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From the Editor
With this issue of Chronolog, we enthusiastically unveil the much anticipated ProQuest Dialog™ service, offering in this first release key biomedical and pharmaceutical content with a new easy-to-use interface. You’ll find even more information about ProQuest Dialog along with helpful search tools on our customer support Web site. Like what you see? Help drive further innovation on future releases by joining the Dialog User Panel.

Be sure to also explore the Dialog free file of the month for September, read about new training classes and more — all in this issue.

Change in leadership
At the end of August, Suzanne BeDell, SVP ProQuest and GM Dialog, moved into a new role. Although she was not seeking a change, sometimes opportunities come, and Suzanne accepted an offer from Elsevier for the position of Managing Director, Science and Technology Books. We wish Suzanne every success as she takes on new challenges.

Even if you have not met Suzanne, you’ll be aware that her leadership over the last two years has been instrumental in transforming the Dialog business. She has forged strong connections between Dialog and ProQuest, securing the resources for developing and migrating to a new platform. She has inspired everyone, both on staff and in the customer community, with her vision of a revitalized Dialog. 

Julie Janusz, who has proven herself a strong and effective leader as Dialog VP of Technology, will take over as interim General Manager. Prior to joining ProQuest/Dialog, Julie held a variety of strategy, organizational development and business development positions, bringing broad experience to this role. Although we will miss Suzanne both personally and professionally, she has built a cohesive team whose shared purpose will continue to propel Dialog into the future.    

 

Experience the all new ProQuest Dialog™ service — right now!

Dialog^® and DataStar^® unified with simplified access

From its founding during the space race in the 1960s to the launch of ProQuest Dialog™ today, Dialog has been an industry leader. ProQuest Dialog fulfills the long-standing dream of professional searchers for simplified access and a unified Dialog^® and DataStar^®. Offering c ontent from the world's most authoritative publishers and the tools to search it with speed and precision — ProQuest Dialog is your resource for information to drive innovation.

ProQuest Dialog presents an intuitive search interface for end users, combined with a new approach to precision search based on relevancy, transparency, control and completeness — qualities sought by professional searchers.

“This development effort was research-based and customer-focused,” said Julie Janusz, ProQuest Vice-President of Technology and Dialog interim General Manager. “As a result, we’re able to deliver a truly transformative user experience by combining authoritative content with a sophisticated, yet user-friendly interface.”

Key new features include:

• Intuitive interface, providing a radically improved user experience
• Advanced search features, such as Rank, built directly into the interface
• Enhanced retrieval through recognition of synonyms, word stems and alternate spellings
• Improved cross-database searching through easy access to thesauri
• Normalized fields to facilitate de-duplication and post-processing
• On-the-fly interface and search result translations
• Left-hand, embedded and right-hand truncation.

Pharmaceutical and biomedical researchers in corporate and government organizations will be among those who find this first release of ProQuest Dialog most beneficial. It offers databases from some of the world’s most trusted publishers, such as Embase^®, BIOSIS Preview^®, MEDLNE^®, SciSearch^®, Adis Reactions and IMS R&D Focus. 

The next major release, scheduled for later this year, will add more scientific, technical and medical content to meet the needs of scientists and engineers in a wide range of R&D-driven organizations. Additional releases to follow in 2011, will round out the entire collection of intellectual property and business intelligence content now available on Dialog and will provide continuous enhancements to functionality.

If your organization conducts pharmaceutical or biomedical research, and is interested in flat rate subscription pricing, we invite you to learn more about ProQuest Dialog at our new Customer Information Center. Call your account representative or contact us at to gain access to the all-new ProQuest Dialog.

 

Learning about the ProQuest Dialog™ service

Acquaint yourself with the new ProQuest Dialog at our new Web site. Here’s what you’ll find:

• ProQuest Dialog Fast Start Guide — contains links to important content and search tools on the Web site.
• Content page — provides brief descriptions for each database, including information provider name and type of coverage.
• Searching page — contains screencasts to demonstrate features of basic and advanced search, as well as using My Research space. Download Search tips and a Quick Reference Card to help with your searching.
• FAQs — features information on technical requirements, content, login, searching, results, My Research and logoff.

