Search

The article reviews the search engine web sites Science.gov, WorldWideScience.org, Scitopia.org, and ScienceResearch.com.

States that FIZ Karlsruhe, the European Service Center of STN International, has announced a fixed pricing scheme for patent and technical information databases from Derwent Information Ltd. on the STN system. Benefits for users of a fixed pricing system; Services that FIZ Karlsruhe provides; Contact information.

Informs that Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has added the Adis R&D Insight (ADISINSIGHT) and Adis Drug Alerts (ADISALERTS) pharmaceuticals databases to the STN International database service. What each database provides; Number of citations they contain; Total number of databases in STN International as of October of 1998; Contact information.

The article reports that PROMT, the Predicasts Overview of Marketing and Technology database, is now available on STN International. The database is produced by Information Access Co. PROMT provides news and in-depth trade and marketplace information on science and technology-related business topics such as research plans, product testing, manufacturing processes, and licensing agreements, as well as industry overviews and forecasts. The latest addition to the family of science-related business files on SIN that includes INVESTEXT, Chemical Business NewsEase, and Chemical Industry Notes, PROMT contains indexing and abstracts or full-text from more than 1100 trade journals, business magazines, research studies, government reports and industry newsletters covering 65 major industries ranging from chemicals to ecology.

The article informs that the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), in cooperation with STN International, will add ISI's multidisciplinary scientific and technical database, SciSearch, to STN. The database, covering information from 1974 to the present, provides instant access to current bibliographic information, cited references, and English language abstracts from 3200 of the world's leading scientific and technical scholarly journals. A broad range of disciplines is indexed, including biology, biotechnology, chemistry, engineering, materials science, medicine, physics, and veterinary science. Another feature of SciSearch is KeyWords Plus, which provides additional search terms taken right from an article's bibliography. These terms greatly increase the researcher's retrieval of relevant articles. SciSearch on STN will be updated on a weekly basis with approximately 14,500 new items per update, for a total, annual coverage of over 745,000 items. The addition of SciSearch enables STN to provide researchers with a perfect match of bibliographic and full-text information.

The article reports that Elsevier Science Publishers, Secondary Publishing Division has announced that the reload of EMBASE, the Excerpta Medica database, on STN International has been completed and is currently accessible. Responding to numerous user requests, STN now has the complete EMBASE file dating back to 1974; previously the database extended back only to 1980. The database contains an online, multifunctional thesaurus, EMTREE, for precise and comprehensive searching. With one instruction, users can easily search the thesaurus term and all terms related to it or terms of a specified relationship. EMBASE records on STN include searchable CAS Registry Numbers for chemical substances to facilitate cross-file searching with other databases on STN that also contain these numbers. STN has expanded the field availability search option to include the following fields: classification codes, chemical or trade name, corporate names, and CAS Registry Numbers. Searchers can easily stipulate that any/all of these data fields be present in the records !of their answer set.

The article reports that STN International, the scientific and technical information network, has expanded its coverage of pharmaceutical information by adding the International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) database. Produced by the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (ASHP), the IPA database contains more than 250,000 records dating from 1970 to the present and covers approximately 800 international pharmacy, biomedical, and cosmetic journals. IPA includes not only clinical and technical drug information but also topics relating to the practice of pharmacy, pharmaceutical information, all legal aspects of pharmacies and drugs. In addition to information abstracted from the many international journals, IPA also includes abstracts from all state pharmacy journals and the ASHP annual and mid-year clinical meetings. IPA records contain bibliographic information, informative abstract, both article and summary language, and indication of human studies. CAS Registry Numbers are included for many of the substances cited.

The article reports on the decision of STN International to introduce limits to the number of search terms billed for current-awareness Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) searches in all STN databases that currently employ search-term pricing. The pricing limits took effect February 1, 1993, for SDI profiles run in any of five databases: CA, Ceramics Abstracts, Chemical Industry Notes, CApreviews, and Genbank. Customers who generally use more terms than the limits are typically more experienced searchers who will now realize a substantial cost advantage when running SDI searches in these STN files. The announced change is one of a series of pricing and service innovations envisioned for STN in the near future that will focus on customers' needs for new options and solutions in the changing information environment. The price for the system disk for the STN Mentor Laboratory has been lowered from $119 to $70. With this reduction customers can purchase the system disk and the LAB disk of their choice for less than $100. In addition, a given site of a corporation or university can now make up to 100 copies of any purchased STN Mentor Laboratory disk for $5.00 per copy.

The article reports that multiple-file searching and electronic delivery of search results to STNmail boxes are now available on STN International. The multiple-file search feature will permit users to search some or all of the STN files simultaneously with the same search query. Searchers will have the option of searching predefined, subject-oriented file clusters or clusters they create themselves. The connect time for multiple-file searching will be divided among the databases involved based on the amount of time spent in each database using or manipulating data. This new feature builds on the STN multiple-file capabilities first introduced earlier in 1992 with the release of the duplicate detection feature. With the introduction of electronic delivery of answer sets, users will be able to send up to 5,000 answers electronically to their own or someone else's STNmail box. The cost for ordering results from a file electronically will be the same as the offline print charge in that file. This feature will be enhanced in 1993 to permit delivery of search results to other mail systems and delivery of graphic structures.

The article reports that Delft University of Technology Library (DUT), the Dutch central library for technology, engineering, and related sciences, is now a document supplier on the online service, STN International. DUT joins 16 other document suppliers on STN, seven of which are located in Europe, five in the U.S., and four in Japan.