 

In addition to the various Institutes of Health that publish professional guidelines, the NIH has designed a number of databases for professionals.9 Physician-oriented resources provide a wide variety of information related to the biomedical and health sciences, both past and present. The format of these resources varies. Searchable databases, bibliographic citations,... 

Basic pharmacokinetic/dynamic information can be found in a number of common sources such as the BNF, the SPC for the drug (or equivalent data if outside the UK), Martindale The Complete Drug Reference and AHFS Drug Information [1,3,4]. There are other books, such as Therapeutic Drugs, edited by C. Dollery, which may give more detailed information [2]. Other useful sources include online pharmacy and medical databases, bibliographic databases to identify relevant published material, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. 

Energy Citations Database. Bibliographic records for energy and energy-related STI from the DOE and its predecessor agencies, ERDA and AEC, from 1948 to the present. 

To get to know various databases covering the topics of bibliographic data, physicochemical properties, and spectroscopic, crystallographic, biological, structural, reaction, and patent data... 

Typical bibliographic databases are the CA File of Chemical Abstracts Service CAS) or Medline of the US National Library of Medicine. Most electronic journals provide articles as full-text files, e.g., the Journal of the American Chemical Society ( ACS). 

Factual databases mainly contain alphanumeric data on chemical compounds. In contrast to bibliographic databases, factual databases directly describe the objects primary data on chemical compounds) and provide the required information on them. Factual databases can be divided into numeric databases, metadatabases, research project databases, and catalogs of chemical compounds. 

In addition to the numeric data (color, solubility, refraction index, spectra, etc.), these factual databases also include a bibliographic section with references or sources and a section with information for the identification of a compound (e.g., name, CAS Registry Number, molecular weight). 

SCISEARCH contains bibliographic citations (links) to publications in science and technology. The database represents the electronic online version of the expanded Science Citation Index (SCI) and parts from the Current Contents of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). More than 5900 science and technical journals are included in the database with more than 20 million records (October, 2002). Searches can be performed on the bibliographic data, along with where, and how often, an author or publication is dted. 

Medline covers primarily biomedical literature, containing more than 13 million citations (October, 2002) of articles from more than 4600 journals published since 1958 [18]. The database covers basic biomedical research, clinical sciences, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, pre-clinical sciences, and life science. Medline, a subset of PubMed, is a bibliographic database produced by the US Nationcil Library of Medicine (NLM). The database is available free of charge via SciFinder Scholar or PubMed [19]. 

The Chemical Abstracts System (CAS) produces a set of various databases ranging from bibliographic to chemical structure and reaction databases. All the databases originate from the printed media of Chemical Abstracts, which was first published in 1907 and is divided into different topics. Author index, general index, chemical structure index, formula index, and index guide arc entries to the corresponding database (Table 5-3). 

TOXCENTER TOXCENTER on STN is a bibliographic database that covers the pharmacological, biochemical, physiological, and toxicologicitl effects of drugs and other chemicals. The data m TOXCENTER are from 1907 to the preseni, Tliere are more Ihan 5,7 million records (December, 2002). It is updaled weekly... 

Both database sources contain evaluated data on millions of compounds, and allow the retrieval of bibliographic information and of structures. 

Another numeric database including bibliographic information is DETHERM. 

Specinfo, from Chemical Concepts, is a factual database information system for spectroscopic data with more than 660000 digital spectra of 150000 associated structures [24], The database covers nuclear magnetic resonance spectra ( H-, C-, N-, O-, F-, P-NMR), infrared spectra (IR), and mass spectra (MS). In addition, experimental conditions (instrument, solvent, temperature), coupling constants, relaxation time, and bibliographic data are included. The data is cross-linked to CAS Registry, Beilstein, and NUMERIGUIDE. 

The protein sequence database is also a text-numeric database with bibliographic links. It is the largest public domain protein sequence database. The current PIR-PSD release 75.04 (March, 2003) contains more than 280 000 entries of partial or complete protein sequences with information on functionalities of the protein, taxonomy (description of the biological source of the protein), sequence properties, experimental analyses, and bibliographic references. Queries can be started as a text-based search or a sequence similarity search. PIR-PSD contains annotated protein sequences with a superfamily/family classification. 

