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PubMedDate not supplied

Construction of HSC-2DPAGE: a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis database of heart proteins.

The dissemination of information relating to the characterisation of proteins from two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) gel databases is essential for their effective utilisation in the study of protein expression in cell biology. Since the inception of the World Wide Web and the pioneering development of SWISS-2DPAGE as a tool for retrieving information on proteins separated by 2-DE, the Internet has become the method of choice for disseminating and accessing information on 2-DE protein databases. At Harefield we have established HSC-2DPAGE which is an advanced interface for accessing protein database relating to heart disease. The Web site currently includes databases of proteins from human, dog and rat ventricular tissue and a human endothelial cell line. The databases are searchable individually or as a whole by remote keyword searches. Each database is represented by both synthetic (computer generated) and real (scanned gel) clickable images upon which characterised protein spots are highlighted by hyperlinked symbols. The database conforms to all the rules proposed for federated 2-DE protein databases and individual protein entries are linked to other protein databases such as SWISS-PROT by active cross-references. This paper describes the construction of HSC-2DPAGE, its maintenance, and access via the Internet.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

The 2DWG meta-database of two-dimensional electrophoretic gel images on the Internet.

The 2DWG meta-database is a searchable database of two-dimensional (2-D) electrophoretic gel images found on the Internet. A meta-database contains information about locating data in other databases - but not that data itself. This database was constructed because of a need for an enriched set of World Wide Web (WWW) locations (URLs) of 2-D gel images on the Internet. These gel images are used in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Flicker Server to manipulate and visually compare 2-D gel images across the Internet. User's gels may also be compared with those in the database. The 2DWG is organized as a spreadsheet table with each gel image being represented by a row sorted by tissue type. Data for each gel includes tissue type, species, cell-line, image URL, database URL, gel protocol, organization URL, image properties, map URL if it exists, etc. The 2DWG may be searched to find relevant subsets of gels. Searching is done using the dbEngine - a WWW database search engine which accesses selected rows of gels from the full 2DWG table. The 2DWG meta-database is accessible on the WWW at http://www-lecb.ncifcrf.gov/2dwgDB/ and the NCI Flicker server at http://www-lecb.ncifcrf.gov/flicker/

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMed2002

Comparison of 35 electronic databases for environmental risk assessment.

The objective of this work is to classify and evaluate the major factual electronic databases that could be efficiently questioned for environmental risk assessment of various chemicals. A series of 35 databases available on commercial CD-ROMs and/or freely accessible on the Internet were listed and compared for the presence or absence of information for 27 environmental criteria. A factorial correspondence analysis indicated that most of the 35 databases are specialized in physicochemical, toxicological or ecotoxicological data but a few of them are nonspecialized databases able to answer simultaneously in various areas. We then evaluated these 35 databases by querying them for 14 selected test chemicals. It appeared that the percentage of chemicals being listed in the databases was very unequal and none of the 35 databases obtained 14 positive responses. The quality of the responses was determined by calculating the number of criteria being documented for the previously listed chemicals in each database. It suggested that HSDB, DOSE, TOMES, IPCS are the most efficient databases to be used for an urgent search of environmental data.

Databases, Factual↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Spinal palpation: The challenges of information retrieval using available databases.

PURPOSE: This study addressed 2 questions: first, what is the yield of PubMed MEDLINE for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) studies compared to other databases; second, what is an effective search strategy to answer a sample research question on spinal palpation? METHODS: We formulated the following research question: "What is the reliability of spinal palpation procedures?" We identified specific Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and key terms as used in osteopathic medicine, allopathic medicine, chiropractic, and physical therapy. Using PubMed, we formulated an initial search template and applied it to 12 additional selected databases. Subsequently, we applied the inclusion criteria and evaluated the yield in terms of precision and sensitivity in identifying relevant studies. RESULTS: The online search result of the 13 databases identified 1189 citations potentially addressing the research question. After excluding overlapping and nonpertinent citations and those not meeting the inclusion criteria, 49 citations remained. PubMed yielded 19, while MANTIS (Manual Alternative and Natural Therapy Index System), a manual therapy database, yielded 35 citations. Twenty-six of the 49 online citations were repeatedly indexed in 3 or more databases. Content experts and selective manual searches identified 11 additional studies. In all, we identified 60 studies that addressed the research question. The cost of the databases used for conducting this search ranged from free-of-charge to $43,000 per year for a single network subscription. CONCLUSIONS: Commonly used databases often do not provide accurate indexing or coverage of CAM publications. Subject-specific specialized databases are recommended. Access, cost, and ease of using specialized databases are limiting factors.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed2000

A specialist toxicity database (TRACE) is more effective than its larger, commercially available counterparts.

