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

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 ,000+ new records added each year Regular weekly updates Source material from over 158 countries 50+ languages 20% environmental records non-English Older material ( ) 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 Sign in using Oxford single sign-on login (as for Webmail/Weblearn) For ERL databases use Virtual Private Network (VPN) Download Cisco VPN software

17 How do I find Oxlip? Go to the general library webpage ‘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 databases Browse 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

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

32 Change display / sort records

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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 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?

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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’

51 Use the index – for example author search – note how CABI cites authors – e.g. bloggs-t Authors not always consistent – Check and combine sets?

52 Mark and print records Print, download, or records

53 Select which fields to print/print all records

54 Or export to Refworks

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56 First make sure you have a Refworks account – go via Oxlip

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59 Have a go? Try the exercise sheets Any questions / comments?