After obtaining a password, you can also login to ProQuest Dialog right from the Web site by clicking the link at the top of the page. Have any questions? As always, our is available to help.

Note: The Dialog User Panel contains a forum for asking questions and communicating with other Dialog users. You are invited to register and take a moment to log in. Familiarize yourself with the site and share your information. 

 

Free File of the Month for September
The Dialog September Free File of the Month is the IMS Patent Focus database (File 447). Quickly and with little effort, locate pharmaceutical patent information on more than 3,000 commercially significant drugs, drug delivery systems and drug combinations either launched or in at least Phase III development. Updated monthly, the database’s value is enhanced by offering multiple access points and by the content it consolidates into concise drug- and country-based records. Records also include estimated expiration dates based on country-specific patent rules and extension policies, including Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) status, Japanese and U.S. extensions.

Use IMS Patent Focus to:

• Easily locate patents for specific drugs or drug classes
• Identify regional markets where a promising drug candidate has little competition
• Create an inventory of drugs by therapeutic class or indication approaching patent expiration
• Understand competitor patent strength using reliable data to make better R&D decisions.

Search with any available information
Patents often protect a spectrum of molecules and may be written to not specifically delineate drug names. IMS Patent Focus can be searched with any information available — generic names or laboratory codes (e.g., s salmeterol/na), trade/brand names (s advair/tn) or CAS Registry numbers (s RN= 89365-50-4).

Search patents by therapeutic class coding (using EphMRA classifications) to retrieve patents related to drug classes. For example, find drugs used to treat arrhythmia in Japan and the U.S. with a product patent expiry date between 2011 and 2015.

Command Summary

S PC=US or PC=JP     Standard Patent Country Codes
S IN =ARRHYTHMIA     Indication
S ED=20110101:20151231     Expiration Dates
S S1 and S2 and S3
T S4/9/1

Country Comments in the record clarify when and why this patent will expire beyond normal U.S. patent regulations. Thus, it’s not necessary to find the original application or grant date and then do the math based on the country’s patent expiration rules and amendments. Finally, both original patent assignee and the parent company are searchable and are listed in the record. The IMS Patent Focus database contains an archive of records reaching into the 1950s.

Note: To learn about this free file, register for “ Spotlight on IMS Patent Focus (File 447)” on September 2.

 

Stories from the front lines
Dialog has been helping customers with search needs for more than 35 years. Read on as a librarian formerly of Forbes magazine tells us how Dialog adds value to the research process.

Find the answer, now!
A young man needed a factoid in a hurry on how much tea China produced. The experienced librarians were puzzling over how to find this information, when a recently hired librarian asked, “Isn’t this a question for Dialog?” By searching the Trade & Industry Database™, the team found an article in Tea & Coffee Trade Journal that detailed all tea production by country. A call to a commodities broker produced the cost of tea at the end of the year and with simple multiplication, Forbes was able to compare the wealth of the Forbes 400 to “all the tea in China” for that year. 

 

 Validate: Intellectual Property Content Updates

DWPI country coverage enhancements
Additional publications from the following authorities are now captured by Thomson Reuters for the DWPI databases (Files 350, 351, 352) on Dialog from Derwent Update Week 201049. Use EXPAND PC= to find patents with a particular Kind Code. Search the Kind Code or country name to find all published patents in Derwent from a particular authority (e.g., PC= Romania or PC=RO):

New coverage — Austrian utility models
The coverage of Austria in DWPI has been extended with the inclusion of Austrian Utility Models (AT U), adding to the existing coverage of Austrian Applications and Granted Patents in the file. Any AT Us identified as a basic will include an English title and abstract and DWPI manual coding where applicable.

The published data from January to May 2010 is currently being processed, and the first records are expected to appear in DWPI Update 201049. The table below details the number formats for the new coverage of Utility Models, and the existing coverage of Applications and Granted patents. 