The retrieval precision and recall of a specialist bibliographic toxicity database (TRACE) and a range of widely available bibliographic databases used to identify toxicity papers were compared. The analysis indicated that the larger size and resources of the major bibliographic databases did not, for a series of test queries, assure superior retrieval of relevant papers. The specialist database, in which document selection and indexing is undertaken by the same expert toxicologists who use the database in their day-to-day work, achieved markedly better retrieval, using simpler search strategies, than the other databases. Specialist databases may offer a valuable alternative to the existing major bibliographic databases. The concept of relevance, as used to determine the effectiveness of bibliographic databases, is discussed.

Data Collection↗
PubMed2002

Validation of the Italian food composition database of the European institute of oncology.

OBJECTIVE: To compare nutrient intakes obtained by chemical analysis of food composite or duplicate portion of diets with those obtained by weighed record method using the database of the European Institute of Oncology (EIO). SETTING: Nutrition Section, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy. SUBJECTS: Fifteen subjects aged 40-59 y in 1960 (41 observations in three seasons), twenty-six subjects in 1965, and only nine remaining subjects in 1970 and 1991 were examined in Crevalcore. In Montegiorgio sixteen subjects aged 40-59 y in 1960 (39 observations in three seasons), thirty-two in 1965, twenty in 1970 and nine in 1991 were assessed. Forty-four subjects in Gubbio area (Biscina, Belvedere and Scritto; 21 males, 23 females; age 56.2+/-14.4 y) were evaluated in 1993 and 1994. METHODS: For dietary appraisal the individual weighed record method was used for 7, 3 or 2 days. Equivalent food composites were made up from local foodstuffs and the duplicate portions were chemically analysed for total nitrogen, fat, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, carbohydrates, retinol, beta-carotene, thiamin and riboflavin. RESULTS: In Crevalcore, a significant difference for protein intake was found between analysis and calculation with EIO database in 1965 and 1991 (P<0.05). Fat intake was significant different for EIO database compared to analysis in 1965 survey (P<0.05), but not for other years. In Montegiorgio, there was a significant difference for protein intake between analysis and calculation with EIO database in 1970 and 1991 (both P<0.001). EIO database showed a significant difference in regard to analysis for fat intake in 1960 IV, 1965, 1970 and 1991 (P<0.05). In both areas there was a significant difference between analysis and EIO database for starch and fibre, but not for polyunsaturated fatty acids and soluble carbohydrates (all P<0.05). In Gubbio area, a significant difference was found between analysis and calculation with EIO database for fat, retinol, beta-carotene and riboflavin intakes (all P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: According to previous and present studies food composition tables and databases, such as the EIO database, cannot be considered a reliable method to determine nutrient intakes, particularly for some vitamins.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The use of federal and state databases to conduct health services research related to physical and occupational therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of a number of secondary databases that have the potential to answer questions related to the use of, access to, and effectiveness of physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT). DATA SOURCES: Federal and state databases maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. STUDY SELECTION: Databases, described above, that were identified as having potential for answering questions related to the use and effectiveness of PT and OT were examined. DATA EXTRACTION: The databases were explored to determine if PT and OT had sufficient representation, and if so, to identify potential questions that could be answered by examining the databases in more detail. Some of the advantages, disadvantages, and methodologic issues of using the databases were identified. DATA SYNTHESIS: Several databases are available that can be used by researchers to increase our understanding of the use of, access to, and/or effectiveness of PT and OT. Many of the databases are most suited for examining issues related to the use of and access to these services. A few of the databases can be used to examine the effectiveness of PT and OT. CONCLUSION: Secondary data analyses are a particularly useful, cost-effective, and efficient means for preliminary exploration of topics that are not well understood, such as the use of, access to, and effectiveness of PT and OT.

