Chemical Information Science Coverage in Chemical Abstracts
GARY WIGGINS
Chemistry Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
For many years Chemical Abstracts has included in its coverage publications on chemical documentation or chemical information science. Although the bulk of those publications can be found in section 20 of Chemical Abstracts, many relevant articles were found scattered among 39 other sections of CA in 1984-85. In addition to the scattering of references in CA, the comprehensiveness of Chemical Abstracts as a secondary source for chemical information science is called into question. Data are provided on the journals which contributed the most references on chemical information science and on the languages of publication of relevant articles.
Any abstracting or indexing service which publishes its entries in a classified system is faced with a dilemma--where to put the main entry for an item which is clearly interdisciplinary. Articles written on the subject of chemical information science are often interdisciplinary, so Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) must frequently deal with the question of placement of such articles in their main printed product, Chemical Abstracts (CA). Since the beginning of 1972, publications on chemical history, education, and documentation (information science) have been abstracted primarily in section 20 of Chemical Abstracts.1 Some cross-references at the end of that section are given for relevant entries placed in other sections of CA. The present study investigates the extent to which relevant articles dealing with chemical information science are scattered in other sections of CA in recent years. In addition, comments on the comprehensiveness of CA's coverage of chemical information science are presented.
Entries in the 1984 and 1985 issues of the Current Awareness Profile on Chemical Information (a computer-based standard interest profile consisting of edited entries from an SDI search using CAS's Individual Search Service) were examined.2 The profile entries were classified into the following categories:
1. General chemical or scientific information
2. Dictionaries, nomenclature
3. Handbooks
4. Pattern recognition, QSAR, artificial intelligence.
All of the entries in the first section of each profile issue were examined for the period 1984-85, covering v. 100-103 of Chemical Abstracts. Based on those publications, relevant entries were found in 40 different sections of CA.
The selection of Chemical Abstracts as the only secondary source for publications on the topic of chemical information science leads to the exclusion of a number of relevant articles, as the following will illustrate. Two journals in which significant articles on the subject of online searching in chemically-related databases have been published in recent years are Online and Database. Appendix I lists several 1983 articles from those journals which, in the author's opinion, should have been covered by Chemical Abstracts. However, as of September 20, 1986, none of the articles had been abstracted by CAS.3 At the very least, users of CA should expect coverage of relevant articles from Database. Since March 1979, that journal has included a regular feature called "Chemcorner" written or edited by Dr. Robert E. Buntrock. Prior to 1979, the column appeared in Online. Nevertheless, the "CAS 1986 DDS; Directory of Publications" which lists in alphabetical order the nearly 10,000 journals, technical reports, and other serials currently received at Chemical Abstracts Service does not include these well-known journals.4,5
Two papers by Ayers include data on the coverage of chemical information science by Chemical Abstracts Service.6 Conclusions about the major journals of chemical information science and the languages of publication of relevant works were reached by examining the entries in only one section of Chemical Abstracts. However, Ayers' decision to limit his studies to just the main section in which chemical information science publications are abstracted in CA undoubtedly skewed the results, as will be shown below.
In 1971, Ayers reported that 1228 journal articles were published on chemical information science topics in the period 1962-69, an average of 154 per year. Increasing numbers of chemical information science publications were found in Ayers' second study (1981) which was expanded to include conference proceedings. In v. 70-71 (1969) and in v. 90-91 (1979) of Chemical Abstracts, he noted virtually the same number of works published on the topic each year (221 in 1969, 220 in 1979). However, in the present study, for the two-year period 1984-1985, an average of only 179 relevant publications was found in section 20. In addition, an average of 109 publications considered relevant to chemical information science by the author was found in 39 sections other than section 20. Whether this represents a decrease in the number of works published on chemical information science topics or a tendency by CAS to scatter the more recent works throughout sections of CA was not determined, since no attempt to verify Ayers' results was made. In all, forty sections of CA including section 20 contributed relevant publications in 1984-1985. While section 20 is obviously the area of greatest concentration of publications on chemical information science, a thorough analysis of the literature on this subject in Chemical Abstracts should be more broadly based than just that one section.
In order to support that contention, a sampling of the 217 references which appeared in 1984-85 in sections of CA other than section 20 plus one such 1986 CA reference are included as Appendix II. While some might argue with the relevance of certain of the publications found outside section 20, it cannot be denied that many chemical information scientists would find a substantial number of them to be of interest. Only one of the nine publications in Appendix II (the paper on PHYTOTOX published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences) was cross-referenced from section 20.