Document description	Kinds	Raw patent number	DWPI patent number	Raw applica-tion no.	DWPI application no.
Applications	A, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A8, A9	507519A1	507519A1	A1729/2008	2008AT001729 A2
Granted patents	B, B1, B2, B8, B9	507125B1	5007125B1	A1160/2008	2008AT001160 A2
Utility models (new)	U1, U2, U3, U8, U9	11283U1	11283U1	GM230/2009	2009AT000230 U2

New coverage — Romanian patent applications
The coverage of Romania in DWPI has been extended with the inclusion of Romanian Applications (RO A) adding to the existing coverage of Granted Patents in the file. Any RO As identified as a basic will include an English title and abstract, and DWPI manual coding where applicable.

The published data from January to June 2010 is currently being processed, and the first records are expected to appear in DWPI Update 201049. The table below details the number formats for the new coverage of Applications, and the existing coverage of Granted patents.

Document description	Kinds	Raw patent number	DWPI patent number	Raw applica-tion no.	DWPI application no.
Applications (new)	A, A0, A1 A2, A3, A4, A8, A9	New Law 125354A	125354A2	a 2008 00549	2008RO000549A2
Granted patents	B, B1, B2, B8, B9	122888B1	122888B1	a 2004 00819	2004RO000819 A2

Existing coverage — Swedish patent applications
In addition to the above, Thomson Reuters will be updating DWPI to reflect a change to patent kinds made by the Swedish Patent Office earlier this year. Starting with the records published from April 13, 2010, the Swedish Patent Office has assigned the Kind Code A1 for published patent applications and A2 for republished documents. To implement this change in DWPI, Thomson Reuters intends to start with the applications published ongoing from the Swedish Patent Gazette issued on June 29, 2010. Any records from this period with the patent kinds A1 and A2 will start to appear in DWPI Update 201049. Swedish applications currently in DWPI in the publication period from April 13 and June 22, 2010, will be revised to reflect these new Kind Codes.

 

A Proximal and a Distal Tip
by Ron Kaminecki, MS, CPL, JD, director, IP segment, U.S. patent attorney

Searching the Scary Unknown
I recall one day asking the reference service at one of the top research libraries to conduct a MEDLINE^® search for me. They referred me to a seasoned veteran who took copious notes. After some discussion, I asked him how much it would cost. He replied simply, “Seven Fifty.” I thought 750 U.S. dollars was a bit high for a search of one database, and $7.50 was much too low, so I nodded my head and told him not to go any further until I cleared it with my manager. After a lot of justification from management and buy-in from the project sponsor, I returned to the library and said I had the okay to do the search for the price quoted and the searcher immediately got to work. He told me he would spend the afternoon checking thesaurus terms and determining the strategy and call me when it was done. A few days later, I got the call and checked the search, which was obviously professionally done and the results were fairly good. A month later I received the invoice, and had no sooner submitted it for payment when I got a call from accounting. They wanted to know why I didn’t just pay cash for something that was only seven and a half dollars! My worst case assumption was wrong, and while happy I didn’t blow out my budget, I pondered the significance of thinking the search was too hard or too expensive in the first place.

Part of the problem with patent searches is they are considered to be too difficult and the consequences of missing anything too important to compel one to not even attempt to do the search. The same thing goes for pharmaceutical searches in which the subject area is understood only by a handful of researchers, and the results could mean life and death for thousands of people. Best to not even try, because, as an international star in his own right has said, “Trying — the first step towards failure,” and by international star I mean Homer Simpson (yes, the cartoon figure).

One way to approach difficult patent searches, especially in the pharmaceutical area is to determine whether (a) you need to find the raw data yourself and then analyze and compile the results, or (b) you can find someone who already has done so. Obviously, the latter is easier; hence, the popularity of such files as TableBase™ (File 93), which extracts useful tabular data from publications, thus saving you from having to create such lists. Our directory databases, like D&B WorldBase^® – U.S. (File 517) compile information on companies and so save you from having to contact companies directly to find their number of employees or sales figures.

Reviews vs. international search reports
When looking for prior art for pharmaceutical patents, we are blessed with very concise and well indexed databases like MEDLINE^® (File 154), Embase^® (File 72) and BIOSIS Previews^® (File 55). Indeed, these three major databases, though owned by different entities, each has its own strength. More importantly, the former two can be searched for summary information (review articles) by entering DT=REVIEW and the latter by entering DT=LITERATURE REVIEW. These reviews can be very useful in locating not only information about the state of the art, but also can indicate potential researchers or companies involved in the area of research covered by an invention. More importantly, a review article can compare one method or drug or other entity with other, similar ones to help show what really is known in the area by people having ordinary skill in the art.

