Analytical Abstracts

Overview

Analytical Abstracts is one of six databases created and maintained by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Chemists “(f)or coverage of the latest techniques and applications. [It is t]he premier current awareness and information retrieval service tailored to analytical scientists” (Royal Society of Chemists, 2012).  It is available by subscription, to RSC members and libraries/library consortia.  The print version of Analytical Abstracts dates back to 1939 and is published monthly, the abstracts in the database date back to 1980 and the site updates weekly.  Over 80 publications are represented by Analytical Abstracts, covering subject areas such as General Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic and Organic Analysis, and Pharmaceutical Analysis.  As a database of highly technical and advanced scientific information, collected from journals around the world, this database would most likely be of interest to academic and medical libraries.

Searching

Analytical Abstracts basic search page (click for larger view)

Analytical Abstracts has both basic and and advanced search options available.  It allows the use of Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT in between search terms.  Wildcard searches make use of the asterisk (*) symbol.  Analytical Abstracts also compares each search term to a thesaurus in order to return records that use related words.  The basic search is essentially a keyword search across all fields while the advanced search allows the use of index terms and bibliographic data (title, author, etc.).  Analytical Abstracts is interesting in that for every abstract, there are three potential sets of index terms: analyte, matrix, and technique. 

Analytical Abstracts advanced search page (click for larger view)

Analyte terms refer to the chemical elements, compounds, and other substances that are identified or determined in the abstract.  These can be searched specifically by name, alternate name, abbreviation, CAS (Chemical Abstract Service) Number or generally by type.  Matrix terms refer to the “medium in which the analyte has been measured” (Royal Society of Chemists, 2012).  Technique terms refer to the methodology or apparatus used in the analysis or applicable field of study.  For both Matrix and Technique terms, there is an index of controlled vocabulary.  This is accessible by subscribers through the arrow icon.  Clicking on an index term will include it as a search term. 

Once a search has been completed, multiple records can be selected via checkboxes.  These records will be remembered throughout the browser session.  Records can also be emailed and exported to reference software, such as Endnote, for quick access later.

Availability of full text articles is not guaranteed, but dependent on the access the user has to the source, either through the library or personal subscription.  If the full article is available, it will be accessible via a link in the full display of the abstract record.




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Dialog, LLC. (2006). Analytical Abstracts. Retrieved from: 
           library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0305.html
Royal Society of Chemists. (2012). Analytical Abstracts. Retrieved from RSC Publishing: 
           www.rsc.org/Publishing/CurrentAwareness/AA