Data Collection↗
PubMed2025

PICRUSt2-SC: an update to the reference database used for functional prediction within PICRUSt2.

SUMMARY: PICRUSt2 is a bioinformatic tool that predicts microbial functions in amplicon sequencing data using a database of annotated reference genomes. We have constructed an updated database for PICRUSt2 that has substantially increased the number of bacterial (19,493 to 26,868) and archaeal (406 to 1,002) genomes as well as the number of functional annotations present. The previous PICRUSt2 database relied on many timely and computationally intensive manual processes that made it difficult to update. We constructed a new streamlined process to allow regular upgrades to the PICRUSt2 database on an ongoing basis, and used this process to create a new database, PICRUSt2-SC (Sugar-Coated). Additionally, we have shown that this updated database contains genomes that more closely match study sequences from a range of different environments. The genomes contained in the database therefore better represent these environments and this leads to an improvement in the predicted functional annotations obtained from PICRUSt2. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: PICRUSt2 source code is freely available at https://github.com/picrust/picrust2 and at https://anaconda.org/bioconda/picrust2. The latest version of PICRUSt2 at the time of writing is also archived: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15119781. The PICRUSt2-SC database comes pre-installed with PICRUSt2 from version 2.6.0 onwards. Step-by-step instructions for making the updated database are at https://github.com/picrust/picrust2/wiki/Updating-the-PICRUSt2-database. All code used for the analyses and figures in this manuscript is at https://github.com/R-Wright-1/PICRUSt2-SC_application_note and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15119770.

Software↗
PubMed1996

Databases and software for the analysis of mutations in the human p53 gene, the human hprt gene and the lacZ gene in transgenic rodents.

We have created databases and software applications for the analysis of DNA mutations in the human p53 gene, the human hprt gene and the rodent transgenic lacZ locus. The databases themselves are stand-alone dBase files and the software for analysis of the databases runs on IBM- compatible computers. The software created for these databases permits filtering, ordering, report generation and display of information in the database. In addition, a significant number of routines have been developed for the analysis of single base substitutions. One method of obtaining the databases and software is via the World Wide Web (WWW). Open home page http://sunsite.unc.edu/dnam/mainpage.ht ml with a WWW browser. Alternatively, the databases and programs are available via public ftp from anonymous@sunsite.unc.edu. There is no password required to enter the system. The databases and software are found in subdirectory pub/academic/biology/dna-mutations. Two other programs are available at the WWW site, a program for comparison of mutational spectra and a program for entry of mutational data into a relational database.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

MIPS: a database for genomes and protein sequences.

The Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS-GSF), Martinsried, near Munich, Germany, continues its longstanding tradition to develop and maintain high quality curated genome databases. In addition, efforts have been intensified to cover the wealth of complete genome sequences in a systematic, comprehensive form. Bioinformatics, supporting national as well as European sequencing and functional analysis projects, has resulted in several up-to-date genome-oriented databases. This report describes growing databases reflecting the progress of sequencing the Arabidopsis thaliana (MATDB) and Neurospora crassa genomes (MNCDB), the yeast genome database (MYGD) extended by functional analysis data, the database of annotated human EST-clusters (HIB) and the database of the complete cDNA sequences from the DHGP (German Human Genome Project). It also contains information on the up-to-date database of complete genomes (PEDANT), the classification of protein sequences (ProtFam) and the collection of protein sequence data within the framework of the PIR-International Protein Sequence Database. These databases can be accessed through the MIPS WWW server (http://www. mips.biochem.mpg.de).

Arabidopsis↗
PubMed2001

A decade's experience with quality improvement in cardiac surgery using the Veterans Affairs and Society of Thoracic Surgeons national databases.

