Biosis BIOSIS Previews workbook Page 40
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BIOSIS Previews
Organization of
Subject Information
Individual Descriptor fields
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www.biosis.org s Training & Support s PowerPoint Presentation s BIOSIS Previews s
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This record structure is used from 1993 forward.
Prior to 1993, all descriptor information appeared in a single added keyword field.
Fields are divided into sentences. Items within a sentence can be searched in
context and linked for greater relevancy using a linking operator which may differ
for individual vendors.
Each sentence is made up of the following elements:
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Keyterm (mandatory)
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Variant term/synonym, if given in the original item (optional)
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Classifier from the Authority File (optional only in some fields)
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Modifiers (optional). Modifiers can include organism roles, free-text terms, and
some controlled terminology (e.g., disease modifiers, drug modifiers, etc.).
Punctuation:
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;
separates one sentence from another
[ ]
used with variant terms
( ), { }
used with classifiers
:
indicates modifiers
