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March 2009

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From the Editor

Good news for Dialog customers: we’re helping you during these difficult economic times with a pricing freeze and a new feature “Searching Smart.” Read the announcement and cost effective search tips for details. Our March issue of the Chronolog highlights the Business and News content on Dialog with articles on ABI/INFORM^®, now enhanced with over 300 new titles. In this issue, also read Ron Kaminecki’s column to learn how patents can help you search business topics; check out the overview of the Gale Group Free Files of the month for April; and take a look at Ron Rodrigues’ story to see how Dialog’s business and news databases can help you search for information on the defense and aerospace industry

And lest you forget about Dialog’s breadth and depth of content, this issue has much more: EMBASE^®, the free file for March, changes to CHEMSEARCH™ and there is additional Asian content in Derwent World Patents Index^®. Finally, read about new Knowledge Center services in the interview with the Knowledge Center team and learn how Dialog search aids and new training materials can help you in locating appropriate databases.

Dialog freezes prices in 2009

With the current economic situation, we know that many of you are looking very closely at every expense and need to show the best return on every purchase of information or services. As one way to help you address this economic reality, Dialog will not increase prices in 2009 for the great majority of Dialog and DataStar databases. A small portion of databases will see an increase in 2009 — those for which the list price on all distribution channels is directly determined by the information provider.

For further assistance with managing your 2009 budget for Dialog services, contact your Dialog Sales Representative today. We are committed to making Dialog your best value for information.

Your connection to Dialog: The Knowledge Center

Do you know what you're looking for on Dialog or DataStar, but can't quite find it? Have a long list of search terms with no ideas where to begin? Unsure about how to order a fulltext document? Want to reconfigure DialogLink^® for a new computer? The Dialog Knowledge Center is ready to help you no matter where in the world you may be!

One of Dialog’s greatest strengths is our dedication to you, our customers. And our connection to you most often is our Knowledge Center. Our Knowledge Center director recently sat down with us to talk about the team — who they are, what role they play, and how their services evolve to provide even greater service to you.

Q: To set the foundation, can you explain what the Knowledge Center is and what its major responsibilities entail?
A: The Knowledge Center or KC, as it’s often called, is the first line of support. We are the experts customers turn to for immediate assistance at Dialog. They contact us by telephone or email and often ask for help with product or strategy, from basic log-on issues, to product or database recommendations, to strategy assistance.

We get a broad range of questions: Which database is the best resource? How can I improve my search strategy? Can I use the special indexing or coding in a database to target my results? Which database has the fulltext of a specific publication? Thus, the mission of my team is to help clients use our products effectively and efficiently to locate the relevant, critical information they need to succeed. We also provide support to our own Dialog sales and account management staff as well as help them respond to clients.

Knowledge Center staff assists clients by guiding them step-by-step through a search in Dialog or DataStar, explaining how to sort search results or refine a search strategy so that they retrieve exactly the information they need. Most often our specialists answer questions with the first contact; however, if more complex analysis is needed, an expert will investigate and provide thorough responses through direct follow-up contact either by emailing or telephone.

Q: How would you describe your team? Can you give me some of the qualifications you look for in prospective team members?
A: Every member of the Knowledge Center is a dedicated professional with a passion for helping people. They all realize that accurate and timely information is vital. Each Center is prepared to assist with questions whether they deal with product functionality, intellectual property, business, science searches or technical support.

Approximately one-third of our staff has more than 10 years of Knowledge Center experience at Dialog and most of the rest of the team members have over five years. We have both product and subject experts. For example, our specialists in the intellectual property area include several attorneys, including a trademark attorney; in science we have PhD research scientists and engineering and consulting librarians; and in the business field our group members have masters’ degrees in management and expertise in competitive intelligence. Our product experts are knowledgeable in domain access, firewalls, Alerts and much more.

Q: When and where can I get in touch with the Knowledge Center?
A: Centers operate in Australia, London in the United Kingdom and in Morrisville, North Carolina in the United States. However, all three regional Knowledge Centers serve customers throughout the world. They are available by phone 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday: in North America, at 1 800 334 2564 (800-3-DIALOG) and outside North America at 00 800 33 34 2564 or by email the KC at at any time.

