Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : September/October 2004

Dialog DataStarWeb Expands Functionality with RANK and New Alerts Features

The RANK command has now been added to Dialog DataStarWeb so that you can find statistical trends in search results. In addition, greater Alerts functionality—the ability to set up multifile Alerts, edit Alerts and use a tool to track Alert deliveries—is available.

The RANK Option

To help you pinpoint essential information relevant to your search, Dialog DataStarWeb offers a new data-mining tool called RANK. The RANK command analyzes statistical trends found in your search results by counting the occurrences of unique terms within a specific field.

Depending on the database selected, specific document fields are conveniently listed in a drop-down box from approximately 122 of the Dialog DataStar databases. Some of the fields that can be ranked are: descriptor terms, author, journal, company names, CAS® registry numbers and country.

RANK Samples

You can answer a number of important questions by RANKing authors, sources or descriptors. Some examples include:

• Who was the most published author in a given field in a given country in the last three years?
  
  
• Who are the top experts on SARS?
  
  
• Name the top three writers on evidence-based gastroenterology this year.
  
  
• I want to advertise my new drug in the top five journals publishing about this drug.
  
  
• Which journals lead the way in Endoscopy disinfection research?
  
  
• Which journals are publishing most about AIDS research in Africa?
  
  
• What are the topics this journal deals with most?
  
  
• What areas of expertise does this author/university/journal/country have?
  
  
• How can I find good "descriptors" for a given topic?
  
  

How It Works

RANK is available on the official Dialog DataStarWeb site at www.datastarweb.com. Note: If you have a customized DataStarWeb site, you must specifically request that RANK be visible. Once requested, it can then be enabled by the DataStarWeb group, either for all databases that offer ranking or for particular databases only.

1. View Figure 1

   In Advanced search, enter your search strategy. If the database allows ranking, a RANK button will appear next to the Show Titles hyperlink as shown in Figure 1. Click the RANK button to begin.
   
   
2. On the Rank page, enter a value representing the total number of documents that you want to rank (e.g., if you enter 500, documents 1-500 will be ranked).
   
   
3. From the drop-down box, select the field you want to rank. Only fields listed in the drop-down box are available.
   
   

4. View Figure 2

   Then, select the maximum number of terms that should be displayed at one time and click . See Figure 2.
   
   

View Figure 3

DataStar will rank your results and display them in descending order by total number of occurrences. See Figure 3.

You can also continue a search on the ranked results. Check one or more of the boxes next to the ranked results and, if available, the ranked field box listed next to the count of occurrences. If you select more than one ranked result, use the Boolean operator to combine them from the drop-down box. Activate by pressing . The results will display in the search history box.

New Alerts Features

Three new features enhance Alerts on Dialog DataStarWeb: Multifile Alerts, Editing Alerts and an Alert Tracking Tool.

Multifile Alerts

View Figure 4

A new enhancement now allows you to create multifile Alerts on Dialog DataStarWeb. With this newly designed feature, you can set up a search strategy, repeat it in a total of 59 databases and then create individual Alerts, which will be processed from each independent database. You can also remove duplicate documents from the Alert results by setting up a common folder for the output. The document fields are then scanned and any duplicate records removed before delivery. See Figure 4.

Edit Alerts

View Figure 5

You can now edit your Alerts on Dialog DataStarWeb using an improved display on the "Existing Alerts" page. In the drop-down display box, select from among options including: the Alert name, search strategy, databases in which the Alert runs and destination delivery type (e-mail, postal, and for subscribers only, PrivateStar). See Figure 5.

View Figure 6

Then, run the Alert search strategy in the database where it was set up to quickly verify results or delete the Alert entirely. You can also edit the entire search strategy, and/or change any of the individual Alert options, such as the delivery destination, the document format style, the delivery frequency, the duplicate documents folder or e-mail addresses. You can enter additional e-mail addresses as well. See Figure 6.

Alert Tracking Tool

View Figure 7

The Alert Delivery Tracker is an administration tool to monitor the status of all of your Alerts and Document Deliveries sent in the last two months via e-mail from DataStarWeb. This tool enables you to see why an Alert failed by viewing an error message possibly produced by a misspelled e-mail address, spam filters or other problems. You can also resend an Alert or Document Delivery, edit an e-mail address or add additional ones with this tool. See Figure 7.

top