The Endangered Database Species:
Are the traditional commercial
indexing/abstracting & full-text databases dead?
Peter Jacso
University of Hawaii
UKSG Annual Conference
University of Warwick, 2006
PowerPoint: Judit Tiszai
The Endangered Database Species:
Are the traditional commercial
indexing/abstracting & full-text databases dead?
No
Not all of them
Not all of them – yet
Not in all habitats
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Variations of species – variations in status
Indexing-only db-s
near extinction
Most abstracting db-s
endangered/threatened
Some full-text db-s
vulnerable
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Phylogenetic tree
full-text
D
A
T
A
B
A
S
E
S
Computer
derived
video
abstracting
audio
image
Human
compiled
indexing
textual
bibliogr-list
numeric
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Intrinsic reasons for
endangered/threatened/vulnerable status
Stagnation
British Education Index (on Dialog)
Deflation
Mental Health Abstracts (MHA)
Staleness
GeoArchive
Sloppy production
MHA, Information Science Abstracts (ISA)
Journal base blight
MHA, ISA
Flab vs muscle
SportDiscus (before acquisition by Ebsco)
Self-destruction
e-psyche
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External reasons for
endangered/threatened/vulnerable status
 Open Access
100 millions of OA indexing records
10 millions of OA abstract records
Millions of free OA full-text documents
 Triple whammy– commercial competitors +
government + smartest individuals
 Much enhanced competitive content
 Innovative & synergic hosting platform
 Appealing Interface
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For the gory details see the following
e-psyche Online 28(2) March/April, 2004, p. 54-58.
e-psyche GaleNet January, 2004
e-psyche e-XTRA January, 2004
Information Science Abstracts Database 20(1) February/March, 1997, p. 84-87.
Update on the Currency of ISA e-XTRA June, 2000
Database Source Coverage: Myth and Reality e-XTRA December, 2000
Cheers and Jeers for 2003 e-XTRA December, 2003
Endangered Database Species e-XTRA December, 2000
A look at the endangered species of the database world. Information World Review No.164
December, 2000, p. 72-73.
Mental Health Abstracts Online 27(5) Sep/Oct, 2003, p. 53-55.
SportDiscus GaleNet Nov, 2004
SportDiscus Online 28(6) Nov/Dec, 2004, p. 51-54.
Some Pans of the Past Online 30(1) Jan/Feb, 2006, p. 58-60.
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too slow growth
too small body size
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The fate of two databases (updated March 15, 2006)
100,000
90,000
PsycINFO
80,000
MHA
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
Deflation
2006
2004
2002
2000
1998
1996
1994
1992
1990
1988
1986
1984
1982
1980
1978
1976
1974
1972
1970
1968
1966
0
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Self-delusion
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Self-delusion
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Illusions & Delusions
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e-psyche vs Psycinfo on EBSCO
Cutting corners
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Self Destruction
Only journal articles as cited references
Only back to 1970
Maximum 10
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Champagne promises
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From
fake
rigor...
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...to wishful thinking...
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...to delusion
Who are you fooling?
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Reality check
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How many duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates? ...
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Poor
thesaurus
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Fatal obesity
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In spite of rigorous quality control...
Rigor mortis sets in
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Staleness
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Size does matter
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Phylogenetic-tree (NON-scientific) ©
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Publishers
directly give away millions of abstracts
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Digital Faciliators
aggregate
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Sumo wrestlers get in the ring
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Goverment versions
have smarter software + many full-text for free
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From the minimalist
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To the maximalist
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and in between
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Ultra skeletal record on Dialog
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“Same” record on Ebsco
Useful links
No abstract
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puny link
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Why teasing with FindIt, when it could be linked directly?
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Link it is, but not hot
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that’s good
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Hot-linking, distractive Find It Button
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Incorporated JMLA in PDF FT, no guessing game
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Cited ref count links to Cited ref list
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So happy to
see also the
CITEDNESS
Count of some
of the CITED
items, but …..
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Obvious links missed
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The cited JMLA article IS in the LISTA database with PDF FT!
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The cited BMLA article biblio details are in LISTA
but not the PDF FT
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No citedness count, no list of cited references
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let’s view the FT at
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list of cited refs – all cold
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Richly enhanced cited refs for the haves and have-nots, but …
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… Why the first ref to Serials is linkless?
The second one is rewarding
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MetaPress-hosted article
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No citedness score but links to find out –
within ScienceDirect and outside
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Cited by within ScienceDirect
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and cited in Scopus
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Modest information about citedness in facilitator:
MetaPress
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pre-Emerald volume
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Far the best digital facilitator – HWP
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and of course Google Scholar , but...
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...Inflated citation counts and phantom links
Google Scholar GaleNet Dec, 2004.
Google Scholar (Redux) GaleNet June, 2005.
Google Scholar: the Pros and the Cons. Online Information Review
29(2) 2005, p. 208-214.
As We May Search - Comparison of Major Features of the Web of
Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar Citation-based and Citationenhanced Databases. Current Science 89(9), 2005, p. 1537-1547.
Google Scholar and The Scientist e-XTRA Oct, 2005.
+ coming soon
Online Information Review 2006/2
Online Information Review 2006/3
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Phylogenetic-tree (NON-scientific) ©
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"Survival of the fittest"
1.
"Survival of the fittest" is a poor way to think about evolution. Darwin himself did not use the phrase in the first edition
of Origin of Species. What Darwin said is that heritable variations lead to differential reproductive success. This is not
circular or tautologous. It is a prediction that can be, and has been, experimentally verified (Weiner 1994).
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