Q: Now that we know a bit about your team, can you give us some examples of the tasks for which your team is responsible?
A: As I mentioned, our foremost responsibility is to provide search and product assistance to customers. We also work together with other Dialog teams, such as marketing, product development, training and sales. For example, a KC product expert participates on teams creating new Dialog products; subject experts provide advice to content teams reloading databases and reviewing new content. In addition, KC team members now provide live online training and assist in creating training materials. Two major services the KC supports are the Alerts Bureau and Research Services. As you can see, Knowledge Center tasks are diverse and dependent on the varied expertise of the individuals on our team.

Q: You mentioned the Alerts Bureau. How does it work and how can the Alerts Bureau help Dialog customers?
A: As many customers know Alerts are ongoing, recurrent automated searches, executed independent of searcher efforts. The Alerts Bureau is a time-saving resource that puts the power of Knowledge Center specialists to work!

Our subject experts work with customers to define the specific information need; then we create strategies to push results to users to keep them up to date. Customers short on time use the Alerts Bureau, as do customers researching a less familiar topic. It’s easy to have a member of the Alerts Bureau recommend databases or strategies or set up or edit an Alert. Customers just fill out the easy-to-use form located on the Dialog Web site at support.dialog.com/alerts/ to provide the information necessary to have the Alert set up on Dialog or DataStar.

Q: Sounds like an easy way to get the information you need when you want it. What are some of the topics customers might use Alerts to find?
A: Topics cover all subject areas and can be created in almost any database. Here are a couple of examples: an organization might need to stay abreast of new regulations or legislation in the pharmaceutical industry; or a company might watch a competing company’s patents to see what new products they are developing. Dialog has newswires, trade literature, patents and trademarks to find this kind of information. A customer might want to find out who is citing its patents or make sure that another company is not infringing on a patent. Dialog has patent files that cover all regions of the world. These are just a few of the types of topics the Alerts Bureau works on.

Q: You also mentioned Research Services. I don’t think I’m familiar with this service—can you explain a little further?
A: Dialog Research Services is a relatively new research outsourcing service that offers the subject-matter expertise of the KC team to provide searches on virtually any subject in order to save our customers time and money. Customers might find this service useful when searching for prior art, patents, trademarks, drugs in the pipeline, or adverse effects of drugs, just to name a few. KC experts can also conduct competitor research, create, edit and maintain a client’s Alert portfolio and even analyze data retrieved.

Q: How can a client take advantage of this service?
A: It’s quick and easy. Customers simply contact and describe the project or topic of interest. A research services representative follows up to discuss requirements, such as format, due date, budget, etc. with the customer, and then sizes the project. Upon agreement, the KC specialist will email the customer a written Statement of Work and project cost. The project work begins upon receipt of the signed Statement of Work. This service enables an organization to get the results they need from authoritative sources through searches conducted by experts in the field. In addition to using Research Services for ad hoc projects, some customers may wish to work with their account representative to build this service into their Dialog contracts.

Q: My final question: Why is your team’s role so important to Dialog customers?
A: We are a group that adds value to the Dialog service. We help customers with search questions so they can conduct searches on their own. We also provide training to teach them to use Dialog products, understand search techniques and know the databases so they can get the answers they need. We aid customers in maintaining organization information flow using Dialog Alerts, and we provide on-demand searching through our Research Services. Finally, we assist in creating subject-specific training materials and aids to facilitate research needs.

We always look forward to hearing from our customers, and encourage them to call us whenever they have a question.

Watch for interviews with other groups at Dialog in the coming months. View an on-demand version of the interview.

 Business & News Content Updates

ABI/INFORM enhanced with new titles on Dialog and DataStar

ABI/INFORM^® (File 15 / INFO) is being enhanced with new titles on Dialog and DataStar. An additional 350+ titles, not formerly in File 15/INFO, are now available, providing greater industry depth. In addition, the number of articles in each update has more than doubled. Coverage of the top business publications includes:

• Bank of England Quarterly Review
• EIU Viewswire, Estates Gazette
• Medical Patent Business Week
• M&A Reports
• Military & Aerospace Electronics
• Government Procurement
• Health Facilities Management
• And more.

