Biosis BIOSIS Previews workbook Page 83
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Searching
BIOSIS Previews
Sample Question
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www.biosis.org s Training & Support s PowerPoint Presentation s BIOSIS Previews s
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Pose the question: make a simple statement of the question you are trying to search.
Identify the main topics: these will be your search topics in this case, animal
models and Alzheimer's disease.
Determine how to search the main topics: as these are specific topics (named
disease rather than a class of diseases), you would not expect controlled terminology.
Checking the Authority File or consulting the Vocabulary usage section of the
BIOSIS Search Guide confirms this. Hence, use free-text search terms in the
descriptor fields, and include any known synonyms/variants.
For maximum relevancy, limit the search to the appropriate specific descriptor
field(s), remembering the years of availability of the fields (e.g., the Diseases field is
only available from 1998-, so use the keyterms to include 1993-1997 data).
For maximum retrieval, search all the fields together.
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