OBJECTIVE: To review the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) national databases over the past 10 years to evaluate their relative similarities and differences, to appraise their use as quality improvement tools, and to assess their potential to facilitate improvements in quality of cardiac surgical care. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The VA developed a mandatory risk-adjusted database in 1987 to monitor outcomes of cardiac surgery at all VA medical centers. In 1989 the STS developed a voluntary risk-adjusted database to help members assess quality and outcomes in their individual programs and to facilitate improvements in quality of care. METHODS: A short data form on every veteran operated on at each VA medical center is completed and transmitted electronically for analysis of unadjusted and risk-adjusted death and complications, as well as length of stay. Masked, confidential semiannual reports are then distributed to each program's clinical team and the associated administrator. These reports are also reviewed by a national quality oversight committee. Thus, VA data are used both locally for quality improvement and at the national level with quality surveillance. The STS dataset (217 core fields and 255 extended fields) is transmitted for each patient semiannually to the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) for warehousing, analysis, and distribution. Site-specific reports are produced with regional and national aggregate comparisons for unadjusted and adjusted surgical deaths and complications, as well as length of stay for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), valvular procedures, and valvular/CABG procedures. Both databases use the logistic regression modeling approach. Data for key processes of care are also captured in both databases. Research projects are frequently carried out using each database. RESULTS: More than 74,000 and 1.6 million cardiac surgical patients have been entered into the VA and STS databases, respectively. Risk factors that predict surgical death for CABG are very similar in the two databases, as are the odds ratios for most of the risk factors. One major difference is that the VA is 99% male, the STS 71% male. Both databases have shown a significant reduction in the risk-adjusted surgical death rate during the past decade despite the fact that patients have presented with an increased risk factor profile. The ratio of observed to expected deaths decreased from 1.05 to 0.9 for the VA and from 1.5 to 0.9 for the STS. CONCLUSION: It appears that the routine feedback of risk-adjusted data on local performance provided by these programs heightens awareness and leads to self-examination and self-assessment, which in turn improves quality and outcomes. This general quality improvement template should be considered for application in other settings beyond cardiac surgery.

Cardiac Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed1998

Research potentials and pitfalls in the use of an HIV clinical database: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

This article summarizes the various problems and pitfalls in using clinical databases for epidemiologic research, with particular reference to an HIV clinical database. The combined population of HIV-infected individuals attending the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, the Charing Cross Hospital, and the Victoria Clinic in London is the largest cohort of HIV-positive individuals in the U.K. A computerized database was developed in the mid-1980s and was adapted into a clinically oriented observational database for approximately 6,653 HIV-1-positive registered patients from three hospital-based clinics within the Riverside Health Authority in London, U.K.: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Clinic (n = 5,000); Charing Cross Hospital (n = 500); and the Victoria Clinic (n = 500). The majority (83%) of HIV-infected patients registered at these sites are homosexual or bisexual men. Of 2,078 patients seen within the last 6 months, 22% are asymptomatic and 33% have AIDS; 30% have a CD4 cell count of less than 100 cells/mm3 and 17% have a CD4 cell count of greater than 500 cells/mm3. Dates of seroconversion are known for approximately 285 patients. For each patient, information on demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, and HIV-related diagnoses, outpatient pharmacy prescriptions, day care treatments and procedures, and enrollment into clinical trials is routinely collected at outpatient clinic visits and entered into the database. Inpatient diagnoses and treatments were integrated into the database in September 1995. Unused serum samples from routine AIDS antibody or antigen testing are stored in a local specimen repository. The main purpose of the HIV database is to provide a multipurpose resource for use by physicians, researchers, and managers for administration, clinical care, and research. The specific functions of the database are the following: to enhance patient management by providing access to a clinical summary sheet detailing up-to-date information; to serve as a research tool for clinical and epidemiologic research; to aid in the identification of patients eligible for planned or ongoing clinical trials; to provide a facility for local and regional AIDS surveillance and reporting; and to provide a facility for administration and resource management of HIV services. The major limitations of this database in the conduct of clinical research have been losses to follow-up and incomplete information about clinical outcomes, because physicians have failed to update the clinical information.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2000

A relational database for diagnosis of hematopoietic neoplasms using immunophenotyping by flow cytometry.

