WISER Science

1. WISER Science CAB Abstracts for environmental research Judith Pinfold, Anne Marie Townsend February 2007

2. Why use an abstracting service? • Plus points • Wide coverage • Content chosen by subject specialists • Publisher independent • Long back runs • Currency • Abstract is an indicator of usefulness • Minus points Not full text within database, but may have link to full text Complex searching

3. Biological/environmental abstracting services • Leading products available in Oxford • Biological abstracts • CAB abstracts • CSA Illumina • Forest Science • GeoBase • Zoological record

4. Main scope • Very broadly • Biological Abstracts – life sciences • CAB Abstracts – applied science • CSA Illumina – diverse coverage - arts, social science, biology including environmental sciences/pollution management • Forest Science – forestry, forest products, wood Includes relevant CAB Abstracts records • GeoBase –sciences including environment • Zoological Record - zoology

5. Today • CAB Abstracts • Biological Abstracts and Zoological Record covered in WISER session on 26 February • Details and booking at http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/staff/information_skills/wiser

6. CABI / CAB abstracts ? • Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International • Founded 1913, International status 1985 • HQ in Wallingford, Oxon. • Offices worldwide • Inter-governmental, not-for-profit organization • 40 member countries • Research/information services in applied life sciences (global focus)

7. CAB Abstracts • Over 5 million abstracts • Online since 1972 • 200,000+ new records added each year • Regular weekly updates • Source material from over 158 countries • 50+ languages • 20% environmental records non-English • Older material (1910-1971) covered by CAB Abstracts archive • Print publications also available

8. Types of source documents • Scientific journals • Bulletins • Books • Theses (if published in a series) • Reports • Conferences

9. CAB subject coverage • Agriculture in the broadest sense, including Plant Science, Animal Science, Human Health, Parasitology, Ecology, Forestry, Soil Science, Food Science & products, Agricultural economics, Biotechnology, Agricultural Engineering, Leisure and Tourism

10. Environmental subject coverage • Forestry • Soils • Water • Grasslands • Climate change • Biodiversity From 222 core environmental journals + other sources

11. Forest science • Subset of CAB Abstracts • Listed separately on Oxlip Coverage • Forest management • Forests and forest trees • Agroforestry and community forestry • Non-wood forest products • Wood technology

12. Future developments for 2008 • Enhanced coverage of biodiversity Will cover all vegetation types more comprehensively (e.g. tundra, fynbos) Better coverage of freshwater aquatic biodiversity Improved coverage of ecology – theoretical and applied

13. Access in Oxford • Via OXLIP (portal for networked electronic resources) • Biological abstracts • CAB abstracts • Forest Science • Zoological Record • All above are on ERL (using OVID [Silverplatter] software) • CSA Illumina and GeoBase use different software

14. Platforms? • Way of viewing data • Functionality / appearance varies between platforms • OVID now owns SilverPlatter and plans to merge platforms later this year • So our current platform will change – probably Autumn 2007

15. OVID • This is the current platform for CAB Abstracts and Forest Science used in Oxford • On ERL (Electronic Reference Library) via Oxlip • Biological Abstracts and Zoological Record also use OVID • Convenient for cross-searching between databases

16. Access outside Oxford -Remember to set up BEFORE leaving Oxford via OUCS • Register for Remote Access Account https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/self/remote_access • Sign in using Oxford single sign-on login (as for Webmail/Weblearn) • For ERL databases use Virtual Private Network (VPN) http:/www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/vpn/oucs-service • Download Cisco VPN software

17. How do I find Oxlip? • Go to the general library webpage http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk • ‘Information for users’ in box on right • ‘Electronic resources’ • Oxlip

18. Find electronic resources from Oxford libraries webpage

19. Choose Oxlip

20. Oxlip – Oxford list of electronic databasesBrowse by Subject group or Name of database

21. Let’s do a search • From Oxlip go to CAB Abstracts via Title list

22. Choose first letter of database

23. CAB Abstracts

24. Useful information about Database coverage

25. Access via WebSpirs – click again to get to CAB Abstracts

26. Nearly there …

27. We can now start searching …

28. Useful information on screen • Coverage = 22 databases, i.e. range of years

29. Topic: Effects of climate change on biodiversity in Asia Easiest is ‘simple search’ - default Type keywords in box All fields searched (Subject, Title, Author, Descriptor, CABI codes) Keywords: Biodiversity, climate change, Asia

31. Results Full text icon + link Click here for full record

32. Change display / sort records

34. Full record – search terms highlighted

35. Get full text

36. Electronic journal available to Oxford University

37. Ready to print

38. Link not available? • Sometimes full text not available • BUT don’t give up … Look on OLIS Ask a Librarian Obtain via Inter Library Loan (ILL) Standard charge of £3.50 (OULS)

39. Search history Can be modified, saved, rerun

40. While we’re here – get email alerts to latest additions to database with SDI

41. Same search – but limit • Limit by subject / title / author

42. Fewer results CABI field codes containing search terms

43. More sophisticated searching

44. Lots of fields to choose from

45. and limit by year?

46. Other limits?

48. You can also get better searches if you • Use truncation south* to retrieve south, southern afric* to retrieve africa, african oil spill* to retrieve oil spill, oil spills, oil spillage

49. Thesaurus / index

50. Try the thesaurus To find Narrower terms, related terms, broader terms – ‘explode search’