View as PDF   

From the Editor

Dialog General Manager Tim Wahlberg recently provided a mid-year update via email to all customers on the development process for ProQuest Dialog™. In it, Tim highlights the great progress made on both product features and pricing. For additional details on the new pricing for ProQuest Dialog, read “Walk away from time-based charges” in this issue.

This issue also brings you details about post processing on ProQuest Dialog, tips for creating new Alerts and how to use Help to your advantage, as well as information about the upcoming DataStar migration to ProQuest Dialog. Read about the Featured File of the Month, a new series designed to provide greater knowledge and understanding of authoritative databases on ProQuest Dialog. We start with the versatile Gale Group PROMT^® database. And as always, you can count on Ron Kaminecki for helpful tips; this time he encourages you to “Trust but verify” when searching non-patent sources and provides strategies to show you how.

 

 ProQuest Dialog Updates

Organize your search results for optimum insight

Perhaps you’ve run a search in ProQuest Dialog for peer-reviewed literature on a disease or a new drug. Or maybe you found some good, solid articles on emerging engineering techniques. Or you’ve uncovered novel ideas in an area of technology or spotted evidence of new products on the horizon. Regardless of your search, with ProQuest Dialog, you know you’ve come to the right place to collect, organize and analyze data.

Now it’s time to store your findings with a minimum of post processing. The latest release of ProQuest Dialog introduces exciting new ways to export or download your retrieval and manage your results.

The Results page presents two options to download records: Export or Save as file.

You can Export to RefWorks and other citation management tools, Excel, DataStar tagged format, RIS, XML and ASCII (text). Customers with BizInt Smart Charts can export to BizInt software. You can Save as file to PDF, HTML, RTF and Text only.

Export format flexibility
The ability to store and manage results is an important part of the research process, and flexible formatting is an invaluable option, whether you are sending results to a spreadsheet or citation management tool or converting results to XML to build a proprietary repository.

ProQuest Dialog is designed to make these options a seamless part of the user workflow. In the latest release new analysis tools such as BizInt and Excel (xls) are now supported, and new formatting for files such as DataStar Tagged, RIS and XML are also available.

For example, if you want to export to Excel: Click Export and choose the format and the export tool you wish to use, in this case Excel. Follow the dialog box to open or save. With a little post processing, a spreadsheet can look like this in no time at all.

Save as file results in PDF
Under the Save as file options of results, you can now save batches of PDF documents from the results list. After performing a search and selecting the items you want to save, click the post-processing link Save as file located above the result titles. A layer within the browser window appears with options to display the output in the format you prefer. You can also include the bibliographic citations at the end of the saved file.

HTML and PDF provide links to full text according to your account and your subscription holdings specified by your account administrator — for example, to an OpenURL link resolver, to request the item from the corporate library or to order the document from Infotrieve.

With all of the new export and save functions, you can produce professional-grade documentation for easy reference and from which to draw conclusions.

 

It’s easy on ProQuest Dialog

Make Help work for you
If you’re just getting started on ProQuest Dialog, take advantage of the help offered on every screen. ProQuest Dialog is intuitive and easy to use, yet even the most experienced searchers need help in navigating a new system. And they just need to click to find it. Whether you use Help, Search Tips, Search the online help, Tip, or View field codes help, you have at your fingertips links to quickly find answers you need.

The Help link at the top of every screen is context sensitive. Clicking Help on the opening page provides an overview of ProQuest Dialog and details about Basic Search. Click Search Tips on the Basic Search form, and find information on operators, proximity connectors, options for limiting your search and more.

Clicking Help on the Advanced Search page uncovers fields, free-text searching and tags. You’ll find it valuable to know what areas of the records ProQuest Dialog searches when you do a free-text search. Note the links for Field codes and Tips on the Advanced Search page. Need to find the field code for journal names? Click Field codes and learn that PUB is the field code for Publications and see the syntax: pub(wall street journal).