A back file of older materials for these titles will be added over time.

ABI/INFORM provides bibliographic citations and 150-word summaries of articles on all phases of business and management. Forty percent of documents added each week include fully searchable full-text articles.

UBM Computer Fulltext Database reloaded in new format

United Business Media (UBM) has migrated UBM Computer Fulltext Database (File 647), formerly named CMP Computer Fulltext, to a new format. This format has only been applied to new updates to the database starting in January 2009; the archive will remain unchanged. Several new fields—Record Type (RT=NEW or RT=CORRECTION) and Document Type (DT=)—have been added to enhance searching. Check the Bluesheet for all new and changed fields. Database updates and Alerts are current and will continue on a regular weekly basis.

 SciTech Content Updates

March Free File of the Month—EMBASE

EMBASE^® (File 72,73) is the free file of the month for March. The Excerpta Medica database is a biomedical and pharmacological database with the most up-to-date information about medical and drug-related subjects. More than 600,000 records are added annually with over 80 percent in recent years containing abstracts. Medical research specialists classify and index each record with terms and codes in accordance with EMTREE, a highly developed classification schedule and controlled vocabulary, consisting of over 56,000 terms and more than 200,000 synonyms.

Try EMBASE for free in March to answer questions like:

• What is the latest published information on mortality from myocardial infarction?
• What recent research has been done at the Mayo Clinic on cancer?
• Are there any articles on the effects of caffeine (especially coffee and tea consumption) on fertility and pregnancy?

Each month a different "free file" will be offered, enabling you to use up to $100 of free searching (either DialUnits or Connect Time) in the featured file. Output and Alerts charges are not included. For more details about searching the free file, see the January Chronolog. The Free File of the Month is announced in each issue of the Chronolog, as well as on the Dialog Web site. Review the overview of EMBASE, and try out EMBASE today for free.

CHEMSEARCH resumes updating

CHEMSEARCH™ (File 398), the primary source for looking up chemical nomenclature and chemical structure information, has resumed updating and is adding approximately 300,000 newly discovered chemical substances each month.

This unique database should be part of the core repertoire of any searcher performing chemical searches. At present, there are over 93 million CAS^® Registry Numbers in the file. A new prefix (RE=), which references the number of times a particular CAS^® Registry Number is included in CA Search^®: Chemical Abstracts^® (File 399), is now searchable; previously it was only displayed. CHEMNAME^® (File 301) will be removed from Dialog on March 31, 2009. The addition of the RE= prefix to File 398 makes this file unnecessary and will allow faster updating on File 398 each month. An updated Bluesheet will be available for File 398 by March 31, 2009.

Dialog: The world of Aerospace and Defense market information

By: Ron Rodrigues, MLS, senior content specialist

Online searching became a reality during a very exciting time in technology and information services. In 1968 Lockheed Advanced Technologies won a NASA contract to build a solution for the management of the rapidly growing patent and non-patent technical literature from around the world. Of course, the solution was Dialog!

Dialog remains a leader within the industry that created it, i.e., the “military industrial complex,” by continuing to provide the depth and breadth of quality current and archival content to our customers. Searchers whose organizations are involved in defense contracts or whose companies track defense products and technologies rely on Dialog for mission-critical information to:

• Keep track of orders and contracts and which government agencies, companies, products, and technologies are involved
• Keep watch on research and development spending and breakthroughs
• Stay informed about market trends, government regulations and procurement programs
• Monitor competitor activities involving product development and acquisitions
• Identify new and emerging technologies

Technical databases cover the essentials
A number of technical databases on Dialog will help you find information in these industries.