A relational database was developed to facilitate the diagnosis of hematopoietic neoplasms using results of immunophenotyping by flow cytometry. This database runs on personal computers and uses backward-chaining search to arrive at conclusions. Results of immunologic marker studies are processed by the database to obtain a set of differential diagnoses. The current version of this database includes diagnostic immunophenotyping pattern for 33 hematopoietic neoplasms. We tested this database using 92 clinical cases from 2 tertiary care medical centers. The database ranked the actual diagnosis as 1 of the top 5 differential diagnoses in 93% of the cases tested. The user can modify the database contents to suit individual needs. This database has been posted on the World Wide Web for direct access. We propose that this user-friendly database is a potential tool for computer-assisted diagnosis of hematopoietic neoplasms.

Antigens, CD↗
PubMed1997

Identifying the active general practice workforce in one division of general practice: the utility of public domain databases.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the non-specialist medical practitioner workforce engaged in active general practice in the region served by the Division of General Practice-Northern Tasmania and to determine the usefulness of public domain databases for enumeration of individual non-specialists providing general practice services. METHODS: A masterlist of the active general practice workforce was compiled by obtaining the names and addresses/postcodes of all non-specialist medical practitioners who were listed in at least one of nine public domain databases and who were confirmed by selected local medical practitioners to be in active general practice in the three months prior to 30 June 1994. This masterlist was used in calculating the sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of each of the nine databases for enumerating non-specialist practitioners in active general practice. RESULTS: Combining the databases resulted in a list of 475 practitioners, which was refined to 139 practitioners who, by our criteria, were in active general practice. Databases had a range of sensitivities and PPVs, but those with high sensitivity tended to have low PPVs, and vice versa. The most useful database for enumerating these practitioners was the mailing list for Australian Family Physician (sensitivity, 94%; PPV, 0.79). CONCLUSIONS: When used alone, no single database had both high sensitivity and high positive predictive value for identifying the active general practice workforce. Combining multiple databases may improve precision. Developing methods to identify recent departures from local active practice has the potential to improve the PPV of existing highly sensitive databases.

Australia↗
PubMed1999

Comparison of literature searches on quality and costs for health technology assessment using the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases.

Biomedical databases are an important source of information for health technology assessment. However, there is considerable variation in the costs of accessing commercial databases. We sought to measure the quality, amount of overlap, and costs of information retrieved from two of the main database sources--MEDLINE and EMBASE. Librarians at two health technology assessment agencies ran a total of eight literature searches on various medical technologies, using both databases. All search results were independently reviewed by two researchers. The researchers were asked to identify relevant references and to rank each of these according to a level of evidence scale. The results were tabulated to show the number of references identified by each database, the number of relevant references ranked by level of evidence, and the number of these references that were unique to one or the other database. The cost of retrieving references from each source was also calculated. Each database contained relevant references not available in the other. Because of the longer time lag for indexing in MEDLINE, many of the references that originally appeared to be unique to EMBASE were subsequently available in MEDLINE as well. Since our study was conducted, MEDLINE has been made available worldwide, free of charge, via the Internet. Hence, the cost difference between the databases is now even greater. However, notwithstanding the costs, it appears that literature searches that rely on only one or the other database will inevitably miss pertinent information.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed2000

[The ZEBET database on alternative methods to animal experiments in the Internet--a concrete contribution to the protection of animals].

Up from February of the year 2000 ZEBET (German Centre for the Documentation and Validation of Alternative Methods) at the Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine (BgVV) put the ZEBET-database on alternative methods to animal experiments on the Internet in English via DIMDI, the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (http://gripsdb.dimdi.de/engl/guieng.html). The access is free, moreover DIMDI's complete service is available to visitors of the ZEBET-database. The ZEBET database contains documents on alternatives to testing in animals, which have been carefully evaluated by ZEBET's staff according to the "3Rs"-concept established by Russel and Burch in 1959. Therefore, methods documented in the ZEBET database must meet at least one of the following criteria: "replacement" of an animal experiment by a non-animal method, "reduction" of the number of animals used, "refinement" of an experiment by minimising pain and suffering of animals. In addition, the ZEBET-database provides information on the current stage of development and validation of a method and on the acceptance for either scientific or regulatory purposes. Each document is characterised by the following criteria: the title of a method, keywords, assessment, summary and bibliographic references. To search DIMDI<<s-database and host-system the grips software has to be used. Examples are given for searching in the ZEBET-database. Currently 125 alternative methods are meeting the criteria of the ZEBET database. 50 of them are available online on the internet via DIMDI, the remaining 75 documents will be available by the end of the year 2000. International fellow organisations, e.g. FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments) in the UK and CAAT (Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing) in the USA, have established links on their web sites to provide visitors free access to the ZEBET-database.

