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From the Editor

At SLA 2011, we were happy to receive your comments on ProQuest Dialog™, which ranged from appreciative (I think the new product looks great. You’re (ProQuest) moving in the right direction. Keep up the good work!) to ecstatic, when at the end of a demonstration a visitor said, “the angels are singing!”

More than 4,300 information professionals are now “future ready” after attending this year’s Special Libraries Association's (SLA) 2011 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO in June. As a Major Conference Partner and faithful sponsor, the ProQuest family of brands and companies provided ongoing support, as well as exciting product news and development. From the SLA award presentation by Dialog General Manager Tim Wahlberg at the Opening General session, through more than 20 division-sponsored events to the closing session, ProQuest and Dialog shared the spotlight, contributing to another successful SLA!

We also congratulate Betty Edwards and Cathleen Ahner, winners of the SLA & Dialog Facebook Sweepstakes. Each received a NOOK Color eReader, compliments of Dialog.

In this issue...
A must-read is the article about new features from the latest release of ProQuest Dialog on August 1. Of course, you’ll want to read your regular favorites—Ron Kaminecki’s column providing techniques for searching patent databases and prior art, as well as Smart Searching and Search Techniques. And there’s more—new ProQuest Dialog training courses covering techniques and content.

 

 ProQuest Dialog Updates

Features you’ve been asking for are here!

The new, August 1 release of ProQuest Dialog contains many of the features for which you’ve been asking. A quick overview highlights some key tools. Read on!

Alert and Saved Search enhancements
The new release provides a number of enhancements when creating Alerts or Saved Searches. Whether you start in Basic, Advanced or Command Line mode, each search query now shows each step of your search with numbered sets retained for easy reference and reuse (e.g., (S1 OR S2) NOT S3). When you are ready to set up your Alert or create a Saved Search, an updated Alerts form provides additional Alerts settings including duplicate removal and a variety of output options. And, when you’ve set up your Alert, you can edit it and test the changes you made.

Workflow tools
Quickly and easily manage your workflow with new features—duplicate removal and post processing options.

• Duplicate removal. When searching more than one database, some records may be retrieved in more than one database. With the first phase of Dialog ProQuest deduplication, you now can include or exclude (default) duplicates for each search, Alert or RSS feed.
• Post-processing. We know your job doesn’t end with searching. You need to be able to easily package your information into commonly used business tools. Added Post-Processing features make this easier. For example, select how much information to include and export it to an Excel spreadsheet. Or, create PDF, RTF and HTML documents with a Cover Page and a Table of Contents.

Precision search tools
Enhancements to search tools let you create precise searches more efficiently. Specify a database within a group of files you are searching, preserve your actual query statement and choose the sets you want to include, edit, test and save. Limit results to those records with full text or abstracts, or specify documents flagged as peer reviewed or scholarly journals. ProQuest Dialog enables searchers of all skill levels to extract the information they need. With this release, power searchers can conduct searches using their customary workflow.

Transactional pricing enhancements
Features in the new release let you better track costs. From the beginning of a search when selecting a database from database lists to the results lists you retrieve, you can view pricing information. Set Pricing tables even show appropriate pricing information based on the type of pricing plan you have. You also can attach your session costs to a project code, enabling you to bill back your clients for research. Read more about different pricing plans.

Future issues of the Chronolog will bring you more details about these exciting new features. Watch for new self-paced modules describing these tools, and sign up for Web-based live training to learn more.

 

It’s easy on ProQuest Dialog

Quick Codes in MEDLINE^®
Biomedical searchers know they can link qualifiers to MeSH^® (Medical Subject Headings) in MEDLINE^®. They can enter search queries like DIABETES MELLITUS LNK DI to retrieve records narrowed to articles about diagnosis (DI) of diabetes mellitus. But did you know that ProQuest Dialog provides “Quick Code” groupings to allow for limiting a MeSH descriptor to multiple facets?

Here’s how it works: QUICK DIAGNOSIS (QD) in MEDLINE finds records about diagnosis (DI), pathology (PA), radiography (RA), radionuclide imaging (RI) and ultrasonography (US). If you want to retrieve records about diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, simply enter the search query MESH(DIABETES MELLITUS LNK QD) on any search form, whether Basic, Advanced or Command Line. And if you want to make the MeSH term with its linked Quick Code the major focus of the article, enter the query as MJMESH(DIABETES MELLITUS LNK QD). From the results page, use Search Within or Narrow Results By Features to qualify retrieval to more specific aspects, such as date, document type and MeSH subjects, including humans, male, female and more.