Table I. Sections of Chemical Abstracts with Five or More References on Chemical Information Science Topics, 1984-85 (As Listed in the Current Awareness Profile on Chemical Information). Section Section Number of Number Title References Percentage
3 Biochemical Genetics 6 1.0 4 Toxicology 10 1.7 6 General Biochemistry 6 1.0 9 Biochemical Methods 16 2.8 20 History, Education, and Documentation 357 62.2 21 General Organic Chemistry 16 2.8 22 Physical Organic Chemistry 18 3.1 48 Unit Operations and Processes 15 2.6 51 Fossil Fuels, Derivatives, and Related Products 6 1.0 59 Air Pollution and Industrial Hygiene 9 1.6 65 General Physical Chemistry 8 1.4 73 Optical, Electron, and Mass Spectroscopy and Other Related Properties 15 2.6 75 Crystallography and Liquid Crystals 14 2.4 79 Inorganic Analytical Chemistry 17 3.0 80 Organic Analytical Chemistry 7 1.2 Twenty five Other Sections (with 1-4 references each) 54 9.4 574 99.8%
Based on the 574 references from 1984-85 which were included in this study, certain statements can be made about the literature of chemical information science as covered by Chemical Abstracts.
1. English continues to be the dominant language of publication for chemical information science.
Table II. Language of Publication of Chemical Information Science Works Abstracted in Chemical Abstracts v. 100-103, 1984-85.
Number of Language References Percentage English 368 64.1% Japanese 72 12.5 Russian 45 7.8 German 34 5.9 Chinese 16 2.8 French 11 1.9 Spanish 10 1.7 Eight Other Languages 18 _3.1 574 99.8%
2. The Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences is the leading journal in which English-language articles relevant to chemical information science are published.
Table III. Source Publications for English-Language Works on Chemical Information Science Abstracted in Chemical Abstracts v. 100-103, 1984-85. Abbreviated Journal Title or Number of Type of Publication References Percentage
J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 113 30.7% Comput. Phys. Commun. 13 3.5 Nucleic Acids Res.7 8 2.2 TrAC, Trends Anal. Chem. (Pers. Ed.) 5 1.4 J. Chem. Educ.8 5 1.4 Chem. Br. 5 1.4 CHEMTECH 5 1.4 Seventy nine Other Journals 106 28.8 Conference Proceedings Articles 71 19.3 Books 20 5.4 Technical Reports 17 4.6 368 100.1%
There is a large amount of scattering of chemical information science publications in many journals and other works. This fact alone makes it understandable that Chemical Abstracts Service might overlook some relevant publications. Chemical Abstracts is, after all, an abstracting journal which is devoted more to areas central to the discipline of chemistry than to supportive areas like chemical information science. Nevertheless, as the major English-language chemistry abstracting journal which has elected to include in its coverage chemical information science, one might expect better coverage of relevant English-language publications. Until CAS improves its coverage in that area, chemical information scientists must use other sources to achieve truly comprehensive coverage of the relevant literature. Those who choose to utilize only CA should be aware of the scattering of relevant references in many different sections of CA and the seemingly sporadic use of cross-references from section 20 to relevant articles in other sections. It is the author's opinion that Chemical Abstracts Service should re-examine its editorial policy for the area of chemical information science to include more informative (not necessarily research) articles in English. Furthermore, there should be more consistency in the use of cross-references from section 20 to relevant chemical information science articles in other sections of CA.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks are due to two former students, Michael Harrell and Jeffrey Baer, for providing the incentive to complete this paper.
REFERENCES AND NOTES
(1) Prior to 1972, section 1 of Chemical Abstracts covered history, education, and documentation.
(2) Current Awareness Profile on Chemical Information; ISSN 0276-8712; Wiggins, Gary, Ed.; Chemical Information Center : Bloomington, Indiana, 1981-85.
The publication was issued quarterly in all years but the first and was based on a CAS Individual Search Service SDI profile covering v. 94-103 (1981-85) of CA.
(3) Appendix I originally included two 1984 articles from Online Review and a 1984 Online article. However, these were removed when it was discovered that Chemical Abstracts Service added those references to the CA database in the summer of 1986.
(4) "CAS 1986 DDS : Directory of Publications; Serials Currently Received at CAS"; Chemical Abstracts Service: Columbus, Ohio, 1986.
It should be noted that Online was previously included in CA's coverage. Prior to 1982, there are eight citations tothe journal in the STN International CA File. Neither Database nor Online Review had any entries in the CA File until the summer of 1986 when four references to Database, two to Online, and six to Online Review were added.
(5) It cannot be argued that CAS's editorial policy excludes articles of the type listed in Appendix I. One can, for example, find the following reference in CA section 20 v. 100 issue 9 abstract number 67418u:
Revesz, Gabrielle S.; Cassidy, Phoebe A. "Modern Literature Searching; the Case of C4". CHEMTECH 1984, 14(1), 18-25.