While review articles don’t exist for patents, the next best thing can be checked, namely, locating international search reports. An international search report is the end result of an extensive search conducted by a patent office and is common for applications filed via the European Patent Office (EP) or the Patent Cooperation Treaty (WO). The applicant pays to have this search done, and the results are reviewed by the examiners to determine patentability. The examiners add an opinion via letters such as X or Y indicating exactly how the reference affects the applicant’s application. These documents are usually marked as an A3 kind of document and in some cases can also be found at the end of an A1 kind of document. These search reports are typically only one page long, but when reviewed with the examiner opinion in mind, are useful indicators of information pertinent to an application. You can specify such documents in several of our patent databases by SELECTing PC=EP A3 (for patent country equals European Patent Office document kind A3 in European Patents Fulltext, File 348) or PC=WO A3 (for the Patent Cooperation Treaty countries in WIPO/PCT Patents Fulltext, File 349) . The references are a result of research done by a cognizant authority using various worldwide databases, and the opinion of how each reference affects the patentability of the application gives background into the considerations of why the references are relevant.

And that’s really the bottom line
How much does it cost the applicant for an international search report? That depends upon the stage and such, but to avoid confusion, let’s say somewhat more than seven fifty.

Note: The three major biomedical databases — MEDLINE^® (File 154), Embase^® (File 72) and BIOSIS Previews^® (File 55) — can all be searched with a subscription to the new ProQuest Dialog easy-to-use interface.

 

 Market: Business Intelligence, Market Research and News Content Updates

Dialog NewsRoom 2010 rollover
The annual rollover for Dialog NewsRoom (Files 990-998) took place during the month of August. This year a new database has been introduced to the collection due to the size and processing time of the archive files. The new database (File 998) contains the earliest four years (2000-2003). In addition, all prior years have been shifted, offsetting the entire backfile collection (Files 991-997) by one year. There are no changes in Files 989 and 990, except for the usual monthly rollover of data.

File	File name	Dates	Records estimated
989	NewsRoom Alert	Current week	600k
990	NewsRoom Current	4-5 months	14.4M
991	NewsRoom 2010	2010	21.1M
992	NewsRoom 2009	2009	36.5M
993	NewsRoom 2008	2008	36.7M
994	NewsRoom 2007	2007	36.9M
995	NewsRoom 2006	2006	33.4M
996	NewsRoom 2005	2005	30.1M
997	NewsRoom 2004	2004	20.3M
998	NewsRoom 2000-2003	2000-2003	50.1M

Note: There is no change or loss in the overall dates of coverage for Dialog NewsRoom, only the databases that contain the content will change.

 

 Learn about ProQuest

Search, find and use
“Search, find and use” is the theme of the upcoming all-new ProQuest platform, which is expected to launch in 2010. The new platform brings together the ProQuest, CSA Illumina and selected Chadwyck-Healy products with the best of each of their features and functions, allowing users to search one interface with a state-of-the-art search engine.

The new platform will enable users to search by subject, such as business, across the ProQuest databases, or they can select specific databases. All ProQuest databases are assigned to one or more subject areas and will appear based on the customer’s subscription package.

Search aids will guide users from the point of term entry to displaying articles. Searchers will see suggested search terms and phrases, and Smart Search will have expanded functionality. Users will be able to search within an existing results set rather than create a new search. Filters within the new platform will allow users to narrow within results and they will be able to “narrow results by,” using trusted ProQuest indexing to generate more focused sets of results.

Viewing records will be simple and intuitive. Searchers will be able to preview the articles by hovering over a “Preview” icon, and upon clicking a title, see “Other items you might like” — additional articles that the user might find helpful.

One of the most exciting developments in the new platform is the ability for users to create their own personal workspaces with their own My Research credentials. In My Research, searchers will be able to save articles permanently, create folders, manage Alerts, RSS feeds, shared lists and more. Follow news about the all-new ProQuest platform. Sign up to receive the latest updates.