Specialist Bibliographic Databases

Abstract

Specialist bibliographic databases offer essential online tools for researchers and authors who work on specific subjects and perform comprehensive and systematic syntheses of evidence. This article presents examples of the established specialist databases, which may be of interest to those engaged in multidisciplinary science communication. Access to most specialist databases is through subscription schemes and membership in professional associations. Several aggregators of information and database vendors, such as EBSCOhost and ProQuest, facilitate advanced searches supported by specialist keyword thesauri. Searches of items through specialist databases are complementary to those through multidisciplinary research platforms, such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Familiarizing with the functional characteristics of biomedical and nonbiomedical bibliographic search tools is mandatory for researchers, authors, editors, and publishers. The database users are offered updates of the indexed journal lists, abstracts, author profiles, and links to other metadata. Editors and publishers may find particularly useful source selection criteria and apply for coverage of their peer-reviewed journals and grey literature sources. These criteria are aimed at accepting relevant sources with established editorial policies and quality controls.

Generating Working Hypotheses for Original Research Studies

“…In this context, before embarking on a research study, it cannot be overemphasized regarding the need to conduct an extensive literature search through multiple bibliographic databases regarding the subject of the study [7]. Scientists planning to conduct a research study should preferably search through both multidisciplinary (MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science) as well as specialist bibliographic databases (those catering to specific groups of scientists, such as chemical sciences) [8]. This shall help identify the breadth of the existing knowledge on the subject, as well as to understand which areas require further exploration.…”

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“…These indexed records of publications facilitate access to and search in publications, and generate various types of statistical data (Almog & Almog, 2020). Today's world of science includes a range of indexed lists of scientific publications (Gasparyan et al, 2016). These lists differ by field of coverage, volume, and diversity of items (some also contain newspaper articles, books, dissertations, conference papers), attributes (headings and abstracts or complete texts), access (free access or access for pay), and the type of retrievable statistical publicationrelated data (citations, hyperlinks, influence measures, etc.).…”

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