Print the pageFree Searchable Databases on the Internet
Agricola is produced by the National Agricultural Library of the US Department of Agriculture. A bibliographic database on agricultural science, laboratory animal science, animal welfare, alternatives with some topics not covered by PubMed.
It consists of two databases which are searched separately. The first is the OPAC (on-line public access catalogue) of the National Agricultural Library and the second is a bibliographic citation database of journal articles etc, the scope of which is much broader than just agricultural topics.
Using Agricola
Searches appear to be case-insensitive and there helpful hints on how to search in each of three modes. A link is also provided to a more-detailed help page for the selected mode. The full record for each retrieved document has to be viewed individually. Copies of individual records can be sent by e-mail on request.
Search and Browse
A search can be done by keyword, author, title or subject. The keyword search covers all fields in the records. The subject field consists of indexing terms from the CAB Thesaurus. It is only possible to enter one search term. This can be a word or a phrase, or even just the start of a word. The results are displayed as an alphabetical list of indexed terms starting with the input term. The list can be scrolled upwards and downwards. The output shows the number of times each term has been indexed over the whole database in each of the fields: author, subject, title, all fields. The numbers are hot links and clicking on them will show all the associated records for the selected term in the selected field. The records are in abbreviated form. This displays the first part of the title, the name of the first author and the year. Each record is numbered, and clicking on the number will call up the full record for the selected document. The full record consists of the title, source, author(s), and CAB Thesaurus index terms, as well as an abstract where available.
Keyword search
This mode provides two input boxes. A keyword or phrase can be entered into each of these and the two sets of search terms can be combined using the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT. If a phrase is entered, the search system automatically inserts an AND between each word. In effect, this means that more than one keyword can be entered into each input box, if an AND is desired between each of them. The disadvantage is that a phrase search will retrieve all documents containing all the component words, regardless of whether these words are adjacent to each other or not. The search results are displayed as a scrollable list of records in abbreviated form. This displays the first part of the title, the name of the first author and the year. Each record is numbered, and clicking on the number will call up the full record for the selected document. The full record consists of the title, source, author(s), and CAB Thesaurus index terms, as well as an abstract where available.
Advanced keyword search
The search terms are entered as a Booelan expression using the operators AND, OR, and NOT. Parentheses may also be used. The search terms must be entered in the form x=search term, where x indicates the field to be searched: w – all fields, a – author field, t – title field, s – CAB Thesaurus keyword (see below). At present, the system can only accept a maximum of six search terms. The search results are displayed as a scrollable list of records in abbreviated form. This displays the first part of the title, the name of the first author and the year. Each record is numbered, and clicking on the number will call up the full record for the selected document. The full record consists of the title, source, author(s), and CAB Thesaurus index terms, as well as an abstract where available.
CAB Thesaurus
This thesaurus, produced by CAB International, provides the indexing structure for Agricola. No on-line version of the thesaurus is provided as such on the Agricola site. However, clicking on one of the index terms in a full record will bring up a scrollable alphabetical list of thesaurus terms starting with the selected terms. The number of hits for each term across the whole database is indicated.
Major biomedical bibliographic database and associated databases produced by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). The database is indexed by Medical Subject Headings and it is possible to download complete MeSH files in ASCII format from the NLM web page.
Free access to Medline is now available from a large number of web sites. There are a number of other associated topic-specific databases which consist partly of records extracted from Medline and partly of records from non-Medline sources. Only a limited number of web sites provide access to some or all of these databases. An updated list is available from the NLM site.
It is useful to bookmark several preferred free Medline sites as traffic to them tends to be quite heavy and access to any one site may at times be very slow or impossible.
A collection of factual and bibliographical databases on toxicology and hazardous chemicals, environmental health, and toxic releases. To see the list of current databases click here.
Using Toxnet
Data search
Searches are performed on one database at a time selected from a pop-up list. Chemicals are specified by their chemical or other name, by a fragment of a name or by the CAS Registry Number. If more than one chemical is entered, an OR is used to separate them. A third box is for the input of keywords. If more than one keyword is entered, they can be treated as separate words or as a phrase. If the keywords are to be treated separately, the options are that they all have to occur in a record, any can occur in a record, or they have to be "in the same occurrence".