The online Help also has a Table of Contents you can browse and search for a topic. Suppose, for example, you need a list of database shortcuts and IDs to use with the From Database (FDB) field code. Search for help on FDB by clicking Search at the bottom of the Help screen. Enter the topic you wish to find in the online help, for example, fdb. The Search results panel provides a link to the section with the answer.

 

 September Highlights

Migrate from DataStar to ProQuest Dialog this month

DataStar users, you’ll want to keep your eye on the Migration Center. If you do not have Alerts set up, you can start the migration process to ProQuest Dialog on September 1. You can use ProQuest Dialog at no charge (alongside DataStar at regular rates) for the month of September. Access to DataStar will end September 30, when you will be fully migrated. At that time access to ProQuest Dialog will become billable. Just fill out the migration request form to start the migration process September 1.

 

Walk away from time-based charges!

What if you never again had to worry about how much time you spend online while searching? What would it be like if you didn’t have to concern yourself with how long it takes to construct a complex search, or how many databases you include? With ProQuest Dialog, it is now all possible with predictable pricing! With ProQuest Dialog, you can walk away from time-based charges forever!

Searching on ProQuest Dialog is easy and powerful: while browsing, you can supplement your search terms using the document Preview feature, narrow or refine results using navigation filters, and change content sources. And, there is no charge until you choose to view documents from the results list. 

On ProQuest Dialog, there are no unpredictable usage charges — you pay just for the documents you use, plus an access fee proportional to your output costs. Under the standard transactional service plan (pay-as-you-go) the access fee is 25% of your total output costs each month. 

When we started working on the new ProQuest Dialog service, you told us you wanted three things above all:

• An intuitive interface that captures the power of Dialog — check!
• Depth and breadth of content — check!
• More predictable pricing — check!

        
Now, on ProQuest Dialog you can search more easily and efficiently with predictable costs. It’s what you’ve been waiting for! 

 

New! Featured File of the Month

Becoming familiar with the authoritative content on ProQuest Dialog is an important part of the search process. A new feature in the Chronolog will highlight a database on ProQuest Dialog each month to help you do just that. Gale Group PROMT^® is the perfect database to launch our new Featured File of the Month series. Here’s why.

There are few databases with comprehensive content, unique enough to cover a broad range of industries—PROMT is such a database. For example, with its coverage of more than 60 manufacturing and services industries, PROMT supplies information for nine of the 10 vertical industries on ProQuest Dialog. PROMT is a “one-stop” database whose versatility and size enables you to research a product, the materials used to produce it, its markets, competitive products, regulatory issues and other factors that impact a company, industry or business.

The information in PROMT is very specific; it provides records, such as company announcements, that contain statistical information and useful, current facts and figures about companies. General articles are not picked up (such as those on general management strategies); only those that mention a company specifically are included. PROMT is action-oriented; that is, it culls articles specifically related to events and activities of companies from around the globe. The file contains more than 1,000 active international trade and business publications, plus archive sources, and all documents from non-English sources have the bibliographic details translated into English. Updated daily, PROMT covers 1972 to the present with shorter date-ranges presented in some cases, based on subscription.

PROMT has additional value for the business researcher. Specific indexing such as North America Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes, product codes and event and geographic names are added to each article so PROMT is especially useful in finding targeted information. Indexing lets the searcher retrieve a selective collection of articles based on specific criteria. The special indexing identifies articles based on the action of the article and the company or companies involved.

Sign up for a Webinar on Gale Group PROMT later in the month, and view the overview to learn more about the file. A go-to database, PROMT is one to explore completely for all your business needs no matter what your industry.

 

 Market: Business and News Updates

Business searchers: Create effective Alerts on ProQuest Dialog

Alerts can be cost-effective sources of crucial competitive intelligence. Use them to track news and product developments of competitors, stay on top of industry trends and find out what’s being written about your company and your competitors. When set up properly, they retrieve information you want without your having to continually search the same subject. They simply run automatically whenever new records are added to the database(s) you’ve selected or at frequencies you specify, with results delivered to you electronically.