There are 19 Quick Code groupings that allow searchers to limit a MeSH term to several facets. These include Quick Anatomy (QA), Quick Chemistry (QC), Quick Etiology (QE), Quick Toxicology (QT) and 15 more.

Quick Codes in Embase
Embase^® provides Quick Codes for Quick Diagnosis (QD), Quick Therapy (QT) and Quick Toxicology (QX). Quick Therapy contains diagnosis (DI). Quick Therapy (QT) encompasses drug therapy (DT), radiotherapy (RT), surgery (SU) and therapy (TH). Quick Toxicology (QX) retrieves adverse drug reaction (AE), drug toxicity (TO) and side effect (SI). In Embase, use EMB as the field code rather than MESH, and for major focus of the articles, use MJEMB, e.g. MJEMB(DIABETES MELLITUS LNK QD).

See the ProQuest Dialog Frequently Asked Questions for details under questions about qualifier terms and codes for MEDLINE and Embase.

 

 August Highlights

DataStar to ProQuest Dialog migration starts soon
A migration notice recently was posted on the DataStarWeb product page as follows:
“Planning for migration from DataStar^® to the ProQuest Dialog service is now underway. Details will be provided to the main contact(s) for each customer site, who will then communicate the plan for their site to all internal users.”

Customers who choose to begin migration in September will have access to ProQuest Dialog at no charge for the month while continuing to use DataStar under their normal plan.

To learn more, visit the ProQuest Dialog Migration site. 

 

More value with ProQuest Dialog pricing
With no Dialunits or connect time, ProQuest Dialog pricing is designed to provide more value at the same approximate cost as legacy systems. Three pricing options meet the needs of different types of users.

• Standard Transactional Plan — retail price for output and Alerts on a pay-as-you-go basis
• Commitment Plan — discounts on output, based on making a commitment to an annual contract value
• Choice and Site License Plans — flat-rate subscriptions for specific databases or groups of databases

 

Check the ProQuest Dialog Migration site pricing tab for more details. For more information about plans offering discounts or flat rate subscriptions, contact your account manager or send an email to .

 

 Validate: Intellectual Property Content Updates

DWPI Update: New coverage — Poland
The country coverage in Derwent World Patents Index^® (Files 351,352/350) has been further enhanced with the inclusion of records published by the patent office in Poland. This latest addition increases the number of authorities covered in DWPI to 46, extending the global coverage of editorially enhanced content in the file. Coverage will start from DWPI^SM update 201142.

The new coverage includes:

• All Patent Applications, Granted Patents and Utility Models published from January 2011 forward.
• Records identified as basics will have DWPI titles and abstracts created from the original Polish records and manual coding, where applicable.

Why is this authority important?
Poland is the sixth largest economy in the European Union (EU) and one of the fastest growing economies in Central Europe, with a yearly growth rate of over 3.0%. The main industries include machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, ship building, food processing, glass and textiles.

Poland has long had a presence on the world's scientific stage. Throughout recent years strengthening its position has been a priority for the State Community for Scientific Research (KBN), which is responsible for policy and funding. Committed to both innovation and implementation of new technologies, the KBN has overseen the creation of centers of excellence through the collaboration of resources among the country's five state-owned universities, 81 institutes of Polish Academy of Sciences and 214 research and development units. The KBN also has ensured a continuation of the tradition of excellence in chemical and physical sciences and astronomy, in addition to developing knowledge across other scientific disciplines.

A very recent success in Poland is the worldwide patenting of the industrial method of graphene production by Polish scientists. This allotrope of carbon is expected to soon replace silicon and revolutionize electronics, thereby introducing Poland to join the group of leaders in this sector. Graphene is obtained from coal and has a structure that is only one atom thick; so, it is the thinnest material possible. One gram is enough to cover several football fields. It conducts heat and electricity better than copper and is 100 times stronger than steel. Graphene is also a semiconductor meaning it is better than silicon for various applications. While graphene was discovered six years ago, it is extremely difficult to obtain, and it had seemed impossible to do so until researchers from the Electronic Materials Technology Institute (ITME) in Warsaw developed an innovative method of obtaining graphene for industrial purposes.

Poland details

• Country Code — PL
• Data Source — Original records supplied in XML format by the Polish patent office; content in Polish
• Patent Kinds — Patent Applications, Granted Patents and Utility Models (applications and granted)
• DWPI Value Add — For basics there will be English language titles and abstracts (created using the original Polish text) and CPI/EPI manual coding
• Coverage starts from — January 2011
  

The number formats for the Polish patent kinds are outlined in the table.