• FBO Daily (Files 194,195) is the compilation of all notices posted to FedBizOpps, the single point of universal electronic public access on the Internet to government-wide Federal procurement opportunities that exceed $25,000. This information formerly came through Commerce Business Daily (CBD); however, the U.S. Department of Commerce has now ceased producing CBD but has requested all agencies to send their information to FedBizOpps. The announcements are generally searchable the day after they are published.
• NTIS: National Technical Information Service (File 6) comprises summaries of U.S. government-sponsored research, development, and engineering, plus analyses prepared by federal agencies, their contractors, or grantees. It is the means through which unclassified, publicly available, unlimited distribution reports are made available for sale from agencies such as NASA, DOD, DOE, HUD, DOT, Department of Commerce, and some 240 other agencies.
• Federal Research in Progress (FEDRIP) (File 266) provides access to information about ongoing Federally-funded research projects in the fields of physical sciences, engineering and life sciences. Research information is provided to NTIS by the sponsoring U.S. government agencies.

Dialog’s science and engineering collection of databases contains more than 100 million records and has always been considered core to all aspects of aerospace and defense technologies. Databases like Inspec^® (File 2), Ei Compendex^® (File 8), and the family of CSA databases make for a formidable collection.

Looking at the business and industry files
Databases that cover the business and industry side of the defense and aerospace market provide specialized industry information on companies, products, markets and technologies.

• Dialog Defense Newsletters (File 264) is a collection of full-text newsletters from primary publishers in the field of defense. They cover rulings, regulations and other legislative activities that affect the defense industry.
• Gale Group Aerospace/Defense Markets & Technology^® (File 80) provides full-text articles and abstracts of all aspects of the worldwide aerospace industry. Corporations in the aerospace/defense industry rely on A/DM&T:
  • for coverage of key industry sources
  • for details on competitors, products and technologies
  • to monitor government funding, budgets and contracts
  • to identify market opportunities in the defense and aerospace industries.
• World News Connection^® (WNC) (File 985) is updated hourly and offers an extensive array of translated and English-language news and information. WNC is particularly effective in its coverage of local media sources from around the world. The material in WNC is provided to the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by the Open Source Center (OSC), a U.S. government agency. WNC provides users with the power to identify what really is happening in a specific country or region.
• FI Defense Market Intelligence Reports (File 589) provides full-text global market research reports of unclassified defense and aerospace information. This file contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date data and analysis for the industry and provides valuable data on defense budgets; aerospace and weapons programs; power systems; and U.S. and international companies, agencies, or countries involved in the defense industry.
• No defense collection would be complete without Jane’s Defense & Aerospace News/Analysis (File 587). This database summarizes, highlights, and interprets worldwide events in the defense and aerospace industries. Markets covered include aircraft, missiles, space systems, military vehicles, ordnance, electronics, and warships. Budget areas include procurement, research and development, and operation and maintenance.

Whether you need technical data about defense or aerospace systems or business information on markets and industries of the military complex, the answer is still in Dialog.

 Intellectual Property Content Updates

DWPI adds more Asian content with enhanced coverage of Taiwan

New enhancements to Derwent World Patents Index^® (DWPI^SM) (File 350, 351) provide more complete coverage of patents from Taiwan. Starting with patents published from January 2, 2008, English language titles, abstracts and associated DWPI manual coding will be produced for Taiwan Applications (TW A) and not Taiwan Granted Patents (TW B) as is currently the case. The number of TW applications is significantly higher than that of the granted patents. In addition, Taiwan Utility Models (TW U) are now contained in DWPI.

Taiwan was the world’s 16th largest exporting nation in 2006, with exports valued at US$224 billion. Industrial products accounted for 99 percent of all exports – the top sectors being electronics and optical devices. Developing semiconductor technology is the key industry in Taiwan. Its top trading partners in order are China, the United States, Japan and South Korea. From a patenting perspective Taiwan is a key authority given the technology being developed in the country and the number of manufacturing and R&D centers situated there.

Watch for further enhancements to the coverage of Taiwan later this year, including a three-year backfile of TW Unexamined Applications (2005-2007), and a five-year backfile of TW Utility Models (2003-2007). From DWPI Update 200907, the coverage of Taiwan in DWPI will include TW Unexamined Applications (TW A), TW granted patents (TW B), and TW Utility Models (TW U).