The Dialog migration team is currently translating existing Alerts from DataStar^® into ProQuest Dialog search syntax, and the profiles will then be available for users to review and refine if needed. As such, it is important to make sure your Alerts will obtain the exact results you want.

Setting up Alerts is easy on ProQuest Dialog, but it may differ depending on the subject of the Alert. The following tips may help you when creating Alerts on news and business topics.

Tip 1: Plan your Alert
Before creating an Alert, make sure you:

• Create an email address for delivery of results.
• Research and decide which databases are appropriate for your search.
• Plan out the search strategy using some of the tips that follow.

Tip 2: Narrow your search
When creating search strategies for Alerts in ProQuest Dialog, you can use any of the search forms: Basic, Advanced or Command Line search.

• Take advantage of proximity connectors. Refine your strategy by trying different proximity options, such as pre/# (exact order) or near/# (either order), rather than using Boolean AND. Note: Check the FAQs for a list of proximity connectors on ProQuest Dialog.
• Use Field Codes. In Advanced Search you can select from drop-down boxes to narrow to specific fields (e.g., co, ti, pub), depending on the database. If you plan to use field codes in Basic or Command Line search, know what field codes to use and where to place them in your search. Remember, they go before the search term(s) in parentheses: ti(comput* and market) to search terms in the title of records or pub(daily telegraph) in the journal/newspaper. Helpful field codes for business searching include evt(foreign trade) for event name, sic(2837) for Standard Industrial Classification Codes and naics(233331) for NAICS codes.
• Narrow results. Navigators provide easier ways to quickly filter or narrow your results to specific data, allowing you to scan ranked lists to find the most frequent terms or phrases pertinent to your research. In expandable lists, you’ll find Document types, such as magazines/journals, company overviews, conference news, reports, broadcast transcripts, industry overviews, and more that may be helpful in limiting business searches.
• Dates. Do not include Publication Year or Publication Date in the strategy. Note: Review Smart Searching in this issue for more on dates.

ProSheets provide a list of field codes and navigators you can use to limit your search. Examples on the ProSheet illustrate the syntax.

Tip 3: Test your Alert
Always try out the search, preview results from the title list and review some records in a brief citation format to make sure you are on track to obtain the data you seek. You can always modify your Alert and test it again at any time.

Tip 4: Create the Alert
Lastly, you are ready to create your Alerts. Complete each form indicated by the tabs, including delivery information.

Alerts save you valuable time and keep you up-to-date on late-breaking company and industry developments. These tips should help you efficiently create effective Alerts. For more information, review the At a Glance module on Alerts and the Gale Group PROMT ProSheet.

 

 Validate: Intellectual Property Content Updates

DWPI adds Hong Kong

The country coverage in Derwent World Patents Index^® (File 351/352,350) has been further enhanced with the inclusion of records published by the patent office in Hong Kong. This latest addition increases the number of authorities covered in DWPI to 47, with 45.2 million patent documents, further extending the global coverage of editorially enhanced content in the file. Coverage will start from DWPI^SM update 201142.

The new coverage is as follows:

• All Patent Applications, Granted Patents and Short-Term patents published from January 2011 ongoing.
• Records identified as basics will have DWPI titles and/or abstracts and manual coding, where applicable.

Feedback from a DWPI research project in October 2009 indicated that many users wanted to see Hong Kong covered in DWPI. Although sovereignty was transferred to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, Hong Kong still maintains its own intellectual property governance. It is one of the world's most open and dynamic economies. In 2010 Hong Kong’s real economic growth rate rose to 6.8%, recovering from the global financial turmoil. Inflation rose gradually to 2.4% in 2010 from 0.5% in 2009.

Companies with a worldwide focus can benefit from a Hong Kong patent to stop the shipping of products through this regional state; prevent the local sale of infringing goods; and prevent infringing products from being offered for sale at some of the world's largest trade shows hosted in this region.

