Publications and Bibliographies
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Publications and Bibliographies | |
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Reviewed by Reviewed by Pauline D. Manaka, University Of California,
Irvine, August, 2002 Revised DRAFT submitted to the ANSS Bibliography Committee, August 2002 ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts, 1987-. Available in print form, on the Web, on CD-ROM, and via Dialog. ASSIA was initially published by Bowker-Sauer in print. In 1994 Bowker produced the CD-ROM version and named it ASSIA-plus. Since 200 Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) produces the ASSIA database web version, going back to 1987. A subset of the database named ASSIA for Health is available via Silver Platter. Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, the main supplier at: Additional information on vendors includes: Dialog Corporation, 11000 Regency Parkway, Suite 10, Cary, North Carolina,
27511 ASSIA operates from a PC compatible platform (MS-DOS). The annual subscription,
$3,335.00 Or Call 1-888-BOWKER2 for price update The Web version of ASSIA under review is supplied by Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. Introduction ASSIA is a comprehensive bibliographic database whose content addresses modern society and its problems. Applied social science literature emphasizes practice, for example social services, law, public service and the caring professions. ASSIA mainly indexes journal literature that describes the applications of models and theories in these subjects to understand and analyze social issues. It is significant because of its interdisciplinary nature and the ability to keep abreast of concepts, trends, and methodologies. It is a smaller database than Sociological Abstracts, and its specific focus is to meet the information needs of those who serve people and the application of theory to practice. To illustrate the significance of the ASSIA database, this review is a comparative examination of its multidisciplinary content and traits in relation to other CSA social science databases, namely, Sociological Abstracts, Social Service Abstracts and Psychological Abstracts, 1984-. The ASSIA database "brings together practical social issues from a wide range of sources underpinned by the core materials from sociology and psychology." It indexes core journals in Sociology and related disciplines. In scope, its coverage is similar to that of the Social Service Abstracts, with a stronger international coverage, and emphasis on British and European articles. Size, Currency, Scope and Coverage ASSIA began in 1987 in paper format. The electronic version started
in 1994 as a CD-ROM followed immediately after by the Web. The CSA version
of ASSIA goes back to 1987. There are monthly updates, with approximately
1700 records added per update. As Of October 2001, it had over 279,890
records, from 680 journals in 16 different countries, divided as follows:
Additions to the database are timely. It covers English language only journals, with selective inclusion of conference papers, not their overviews. At least 80% journals and newspapers are abstracted cover-to-cover and 20% selectively. The ASSIA database excludes book reviews entirely while Sociological Abstracts addresses this. Articles with less than one page are excluded. This means news items and regular features; emphasis is placed on research publications. ASSIA's coverage is on international aspects with particular attention paid to British and European articles intended for social science professionals. A search conducted on "ethnic gangs" in the four related databases, produced the following results:
An examination of the above output illustrates, among other things, the different interpretations of the concept "ethnic" by the databases and perhaps even the UK and US emphases. The ASSIA database covers the following subjects: anxiety disorders, communication, criminology, cultural anthropology, education, ethnic studies, family, geriatrics, health, housing, marriage, nursing, unemployment, immigration, industrial relations, child abuse, legal issues, national health service reforms, political science, psychology, race relations, religion, sociology, social work, substance abuse, urban planning and women's studies. ASSIA also focuses on certain aspects of law, business, national politics, and in particular, local government. User Guidance The Cambridge version of ASSIA provides help menus, which are generic to all CSA databases, as well as basic guidelines for ASSIA users. The help menus cover information and examples that explain the database structure and searching techniques. CSA uses the symbol " i " to describe specific help as needed. Search Guide Cambridge ASSIA provides Quick and Advanced search features. All documents contain short informative abstracts, full bibliographic citations, and index terms that facilitate both general and specific subject searches. There are browse indexes, namely authors, subject, source, publication, year, subject terms and ISSN. Browseability is a useful feature because it allows one to see how a term and its variations. Users can search single words and phrases, or terms may be combined using Boolean connectors to search for relatedness, or to narrow and elaborate a search. The browsable index feature is accessible with the "Quick Search" and "Advanced search" features. ASSIA has a thesaurus, an alphabetical listing of the entire controlled subject descriptors used in the subject field. Access to the online thesaurus and the ability to browse easily, is one of its helpful features. The thesaurus uses British and American English, which in some cases may be confusing. Sources The current Serials Source List is available and is searchable. It is reviewed and frequently updated, and is accessible at: http://www.csa.com/csa/HelpV5/suppl/assia.shtml. The serial list is searchable using the IS = field code followed by the standard ISSN format. For example, the search IS = 0965-2140 retrieved 1406 articles from the journal, Addiction. Electronic Record Structure, Retrieval, and Search Results Records of the databases contain up to 13 searchable field codes:
