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CABI Publishing is a not-for-profit organization specializing in scientific publishing, research and communication. CAB Abstracts (File 50) is the leading English-language bibliographic information service providing access to the world's agricultural literature. It has a long-standing reputation for comprehensive, quality abstracting and indexing, and integrity of its data. This should be the first stop for the serious researcher.
Global Health (File 162) is the only specialist bibliographic, abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health research and practice. You will learn more about these to databases in the overview that follows. Both databases are free files of the month on Dialog for August.
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CABI can trace its origins back to 1910. It began as an entomological research committee, then developed into a Commonwealth organization before becoming a truly international service in agricultural information, pest identification and biological control. CABI is committed to providing high value scholarly databases and books to meet the needs of the scientific community.
Produced by CABI Publishing, CAB Abstracts (File 50 on Dialog) is a leading English language bibliographic database, providing access to the world's applied life sciences and agricultural literature. Its coverage is from 1972 to the present; updated weekly.
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In today's global environment, no professional can afford to be unaware of world-wide developments. Outbreaks of SARS or avian influenza have highlighted the threat that the growth of international travel and migration poses for the global spread of disease. To cope with this threat, it is vital that professionals have access to the best research in public health. Global Health provides this.
Global Health began as the Public Health and Tropical Medicine Databases, published by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases. Established in 2003, this key public health database provides comprehensive, yet selective, coverage of information related to human health and communicable diseases from 1973 to the present, updated monthly. Global Health is designed to solve local problems with global information.
For access to crucial research before 1973 — going all the way back to 1910 — CAB Abstracts Archive and Global Health archive are available on DataStar as subscriber files. The Archives can also be searched alongside the current files, allowing you to see quickly and easily what has been discovered before and what trends have emerged over time.
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A comparison of the two databases provides more information about these files.
CAB Abstracts (File 50) contains approximately 7.52 million records with 250,000 new records added each year. These records come from over 150 countries in more than 50 languages. 95 percent of the records include an abstract, and for non-English records the abstracts are translated into English. CAB Abstracts contains over 7,000 academic journals and approximately 3,500 other documents including books, book chapters, reports, "grey" literature, and conferences proceedings. According to a published study, CAB Abstracts covered more of the "core agricultural serials" than any other database examined. Out of 545 serials identified as "core agricultural serials" CAB Abstracts indexed 498 or 91.4%
Some statistics about Global Health (File 162) emphasize its importance to public health worldwide.
Derived from over 3,500 core journals, plus reports, books, patents, theses and conference papers, Global Health contains over 2.18 million scientific records from 1973 to the present. More than 90,000 records are added each year, and over 97% of these records include an abstract. Publications from over 158 countries in 50 languages are abstracted, and all relevant non-English language papers are translated to give access to research not available through any other database. The database's open serials policy and coverage of international and grey literature means that 40% of material contained in Global Health is unique to the database.
Global Health on Dialog contains information from 1973 to the present.
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The subject coverage in these databases is extensive. CAB Abstracts includes agriculture, including animal production and welfare, horticulture, crop science and protection, applied economics and rural studies, animal and veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, human health, food and nutrition, including food science and communicable diseases, leisure and tourism, microbiology and parasitology, and plant sciences. This extended coverage makes CAB Abstracts the ideal resource to answer your varied needs.
Global Health covers all aspects of public health at both international and community level, as well as a wealth of material from other biomedical and life science fields. It provides international coverage of all aspects of public health, including health promotion, public health emergencies, environmental and occupational health, nutrition and food science, infectious diseases, health systems, tropical and international health and diagnosis and therapy of disease.
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CABI has a selective editorial policy. Subject specialists assess thousands of serials. Key titles, where all the papers are likely to be relevant, are indexed cover-to-cover, while for other titles, only those articles that fall within the scope of the database are selected. As well as selecting from thousands of core scientific journals, the databases also offer extensive coverage of "grey" literature from around the world, such as annual reports, general reports, books and book chapters, handbooks, bulletins, monographs, conference proceedings, newsletters, discussion papers, technical information, field notes, and theses. The inclusion of this material ensures users have access to all the important research being undertaken around the world, not just the research published in core academic journals. For example, 60% of the journals contained in Global Health are unique to the database.
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Sources in CAB Abstracts and Global Health are gathered worldwide. For all regions, states, and countries, research and knowledge produced locally is of key relevance. The sources are published locally, nationally and internationally and aim to include information that would otherwise be difficult to find.
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These files have a unique focus on developing countries at approximately 27 percent. In addition, they contain non-English language information including Chinese, German, French and other data from Europe and Asia.
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Although CAB Abstracts emphasizes agriculture, the main thing that sets CAB Abstracts apart from other databases is that records from less well-known publications, including foreign language journals, independent publishers and learned societies are included. This means you get the most thorough picture of the research going on globally in your field at any one time. CAB Abstracts is the leading database in many areas not traditionally associated with agriculture. For example, File 50 is a primary source of information on key environmental topics such as climate change and its effect on disease.
Global Health provides access to all relevant research, wherever, and in whatever format, it is published. For example, as well as unique coverage of non-serial literature, about 2,500 of the journals included in Global Health are unique to the database. Global Health gives access to information published locally, nationally, and internationally, and aims to include information that would otherwise be difficult to find. Local health studies can also inform the international research arena, for example, work from Australia on skin cancer prevention or from Germany on AIDS prevention.
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It is easy to search effectively in CABI databases. The CAB Thesaurus provides a controlled vocabulary of more than 48,000 descriptive terms. Subject classification and indexing of all records is carried out by specialist editors. The bottom of each record contains indexing, including descriptors or the CAB thesaurus of controlled vocabulary, geographic names that let you narrow a search to specific parts of the world, and CABICodes to identify categories you can search using the codes in parentheses. This indexing helps to make each search more targeted and more effective.
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The following example illustrates the type of information you can find in CAB Abstracts. In this example are the results of a search on climatic change and diseases. These records are from different climatic regions—Europe and India. We'll look at the complete record 1 next.
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Record 1 lists the title, author, and author's email and postal addresses. Also, given are the journal information and publication year so you can obtain the full article. The language is English and the article is from a journal. A concise abstract is given. And, if you want to find other articles on this topic descriptors and identifiers and CABI Codes provide other keywords and codes to search for a similar topic.
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This next example comes from Global Health. This journal article is a result of a search on obesity in the United States. The first two titles illustrate different points of view about obesity. We'll take a look at the complete record 2 next.
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This journal article discusses a possible connection between reducing smoking and the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Email addresses for all authors are provided, as well as a postal address. The journal information and publication year are also given. The abstract points out that studies have found different results. Descriptors and identifiers will help you find other articles on this particular topic.
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As you can see, CAB Abstracts and Global Health databases provide comprehensive coverage of the life sciences and public health worldwide.
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This completes our overview of CAB Abstracts and Global Health. Thank you for your interest in these premier databases and put them on your list to try for free in August.