Document Description	Kind	Raw Patent number	DWPI patent number	Raw application number	DWPI application number
Poland Patent application	A1, A3	387357 A1	PL387357 A1	PL 387357 A 20090312	2009PL387357 A2
Poland Granted patent	B1, B3	206623 B1	PL206623 B1	PL 381335 A 20061219	2006PL381335 A2
Poland Utility application	U1, U3	118018 U1	PL118018 U1	PL 118018 U 20090304	2009PL118018 U2
Poland Granted utility	Y1, Y3	65097 Y1	PL65097 Y1	PL 117482 U 20091207	2009PL117482 U2

Note: The raw application number format for Poland is based on the data within the XML format and may not be as it would appear on the original documents.

 

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

The moon may not be made of green cheese, but perhaps the sun could be...
So there I was sipping a cold drink on the veranda of a luxury resort on the island of Oahu while watching the sun disappear to a pinpoint on the Pacific Ocean. Did you know that just as it “extinguishes” itself in the ocean, the sun turns green? Or so rumor states. This is definitely something to contemplate while digging the macadamia nuts out of a plate of locally-grown produce.

Yes, that would be wonderful if I actually had been in the Hawaiian Islands, could afford the room at the resort and would actually pay for an ocean view room, but we can all dream. The sun could turn green surrounded by fuchsia stripes, but I wouldn’t know it. Still, there is work to be done and prior art to be found in such places.

Conference papers; the next best thing to being there
Did you ever want to go to an exotic location? Try this: B 114; S HONOLULU/CM; T S1/9/1-10. It will take you into the Encyclopedia of Associations, search for a conference location of Honolulu and then type out the results. You join the organization, submit a paper for the next conference, and then convince your boss you simply must go! And, because it’s such a long flight, you just have to go Business Class. Good luck; let me know if it works. Or, at least let me know if the sun turns green.

Whatever the reasons authors present at conferences, such papers are an important way of keeping up to date on ongoing research. And, the cumulative record of retrospective conference papers makes for a good source of non-patent literature, especially since the authors of the publications may also be the inventors on future patent applications. Sometimes a conference paper is the earliest public disclosure of an invention, whether a patent has been applied for or not. In addition, conferences are a great source of experts and expert witnesses, if not at the author level, then at the location of research. That is, if a particular university or research corporation delivers many papers on a particular subject area, perhaps the entity has a group of concerned individuals, a specific and perhaps expensive piece of equipment that is the focus of the research, or has a history of excellence in the area. In any event, finding such people or facilities is an essential first step to understanding where the ideas and patents come from and who knows what.

Many databases cover conference papers, including Inside Conferences (File 65 with 7.7 million conference records) or Inspec^® (File 2 with four million) or Ei Compendex^® (File 8 with 3.8 million). But of these, only one, Inspec, uses International Patent Classification (IPC) codes for indexing. In Inspec (Files 2,3,4), you can focus on conference papers using the document type prefix code (DT=CONFERENCE?), or just use normal searching techniques to locate any document types of interest, because, after all, it can all be prior art. The essential link to patents in the Inspec files is the use of the IPC codes as IC= (e.g., as in IC=H02J-0013 for network circuits) in the same manner that these are searchable in patent-specific databases. Thus, a search for both the DT= and IC= codes will yield conference papers on networks, including one on intelligent support systems delivered in Bali. Not a bad place to watch sunsets.

You can run but you cannot hide
And because conference papers can be the first publication of an idea, consider running an author search on the individual who delivered the paper to see what else this author has written (use EXPAND AU=LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME) or as a cited author (EXPAND CR=LASTNAME FIRSTINITIALS) or in a news article (SELECT FIRSTNAME(1N)LASTNAME). Thus, you could find other publications by this author, articles citing this person, or even interviews about the person. The link between conference papers and IPCs is a great starting point to find early publications of a concept and that also can lead you to other sources.

Essential meetings
Finally, in case you are wondering, the orthodontists, periodontists, phytopathologists, psychiatrists and something called the Law and Society Association all have upcoming meetings in Honolulu. Make sure you send me a postcard of the sunset!

 

 Learn about ProQuest

Complement ProQuest and Dialog sources with ebrary
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Make research quick and efficient — use ebrary’s cutting-edge technology DASH!™ to create searchable databases of your own digital materials that integrate with ebrary’s content.

ebrary Topic of the Week
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