Cochrane reviews are known to be a high-quality source of evidence synthesis supporting health care decisions. In a recently conducted study, we analyzed the trends in epidemiology and reporting of published systematic reviews over the last 20 years. This sample of 1132 systematic reviews included 84 Cochrane reviews. We have learned several…

Introduction and aim: NICE guideline surveillance determines whether previously published guidelines need updating. The surveillance process must balance time constraints with methodological rigor. It includes a rapid review to identify new evidence to contradict, reinforce or clarify guideline recommendations. Despite this approach, the screening…

The diversity of engineering education research provides an opportunity for cross-fertilisation of ideas and creativity, but it also can result in fragmentation of the field and duplication of effort. One solution is to establish a standardised taxonomy of engineering education terms to map the field and communicate and connect research…

Two articles provide: (1) instructions for gaining telecommunications access to CHILDES, a child language database; and (2) the conventions guiding transcript coding in the database. The first article provides access instructions for telecommunications systems, the commands a user would need to know, and brief notes on searching and other aspects…

This document is the newest revision of the third manual documenting the National Agricultural Library database. Since it began in 1970, the AGRICOLA database has continued to grow and to change steadily; new subfiles have been added, database record formats have been expanded, and subject category code schemes have been modified several times.…

This guide presents the policies and procedures used by the North Dakota State University Libraries for indexing "The Forum," a daily newspaper serving eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. The guide includes lists of material to be included and excluded, timetables for updating the index, duties of the editor and the library…

Designed for educators requesting information from ERIC and for the search intermediary who channels educators' requests to a search service, this updated guide explains in non-technical language the steps involved in preparing a computer search for the ERIC database. A beginning section on how to initiate a search discusses the choice of a…

As established within the framework of the UNISIST world science information system, the International Serials Data System (ISDS) is an international network of operational national and regional centers, jointly responsible for the creation and maintenance of computer based data banks, which contain essential information for the identification of…

Focuses on indexing refinements in major life science databases--those specializing in biological/biomedical literature coverage--which influence cross-life searching decisions. Tables included highlight database descriptions, comparisons in coverage, ease of access (indexing of secondary concepts or search modifiers), chemical substance indexing…

The indexing rules presented are designed for use with a new French-German database on metallurgy being developed under an agreement by CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) and BAM (Bundesanstalt fur Materialprufung, Berlin). The new database, which will feature multilingual titles and index terms (French-German-English-) and…

Monographs, periodical literature, documents, unpublished reports, and non-print materials in both English and Spanish would be included in a proposed Hispanic data base built around an initial 15 contributing collections totalling an estimated 100,000 items. Because users would employ indexing terms to access the data base, a thesaurus is…

A study of 1264 incidents of journal mutilation at New York University indicates no relationship between the availability of indexing and abstracting services on CD-ROM databases and mutilation. Recommends posting warnings; raising awareness; providing adequate photocopiers, change, and vendor card machines; announcing closing time; encouraging…

In 1982 a study was conducted to analyze educational software information currently available to Canadian educators and to develop a plan for effectively collecting, organizing, and disseminating courseware information in the future. The teachers, students, librarians, educational resource personnel, and administrators included in the study…

This chapter describes how ERIC addresses the problems resulting from four conditions that make it unique in the indexing field: (1) its subject area includes a wide range of subspecialists; (2) its clientele is extremely diverse; (3) it has a dual retrieval purpose--for both manual and computer access; and (4) its retrieval is challenged by the…

Describes the experiences of Rhode Island's Higher Education Library Information Network (HELIN) Consortium in purchasing electronic journals and databases. Discusses criteria and guidelines developed to help in the decision making process, including coverage, indexing, search features, help features, screen design, full text availability,…