Compounds are stored in reaction databases as connection tables (CT) in the same manner as in structure databases (see Section 5.11). Additionally, each compound is assigned information on the reaction center and the role of each compound in the specific reaction scheme (educt, product, etc.) (see Chapter 3). In addition to reaction data, the reaction database also includes bibliographic and factual information (solvent, yield, etc.). All these different data types render the integrated databases quite complex. The retrieval software must be able to recall all these different types of information. 

The World Patent Index of Derwent Information Ltd. is a broad collection of international value-added patent documents from 40 patent-issuing authorities. The bibliographic database contains 11.6 million patent records with 5.5 million images (October, 2002) and grows by 1.5 million patent documents each year. The classified and indexed documents (since 1963) are sometimes provided wdth additional abstracts or significant titles. 

They are classified as bibliographic, factual, and structure databases. 

INPADOC is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of scientific and technological patent documents. 

Data-Star. This is Europe s leading on-line database service (39) and covers worldwide business news, financial information, market research, trade statistics, business analysis, healthcare / pharmaceuticals, chemicals / petrochemicals, chemical industry, biomedicine /life science, biotechnology, and technology, with an emphasis on Europe. It was originally formed as a joint venture among BRS, Predicasts, and Radio Suisse (the Swiss telecommunications company) (37). Data-Star offers access to about 300 bibliographic, abstract, directory, and fuU-text on-line databases, of which approximately 150 are also available on Dialog (40). 

Bibliographic/Technical. The principal databases in which bibhographic chemical information is stored are hsted in Table 1. Examples of the use of these databases include searching the CA file to find the pubhshed work of a certain author, or the World Textiles file to determine the extent of weft knitting machinery use in Europe. 

NTIS Bibliographic Database U.S. National Technical BRS, Data-Star, Dialog, government research... 

U.S. Patents. This file, produced by Derwent, Inc., covers U.S. patents from 1971 to the present. The database iacludes all bibliographic and front page information and the text of all claims. (Prom 1971 to 1974 the claims from many patents were not available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) source tapes, and therefore are not iacluded.) The complete cl aim text can be searched from 1971 but can be ptinted only from 1982. Tides and patentee names are present ia their original form, aeither expanded nor standardized. There is no enhanced iadexiag. Examiner citations are directly searchable, and USPTO classification is updated when the tapes are received from the Patent Office. 

JAPIO. This database is produced by the Japan Patent Information Organization and is based on the Patent Abstracts of Japan provided by the Japanese Patent Office. The database is updated monthly and contains all Kokai Tokyo Kobo (pubUshed unexamined patent appHcations) pubUshed as of October 1976. Records appear ia JAPIO approximately six months after pubhcation of the unexamined patent appHcation. English language abstracts are provided for the majority of appHcations filed by Japanese appHcants. AppHcations by non-Japanese appHcations do not have abstracts, but bibliographic information is iacluded. Searchable fields iaclude the International Patent Office Classification and JAPIO classification (96). 

Personal computers have introduced new ways to handle pdvate biblographic and text files. The most important factors to consider to achieve satisfactory results in building a bibhographic or text database are the type of information to be stored and the needs of the user. Types of information include correspondence, research results and documentation, meeting notes, and bibliographic references. Needs of the user to be considered should include the potential number of users of the database, restrictions for the access and display of the information because of privacy or proprietary reasons, and the retrieval mechanisms (eg, by keyword, authority list, controUed vocabulary, author, tide, date, or other document or information attributes). In addition, criteria for selecting and encoding information for the database need to be established. 

Other Individual Country Databases and Auxiliary Files. The USPatents files on ORBIT, supphed by Derwent, are similar ia their contents to the CLAIMS-Bibliographic files, including all the front page information and the full claims language. These files do not iaclude the two-dimensional stmctures provided by IFI, nor do they have IFI s standardization of assignee names. Citation searching is available at a cost considerably less than that for the portion of the CLAIMS-Citation file that covers the same period. 

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