Agricultural researchers and science librarians must understand which research literature databases provide the most comprehensive coverage of agricultural subjects to support their inquiries. Once the domain of a few specialized databases, agricultural research literature is now covered by broad, multidisciplinary databases. The purpose of this study is to determine the most comprehensive database(s) for agricultural literature searching. We compared the coverage of eight bibliographic databases for a range of agricultural sub-topics to determine how much overlap exists and which database(s) best support discovery of agricultural research literature. We found that the multidisciplinary databases provided the most comprehensive coverage, along with one of the agriculture-specific databases. This study will help researchers and librarians determine where to invest their effort and resources when looking to find agricultural research content.
The third in a series of columns around data visualizations by three librarians at the University of Maryland (and one collaborator from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.