Glossary of Search Terms
A | B | C | D | E | F
| G | H |I | J | K | L | M
N
| O | P | Q | R | S | T
| U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Additional Indexes include all other searchable fields in the database, for example, the company name field, the journal field, the number of employees field.
The Basic Index is the index of subject words in a database.
The BEGIN command allows us to access a database. Each database has a file number. To access a specific database, we enter the command BEGIN (abbreviated B) followed by the file number of the database to be searched. Databases and their file numbers are listed at http://library.dialog.com. Dialog databases can also be searched as a group of up to 60 databases. Each BEGIN command we enter clears all sets we have created.
Bibliographic citation includes the title, author, date of publication, and source of an article. The amount of information may vary according to the database.
BIOSIS Previews® (File 5) contains over 8.3 million citations covering research in the biological and biomedical sciences. The database includes accounts of original research from about 7,600 primary journals, citations from meeting abstracts, reviews, books, research communications, and selected institutional and government reports, and some U.S. patents.
Classic Dialog provides the fastest and most powerful way to search for information. The powerful, yet flexible, Dialog search systems allow instant retrieval of exactly the information you need in a text-based format.
The CURRENT command allows us to restrict a search to the most recent records in a file. It is appended to the BEGIN command: BEGIN 155 CURRENT. We can restrict to records added during the most current calendar year and the previous year, or to the current year and a specified number of years, up to five:
CURRENT restricts to current year plus one back year
CURRENT1 restricts to current year plus one back year
CURRENT2 restricts to current year plus two back years
CURRENT3 restricts to current year plus three back years
CURRENT4 restricts to current year plus four back years
CURRENT5 restricts to current year plus five back years
A database is a collection of related information stored electronically. The database includes the documents, or records, plus its associated indexes.
Subject descriptors, or subject headings, are terms that express the main topics found in an article. Descriptors are usually assigned by a person who reads the article. Searching on descriptor terms helps eliminate records that may have the search terms, but are not really about the topic.
DialogWeb provides easy access to the full content (over 450 databases), power, and precision of Dialog through a Web browser. There are two search modes available in DialogWeb: (1) Guided Search, and (2) Command Search. The online courses use the Command Search interface and Dialog commands. If you are also interested in trying the Guided Search, review the DialogWeb Guided Search Tutorial pdf.
Special features of DialogWeb include:
- A flexible and easy-to-use Guided Search mode that does not require knowledge of the Dialog command language
- databases selection tools to help pinpoint the right database for a search
- Integrated database descriptions, pricing information, and other search assistance
- Search results available in HTML or text formats
- A choice of displaying or printing records or sending search results via email, fax, or postal delivery
DIALINDEX is a master index to most of the Dialog databases. In DIALINDEX we can compare the number of records retrieved from a group of databases. DIALINDEX is particularly useful when we do not know which databases to search, when the topic is not well-known, or when we want to do a comprehensive search and cover everything on a topic.
The Medicine category includes databases such as Biosis® Previews,The Lancet®, Cancerlit, New England Journal of Medicine, and EMBASE®, to name a few. This category covers biological sciences, medicine, and pharmaceutical information.
EMBASE® (Excerpta Medica)(File 72) is a current, comprehensive pharmacological and biomedical file. It consists of abstracts and citations to over 3,500 journals published in 110 countries throughout the world. EMBASE concentrates in particular on European sources and is renowned for its coverage of the drug-related literature.
A field is a distinct part or section of a record. Typical fields include title, author, journal name, and publication date. In a business directory database, fields include company name, city names, zip codes, sales figures, to name a few. Check the Bluesheet since fields vary according to the database.
Formats determine the amount of information displayed for each record. The basic format options are: 6, 8, 3, 9, and K. Formats vary according to the database chosen.
Identifiers are index terms assigned to a record by an indexer but are generally not from a controlled vocabulary. Identifiers frequently are proper names, geographic locations, or terms that have not yet been added to the thesaurus.
INSPEC (File 2,3,4) (The Database for Physics, Electronics and Computing) is the major source of information on the worldwide literature of physics, electronics, electrical engineering, computers and control, and information technology. INSPEC has three files with different years of coverage: File 2 (1969 to the present); File 3 (Archival file from 1969 to 1982); and File 4 (Current file from 1983 to the present).
Logical operators define the logical relationships among the terms being searched. Three kinds of logical relationships are defined on Dialog: OR, AND, and NOT. Logical operators are also known as Boolean operators.
The LOGOFF command ends your search activities for a given session. You may also use several shorter words to disconnect, including BYE, LOG, OFF, QUIT, or STOP. When you enter LOGOFF, Dialog displays estimated costs for the search session, then disconnects you from the Dialog system. When you logoff, all of the sets created are erased.
The Medicine category includes databases such as BIOSIS® Previews, The Lancet®, Cancerlit®, New England Journal of Medicine, and EMBASE®, to name a few. This category covers biological sciences, medicine, and pharmaceutical information.
MEDLINE® (File 155) is one of the major sources for biomedical literature. The database covers virtually every subject in the broad field of biomedicine, indexing articles from more than 3,700 international journals published in the United States and 70 other countries.
OneSearch® allows us to conduct a full search of a collection of related databases (up to 60), browse the indexes, or display records. We can search using OneSearch categories or mix OneSearch categories and file numbers (e.g., b businessnews, 471).
PROMT® (File 16) is a multi-industry database that provides broad international coverage of companies, products, markets, and applied technologies for virtually all manufacturing and service industries. It contains publications from trade journals, local newspapers, regional business publications, national and international business newspapers, trade and business newsletters, research studies, investment analysts' reports, news releases, and corporate annual reports.
Proximity connectors specify the relative nearness or adjacency of search terms. They are used in two-word or multiple-word phrases or phrases that have punctuation or stop words. Proximity connectors on Dialog include (w), (n), (#w), (#n), and (s).
A record is a generic term for the discrete items in a database. Depending on the database, a record may be a news article, company profile, patent, numeric data, or other type of document.
The SELECT command, abbreviated S, retrieves records containing the specified search terms and stores them in a numbered set. S1 is the Set number that Dialog assigns to the first set of records retrieved. The number of records in the database containing the search terms appears under the column Items.
Stop words are nine non-searchable words on the Dialog system. They include: AN, AND, BY, FOR, FROM, OF, THE, TO, WITH. These words should not be included in a subject search.
