WISER Science

CAB Abstracts for environmental research

Judith Pinfold, Anne Marie TownsendFebruary 2007

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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 pointsNot full text within database, but may have link to full textComplex searching

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Biological/environmental abstracting services

•Leading products available in Oxford• Biological abstracts• CAB abstracts• CSA Illumina• Forest Science• GeoBase• Zoological record

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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Types of source documents

• Scientific journals• Bulletins• Books• Theses (if published in a series)• Reports• Conferences

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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

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Environmental subject coverage• Forestry• Soils• Water• Grasslands• Climate change• Biodiversity

From 222 core environmental journals +other sources

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Find electronic resources from Oxford libraries webpage

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Choose Oxlip

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

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

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Choose first letter of database

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CAB Abstracts

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Useful information about Database coverage

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Access via WebSpirs – click again to get to CAB Abstracts

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Nearly there …

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We can now start searching …

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

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Topic: Effects of climate change on biodiversity in Asia

Easiest is ‘simple search’ - defaultType keywords in boxAll fields searched (Subject, Title, Author, Descriptor, CABI codes)

Keywords:Biodiversity, climate change, Asia

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Results

Full text icon + link

Click here for full record

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Change display / sort records

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Full record – search terms highlighted

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Get full text

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Electronic journal available to Oxford University

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Ready to print

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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)

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Search history

Can be modified, saved, rerun

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

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

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Fewer results

CABI field codes containingsearch terms

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More sophisticated searching

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Lots of fields to choose from

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and limit by year?

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Other limits?

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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

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Thesaurus / index

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Try the thesaurus

To find Narrower terms, related terms, broader terms – ‘explode search’

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Use the index – for example author search – note how CABI cites authors – e.g. bloggs-t

Authors not always consistent –Check and combine sets?

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Mark and print records

Print, download,or email records

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Select which fields to print/print all records

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Or export to Refworks

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

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Have a go?

• Try the exercise sheets

• Any questions / comments?

judith.pinfold@ouls.ox.ac.uk

anne.townsend@ouls.ox.ac.uk