Animal Testing Alternatives↗
PubMed2001

Answering family physicians' clinical questions using electronic medical databases.

OBJECTIVE: We studied the ability of electronic medical databases to provide adequate answers to the clinical questions of family physicians. STUDY DESIGN: Two family physicians attempted to answer 20 questions with each of the databases evaluated. The adequacy of the answers was determined by the 2 physician searchers, and an arbitration panel of 3 family physicians was used if there was disagreement. DATA SOURCE: We identified 38 databases through nominations from national groups of family physicians, medical informaticians, and medical librarians; 14 met predetermined eligibility criteria. OUTCOMES MEASURED: The primary outcome was the proportion of questions adequately answered by each database and by combinations of databases. We also measured mean and median times to obtain adequate answers for individual databases. RESULTS: The agreement between family physician searchers regarding the adequacy of answers was excellent (k=0.94). Five individual databases (STAT!Ref, MDConsult, DynaMed, MAXX, and MDChoice.com) answered at least half of the clinical questions. Some combinations of databases answered 75% or more. The average time to obtain an adequate answer ranged from 2.4 to 6.5 minutes. CONCLUSION: Several current electronic medical databases could answer most of a group of 20 clinical questions derived from family physicians during office practice. However, point-of-care searching is not yet fast enough to address most clinical questions identified during routine clinical practice.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2002

Spanish personal name variations in national and international biomedical databases: implications for information retrieval and bibliometric studies.

OBJECTIVES: The study sought to investigate how Spanish names are handled by national and international databases and to identify mistakes that can undermine the usefulness of these databases for locating and retrieving works by Spanish authors. METHODS: The authors sampled 172 articles published by authors from the University of Granada Medical School between 1987 and 1996 and analyzed the variations in how each of their names was indexed in Science Citation Index (SCI), MEDLINE, and Indice Medico Español (IME). The number and types of variants that appeared for each author's name were recorded and compared across databases to identify inconsistencies in indexing practices. We analyzed the relationship between variability (number of variants of an author's name) and productivity (number of items the name was associated with as an author), the consequences for retrieval of information, and the most frequent indexing structures used for Spanish names. RESULTS: The proportion of authors who appeared under more then one name was 48.1% in SCI, 50.7% in MEDLINE, and 69.0% in IME. Productivity correlated directly with variability: more than 50% of the authors listed on five to ten items appeared under more than one name in any given database, and close to 100% of the authors listed on more than ten items appeared under two or more variants. Productivity correlated inversely with retrievability: as the number of variants for a name increased, the number of items retrieved under each variant decreased. For the most highly productive authors, the number of items retrieved under each variant tended toward one. The most frequent indexing methods varied between databases. In MEDLINE and IME, names were indexed correctly as "first surname second surname, first name initial middle name initial" (if present) in 41.7% and 49.5% of the records, respectively. However, in SCI, the most frequent method was "first surname, first name initial second name initial" (48.0% of the records) and first surname and second surname run together, first name initial (18.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Retrievability on the basis of author's name was poor in all three databases. Each database uses accurate indexing methods, but these methods fail to result in consistency or coherence for specific entries. The likely causes of inconsistency are: (1) use by authors of variants of their names during their publication careers, (2) lack of authority control in all three databases, (3) the use of an inappropriate indexing method for Spanish names in SCI, (4) authors' inconsistent behaviors, and (5) possible editorial interventions by some journals. We offer some suggestions as to how to avert the proliferation of author name variants in the databases.

Databases, Bibliographic↗