CSA ASSIA allows easy use of the various search fields through the "Quick" and "Advanced" search features. A drop-down menu box makes limiting by each of the various fields possible. In Advance mode, a click on the drop down menu brings up the list of search fields. The search builder, also known as the query builder, has the function to aid search expansion and direct entry of the search. The searcher can perform the browse function in both Quick and Advance search modes. The browse feature is used to find authors names entered with variant initials or forenames, as well as subjects with some variations in terminology or sources that have changed names. For example, the user types a few letters of the term you wish to browse in the search box and click on browse button. A list of terms beginning word typed will display. Click on the term of choice to view records. If the user wishes to search by field code, enter the search term or terms in the search builder and choose the appropriate field code from the drop list of codes. ASSIA allows the display of most of its searchable fields. A search conducted using the "browse journal name index" on, Crime and Delinquency, yielded results from three of the databases that indexed it:
It is easy to use and access the source list. This helps makes it possible to search peripheral journal titles where applicable. The journal name index is easy to access from the source list which allows the user to limit to more popular as well as obscure journal titles. The CSA feature to search or browse multiple social sciences databases at the same time enhances the value of the ASSIA database. The thesaurus is available online. To use it, the user copies and pastes the term in the search box, after browsing. The field name will change from free text to a subject search when the thesaurus term appears. The "+"sign next to term when using the thesaurus, displays other terms that have a broader, narrower or related meaning. For example, a search on the thesaurus descriptors "singlehood" or "singleness" was conducted instead of the keyword "single parent*" The results are as follows:
Terms are unique to the thesaurus in each database. An examination of the results illustrates the output from ASSIA was smaller because it does not index books, dissertations and conference papers. The ASSIA database was unique, with few duplicate articles across databases, and the abstracts were used consistently for duplicate articles. The ASSIA database normally stated if the abstracts were amended and the bibliographic record indicates if there are tables and references. ASSIA provides the ability to mark the relevant hits by indicating a check next to the item number. The user can e-mail, print or download to a disk the marked items. To e-mail search results, the user must fill out an extra box with a fake e-mail address from; otherwise, it will not work. The ASSIA database supports short and long bibliographic format display and printing; there are no full-text citations. By linking to local library catalogs, a capability provided by CSA, the user retrieves full-text journal articles. Linking also makes it possible to get the Library holdings. Database Enhancements The Indexing of Web Resources Cambridge Scientific Abstracts has greatly improved the quality of Web sites indexed by the database. A search conducted on the keyword, "AIDS prevention" yields 12 Web Resources in ASSIA. A review of the web sites cited indicated excellent practical resources on the prevention and cure of the AIDS virus worldwide. Full text Journal Linking CSA has made improvements whereby local library subscription to serial holdings provides access to full-text journals. An example is the California Digital Library (CDL) UC-elinks. However, the need still exists to broaden the access of most indexed journals. This would provide an extra attraction to market ASSIA as one of the few databases whose content is relatively recent. For instance, in the case of the journal Gender and Society, several UC libraries have Internet access starting in 1998. The one article retrieved from the search on "ethnic gangs," in ASSIA were from volume 9, issue #4, August 1995. Retrospective full text coverage could improve the significance of the database especially in the United States. Potential Use of Bibliographic Managers At present ASSIA does not provide use of the CSA software found at http://www.endnote.com/help/enfilters.asp. It is not one of the CSA databases using the Bibliographic Manager version 9 to format citations in EndNote as well as Procite on the cambridge.cfg. ASSIA however, has great potential for this. Conclusion ASSIA is "neat and efficient," and was cited as one of the "best in databases and CD-ROMS" for the year 2001. In comparison with Social Service Abstracts, the social science scope of ASSIA has a broader range on practice research, and a higher quality of indexing and abstracting that is comparable with that of Sociological Abstracts. Yet, ASSIA maintains its unique capabilities. However, a further improvement is welcome overall if CSA help menus cease to be generic in nature and the help screens refer specially to ASSIA. References La Guardia, C. "Best Reference Sources 2001: Databases and CD-ROMS"
Library Journal April 15 2002. http://libraryjournal.org |
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