For smaller companies who are having products manufactured in China, Hong Kong patents are also beneficial. Companies routinely have to deal with current and former suppliers producing knockoff goods, often using the same tooling used to make the company's own products. In such cases, Hong Kong patents can be used to help stem the flow of these goods before they reach external markets, particularly if used in conjunction with corresponding Chinese patent protection.

Based on the volume of patent applications in 2008, the Hong Kong office was the 15th largest in the world (WIPO annual report), as shown in the Number of Patent Applications table.

Hong Kong

• Country Code — HK
• Patent Kinds — Patent applications and Granted patents (standard patent); Granted short-term patent
• DWPI Value Add — For basics there will be English titles and/or abstracts with CPI/EPI manual coding. The majority of the standard patents will be equivalents. Any available author titles and abstracts will also be included for member level records.
• Coverage starts from — January 2011
  

The number formats of the Hong Kong patent kinds are outlined in the table.

Document Description	Kind	Raw Patent number	DWPI Patent number	Raw Application number	DWPI Application number
Hong Kong Short-term patent	A2	HK1144226A	HK1144226A2	10110012.1	2010HK110012 A2
Hong Kong Patent application	A0	HK1144171A	HK1144171A0	10110663.3	2010HK110663 A2
Hong Kong Granted patent	A1	HK1073438B	HK1073438A1	05106520.1	2005HK106520 A2

 

A Proximal and a Distal Tip
by Ron Kaminecki, MS, CPL, JD, director, IP segment, U.S. patent attorney

We regret the error
If someone tries to sell you a piece of property, it would be prudent for you not only to check the deed and the sales contract but also to go to the property and have a look. You never know if someone happened to leave a rusty half-filled tank of petroleum underground that will probably not be listed on the deed. Same thing for patents. You don't want to pay for someone else's errors.

Most people know a patent is a static document that almost never changes though the circumstances behind it can be changed. For example, the assignee printed on the cover of the patent may change over time, inventors may be added, claims come and go and even the entire patent may no longer be valid for lack of payment of maintenance fees. Thus, a search of INPADOC/Family and Legal Status and systems like PAIR and other related sources is necessary to show the most recent legal status to ensure the patent is indeed what it claims to be. Certain changes can be found in legal status, such as certificates of correction, reissues, reexaminations, reassignments and the like.

But what about non-patent literature? Juried journals and peer-reviewed articles are about the best means for providing accurate information, but the entire process of multiple-level reviews can take time, and sometimes the information you are looking for needs to be more current.

Thus, searchers will supplement an in-depth patent search by checking newswires, newspapers, conference papers, press releases, trade press and other sources that detail information in a more timely manner than, say, a quarterly scientific publication. However, be advised that in the rush to be the first to get the information out, sometimes errors slip in.

What is Dorothy's little dog doing in a bureau?
Are errors found in very timely information all that bad? After all, it's only a news story. Plus, if one source gets it wrong, multiple sources can be checked to ensure the story is what it should be. Assuming this could be a major problem. Consider the way in which news is published. Much of the press depends upon news bureaus that send reporters out to cover a story and quite often to report from the scene. These bureaus broadcast their information, which is then rewritten, summarized, or used in toto by news publishers with the idea that the news is correct. For the vast majority of such stories, the news is accurate, but sometimes the facts get changed and so the publication will issue a correction.

Newswires typically have important corrections to a news story, while the next level, the news media, typically has more minor changes. This is because the on-the-scene reporter may be involved in the drama of the event, and this may be reflected in the story, but news editors have the responsibility of weeding through the report to separate the sensationalism from the facts. Newswires quite often contain more substantial errors than newspapers. One of my favorites was reported as (source to remain unknown to protect the innocent!): "At 3rd line... please read 'not guilty' [instead of] 'guilty'...as sent." Imagine lining up facts for cross-examination of an expert witness in a patent case about her conviction of a crime only to find out she was really not guilty. Or this one: (again, source redacted): "We are advised by the company that it has acquired select assets of [deleted].com rather than the complete acquisition as originally issued inadvertently (emphasis added)." Imagine relying on a story that has the facts of a case wrong, especially if you are trying to negotiate a deal for assets, only to find not all are owned by the company as found in the original story.

