B
IOSIS is the world's largest abstracting and indexing service for biological and
biomedical research literature. A not-for-profit organization, BIOSIS was founded in
1926. BIOSIS processes approximately 545,000 items each year from primary research
and review journals, books, monographs, and conference proceedings. The BIOSIS
information system, a pool of material totaling over 11.5 million citations, is available
in several formats. These include Biological Abstracts
®
(BA), the leading printed
reference publication for life science information, Biological Abstracts/RRM
®
(Reports, Reviews, Meetings)(BA/RRM), the companion printed reference to
Biological Abstracts, and CD-ROM formats for both BA and BA/RRM. BIOSIS is also
a joint publisher of Zoological Record. Other BIOSIS CD-ROM products include:
Foods Intelligence
®
on CD, BIOSIS GenRef
®
on CD, BIOSIS Previews
®
on CD,
Zoological Record on CD
TM
, and TOXLINE Plus. BIOSIS produces the online databas-
es, BasicBIOSIS
®
, BIOSIS Previews, and Zoological Record Online
®
, and is a major
contributor to the TOXLINE database.
1998 Product Enhancements
Products for 1998 and forward will look considerably different than previous volumes
due to enhancements in BIOSIS' indexing methods (Relational Indexing
SM
). The
changes in BIOSIS products are designed to make using and scanning BA and BA/RRM
EASIER and the retrieval of relevant records more ACCURATE. BIOSIS' new Relational
Indexing will provide RELATIONSHIPS between terms, such as developmental stages
(i.e., child or adult) and a corresponding organism (i.e., hominidae), provide CONTEXT,
and allow more specific retrieval within the indexes. Users of the print product will also
be able to understand the relationship between higher and lower TAXONOMIC levels of
organisms by virtue of the Organism Index.
Some additional highlights of the new format include:
1. The Subject Index is redesigned with an easy-to-scan back-of-book format.
2. Genus species names are included in the Subject Index and link to the family name.
3. The Organism Index replaces both the current Generic and Biosystematic Indexes,
which will allow for hierarchical access to kingdom, family, genus species, and com-
mon organism names. References to related organisms are easier to locate because
they are located in a single index, arranged hierarchically.
4. Increased font size makes the print publications easier to read.
5. For Biological Abstracts, the number of volumes will change from two to one vol-
ume per year. Cumulative Indexes are published every six months and now cumulate
an entire volume's worth of information on an annual basis.
6. Finally, Biological Abstracts/RRM now contains a SPONSOR INDEX, enabling users
to find meeting references based on the sponsor name.
W h a t i s B I O S I S ?
3
What is BIOSIS?