A Proximal and a Distal Tip

By Ron Kaminecki, MS, CPL, JD, Director, IP Segment, US Patent Attorney

Patents cannot be ignored as sources of business information
Once a person who introduced himself as an editor of a new high-tech newsletter dropped by my office and asked what was new on Dialog for his readers. I showed him several things and then I told him I would cover patents. “Patents!” he said, “I edit a high-tech newsletter; why would I talk about dusty old legal documents like patents?” For the first time in my life, I could not speak. I did not know what to say about his disdain for my favorite documents; so we exchanged pleasantries and parted ways, with me steaming a bit under the collar at this person’s close-mindedness for using patents for anything but legal research.

Patent analysis is used by many companies to predict trends, evaluate technologies and look for opportunities. A typical analysis question revolves around finding similar patents to a target patent, as is the case when conducting a prior art search in which it is best to uncover all available technology or when a target patent makes a lot of money and others want to find closely related patents to license so as to enter that market. One easy technique to find similar patents to one patent is to search by the target patent’s main classification code. On the cover of U.S. patents, the first code is in boldface and is called its original classification. In CLAIMS^®/U.S. Patents (File 340), you can narrow down a class code search by adding /OR (for original classification) to the end of the code as in: SELECT CL=435000000/OR that will restrict the search to just the main code. In U.S. Patents Fulltext (Files 654, 652), use /MA as the suffix to find the main code. In either case, the search will retrieve similar patents to the target patent.

By searching a class code for a patent and restricting it to those patents in which the code is the main subject, you can tally statistics on how many patents are in that area, or better yet, you can simply RANK the results to see which companies also have patents in that area. Such a ranked list would illustrate where other companies are spending money. And if the list was segmented by time slots, it could be used to track trends. For example, say that Set 1 contained the patents indexed by a class code as an original classification. By entering RANK PA, you will obtain a list of the patent assignees that have the most patents in that area. Ranking costs two cents per item ranked, making this an inexpensive way of determining the players in that area.

Finding a company’s competitors
Sometimes business searchers want to find who competes in an unfamiliar area, and patents are a way of identifying the players in the market. Going one step further from the search above, instead of starting with one patent’s class codes, you can start with a company name (e.g., “Use patents to determine which companies or individuals compete with Company XYZ Corp.”), and SELECT the appropriate items. RANK CL (or RANK CLOR for the original classifications) to grab the class codes from this set and determine the most used class codes for the company. Then pick the top code or two, EXECUTE the results and RANK PA as above. This will find other companies with patents under the same class code.

Be careful, however, because class codes, like any kind of indexing, approximate the invention’s subject area. The codes are hierarchical; so a longer code will identify a more specific technology, but sometimes a broader code is used because there is not an appropriate specific code available. Again, for a company with very broad interests you will still be able to find competitors for a smaller area of interest by picking one class code from a company’s many codes.

This simple analysis works best on companies with a determined research focus because a large company with many patents in different areas will have class codes in many disciplines. It also depends upon the U.S. examiners to use the proper code and is probably as reliable as any database that uses humans to index subject intent. And, recall that U.S. examiners like to use U.S. codes over International Patent Classification (IPC) codes; so when analyzing U.S. patents, use U.S. class codes, just as you would when searching U.S. patents.

Recall the editor of the high-tech newsletter whom I mentioned at the beginning of this column? About two years after our meeting, I found myself opening an envelope with a return address from bankruptcy court. Inside was a formal letter detailing bankruptcy proceedings for the editor and his high-tech newsletter. See what happens when you ignore dusty old legal documents like patents?

For more information or an example of this search, contact me directly at .

 DataStar Content Updates

IMS New Product Focus redesigned on DataStar

IMS New Product Focus (IPLL) has been redesigned to bring the database in line with current DataStar standards and to facilitate cross-file searching among related databases. IPLL monitors the launching of new pharmaceutical products in over 40 countries worldwide. Coverage is approximately 30 percent European Union (including the United Kingdom), 25 percent Latin America, 10 percent Japan, 5 percent North America, and 30 percent rest of the world.

Some new paragraphs have been added and others modified or deleted. For example, CAS^® Registry Numbers are now supplied in the new paragraph RN, and Dose Forms in the new paragraph DF. Check the updated Datasheet for additional changes.

Note: On Dialog File 446 combines data from two DataStar files IPLL and IPOP/IPPP (IMS Product Monographs).