That article discusses online literature searching, including the steps and logic involved, as well as the search costs and the databases used. These are topics typically found in articles published in Online, Online Review, or Database.
(6) Ayers, Jerry B. "Journal and Conference Proceedings of Chemical History, Education, and Documentation". J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1981, 21, 71-72.
Ayers, Jerry B. "The Journals of Chemical History, Education, and Documentation". J. Chem. Doc. 1971, 11, 12-13.
(7) The fact that Nucleic Acids Res. appears among the top six journals of chemical information science which publish articles in English points out one of the pitfalls in such ranked lists. All of the references are taken from a special issue (v. 12 issue 1 pt. 1-2) which was devoted to the applications of computers to research on nucleic acids.
(8) Curiously, Chemical Abstracts Service neglects to include some relevant articles from J. Chem. Educ. in its chemical information science coverage. For example, none of the following articles had been abstracted by CAS as of September 20, 1986:
Gorin, George. "An Approach to Teaching Chemical Information Retrieval". J. Chem. Educ. 1982, 59, 991-994.
Wiggins, Gary. "The Indiana University Chemical Information Center Program of Chemical Literature Instruction". J. Chem. Educ. 1982, 59, 994-997.
Hendrickson, W.A. "Library Searching; An Industrial User's Viewpoint". J. Chem. Educ. 1982, 59, 997-999.
Allen, Ferne C. "Instruction in Chemical Literature; Industrial Librarian Viewpoint". J. Chem. Educ. 1982, 59, 999-1002.
Appendix I
Selected Articles from 1983 Issues of Online and Database which are Relevant to Chemical Information Science, But Not Abstracted in Chemical Abstracts as of September 20, 1986.
Kaback, Stuart M. "Online Patent Searching: The Realities". Online 1983, 7(4), 22-31.
Hartwell, Ieva O. "Using the New Features in the DIALOG Chemical Information System". Database 1983, 6(1), 11-27.
Buntrock, Robert E. "Database Search Aids Review: Guides to Chemical Searching Online Chemical Abstracts". Database 1983, 6(1), 65-68.
Dueltgen, Ronald R. "Chemcorner: Chemical Information in Non-Chemical Databases. IV. Forest and Paper Databases". Database 1983, 6(2), 80-83.
Antony, Arthur. "Chemcorner: Registry Numbers on CA SEARCH: Four Vendor Interpretations". Database 1983, 6(3), 76-83.
Appendix II
Sampling of Chemical Information Science Citations in Sections of Chemical Abstracts Other Than Section 20, 1984-86.
104(22):190364h CASCT 55
Balasubramanian, V.; Bhattacharyya, S. "Iron and Steel Online Search System". Online Rev. 1985, 9(3), 251-52.
103(20):162859j CASCT 51
Fries, J.R.; Kennedy, F.E. "Bibliographic Databases in Tribology". J. Tribol. 1985, 107(3), 285-295.
103(4):26390x CASCT 59
Conkling, Thomas W. "On-line Information Systems for the Environmental Sciences". J. Environ. Sci. 1985, 28(2), 70- 73.
102(25):220149v CASCT 21
Rhodes, Peter. "Chemical Structures Online". Chem. Br. 1985, 21(1), 53, 55, 58.
102(7):61538c CASCT 22
Morffew, Andy. "Databases in Molecular Graphics". J. Mol. Graphics 1984, 2(3), 66-69.
101(16):133257q CASCT 48
Selover, T.B., Jr. "The Engineering Societies Library: An Untapped Resource for Chemical Engineers". AIChE Symp. Ser. 1984, 80(237), 12-15.
101(4):26683d CASCT 54
McGarr, M. "IMMAGE-the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy Information Service for the International Minerals Industry". Appl. Comput. Math. Miner. Ind., Pap. Int. Symp., 18th 1984, 703-712.
100(15):116098a CASCT 04*
Royce, Christopher L.; Fletcher, John S.; Risser, Paul G.; McFarlane, James C.; Benenati, Frank E. "PHYTOTOX: A Database Dealing with the Effect of Organic Chemicals on Terrestrial Vascular Plants". J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1984 24(1), 7-10.
100(9):62823n CASCT 03
Chen, H.R.; Dayhoff, M.O.; Barker, W.C.; Hunt, L.T.; Yeh, L.S.; George, D.G.; Orcutt, B.C. "Nucleic Acid Sequence Database. V: Completely Sequenced Genomes". DNA 1983, 2(4), 275-80.
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*Only this paper of the nine listed above has a cross-reference from section 20.