And, newspapers tend to have more minor errors. The New York Times changed a fact in a prior story (A Long, Cold Summer at Mount Rainier, NYT, Late Edition, Final ED, Col 0, p 17, Sunday August 14, 2011) in which it said, "An earlier version of this article contained incorrect photo captions. The photos were taken in August, not April." This is a minor change. Unless, that is, the photos are used in patent litigation to identify a specific date when a device was known to the public, in which case the dates involved can be critical.

So, while you no doubt need to check the background of a patent to look for changes, you need to verify the background of non-patent literature. And, don't rely on finding the same story many times to determine a story is correct; if the reporter gets it wrong, then everyone down the line repeats the mistake until the error is found; so there is no safety in assuming something reported many times must be true.

Most news sources issue corrections, usually very soon after publication of the error, usually under a heading of "Correction," but errors in other news sources can be found by:

Database	File	Strategy to find error corrections
AP News	258	S attn(w)subscribers
(Phoenix) Arizona Republic	492*	S type(w)correction
The Boston Globe®	631*	S reporting(w)error?
Gale Group Newswire ASAP™	649	S correction(w)notice
New York Times® - Fulltext	471	S article(3w)revised or online(w)correction? or correction(w)appended
PR Newswire	613	S corrected(w) release
San Jose Mercury News	634	S correction (w)setting(1w)record(w)straight
USA Today	703	S correction(w)ran

*Historical data only

Unfortunately, there is no one header that can be used to find errors in all databases, but one way of checking for errors in news-related non-patent literature is to search for the same strategy and look at stories posted the next few days. Duplicate detection should be turned off because many of the stories will simply be replaced (again, any news on Dorothy's little dog?) in toto shortly after the original error was published.

Thus, what can you rely upon? Trust but verify, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, the above strategies only cover known or discovered errors. But consider that if opposing parties in a dispute use the same wrong information, maybe they will settle amicably (but maybe not fairly), under the same wrong assumptions!

You think that's an error; I'll show you an error
[Both sources redacted] "In the story "Second Suit Filed Against Japanese Drug Firm in US," a wrong corporate name was given. The corporation mentioned as Genentech should be corrected to Genetics Institute, Inc." Or, "In the story headlined, "Death Sentences to Stand for 3 Men..." please note the following correction...Atsushi Komori...not Atshushi Kobayashi...as the name of the second person."

We regret the error.

 

 Learn about ProQuest

Pulling up shaky numbers? Get on solid ground with two new ProQuest statistical products

Statistics drive business decisions. How big is the market? Who owns market share? How much will it cost? Some of the statistics in a business case are internally generated. Others come from external sources. For one set of numbers you can rely on your finance department; for the others you can rely on ProQuest.

Finding statistics is difficult and can take hours of digging. No, you won’t find just what you need on recent data from the open Web. Usually your questions are very specific — overtime pay in the aerospace industry, number of athletic shoes purchased by households annually. It seems the data is nowhere to be found. Data collection is expensive, and there has to be a financial or legal reason to collect it. Over and over again the numbers are for broader, rather than narrower concepts — you want drug stores by county, but the available data shows health and personal care stores by country.

Two new products from ProQuest^® can make you a hero in your company:

• ProQuest Statistical Insight enables you to search across content compiled from thousands of reliable public domain and licensed sources, whether the information is found in tables, statistical reports, publication abstracts or datasets. Includes:
• Economic indicators for every country in the world — and U.S. states — and regions
• Business outlook surveys of government and industry experts
• Salary and benefits data by industry and occupation
• Market share
• ProQuest Statistical DataSets, available alone or as part of ProQuest Statistical Insight, is a Web-based research solutions tool that lets you build your own statistical charts and tables. It is a unique data visualization and analysis tool that can help pose the “WHY?” questions and provide the right answers.