Literature search
Searches are performed on one database at a time selected from a pop-up list. Keywords can be input into two separate boxes and selected to be searched for the following fields: all; title; chemical name; CAS Registry number; author.
Jackson Laboratory Mouse Resources
Information on transgenic and inbred strains of mice, including information about husbandry, phenotype and acquisition with links to related external resources, including citation links. Strain production details and contact details for individual contributors are given. Contains a number of new databases where mouse models are assigned by disease group.
Using the Jackson Laboratory Mouse Resources
Searches can be carried out over all fields. Additional search boxes are provided to search on individual fields: line name, common name of animal (selected from pop-up list), genus (selected from pop-up list), DNA construct description, DNA construct vector (selected from pop-up list), DNA construct submitter, line source (selected from pop-up list), method (selected from pop-up list), recombination (selected from pop-up list), blastocyst strain, ES cells ,transgene/targeted allele expression, heterozygous phenotype (selected from pop-up list), homozygous phenotype (selected from pop-up list), lethality (selected from pop-up list), phenotype, submitter comment, application, line type, line locus, integration site comment, submitter, lab submitter, lab submitter comment, lab description, contact, citation, date range (selected from pop-up list). Free text fields support the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT, parentheses and * for truncation.
Database on research projects related to the development of alternatives to animal use in The Netherlands produced by the Netherlands Centre on Alternatives. It is available through a free, open account at PREX, a database host specialising in alternatives and animal welfare at Utrecht University.
Using the NCA database
A Telnet helper application is required to access PREX. Downloading and printing of records is only possible with an application which supports remote printing. Such an application (Win QVT) can be downloaded from the PREX web site.
The searchable fields include: project title, abstract, institute, contact person, publications and remarks. PREX supports the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT, but does not support parentheses.
To access this database, it is necessary to go to the PREX home page , click on 'to the databases', then 'search the databases'. Enter NCA-INFO when prompted for the user name and also when prompted for the password. This will effect entry to a subset of PREX databases which includes the NCA database, NORINA (a database of alternatives to animal use in education) and part of the AT database (a bibliographical database on alternatives to animal use produced by the Akademie für Tierschutz, Munich; records in German with some English content). The other databases on PREX are available on payment of an annual subscription.
NORINA is the Norwegian Inventory of Audiovisuals. It is a database on alternatives to animals in education that contains audiovisuals, multimedia presentations and computer imulations, which can replace the use of animals at all levels of education. Each record provides a description of the product, related references, contact details for the producers and details of price.
Produced and maintained by the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, it is a database of alternatives to animals in education.
Information can be downloaded subject to downloading of files.
Refinement and Environmental Enrichment for Primates and Other Laboratory Animals
Three annotated bibliographical databases produced by the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington. They cover articles, book chapters, books, photographs, slide sets, videotapes and Internet resources. The databases can be searched by author, title, date, keywords or full text using Boolean AND and OR operators as well as truncation.
Another database accessible from this site provides bibliography on the topic of alternative farming practices.
The Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) site provides information on current research projects and innovation activities in the European Union and gives access to documents concerning the EU Framework programmes as well as to other EU information sources.
The search input supports the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT as well as parentheses. The site is not particularly user-friendly and can be very slow at peak times.
Registered CORDIS users can save search profiles and receive automatic updates by Email of search results that match search criteria.
The Current Research Information System (CRIS) database provides information on research projects supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.
CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects) is a searchable database of US federally funded biomedical research projects including those funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Office of Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH).
Searches are via a query form that has a help menu built into each criteria button. These are of limited use. However, since AND/OR boolean descriptors can be used and since there are a number of drop-down menus, it is possible to overcome some of these difficulties to search by year, US state and disease.
Cell Line Databases
Searchable databases of cell lines, including hybridomas.
ATCC (American Type Culture Collection)
The ATCC catalogue currently contains over 3,600 cell lines from around 80 species, including hybridomas for antibody production and cancer cell lines.
The ATCC cell line catalogue can be searched using the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT. Parentheses may be used, and indeed have to be used if combining NOT with more than one other operator in the search expression. * may be used as truncator. Phrases need to be enclosed in single quotation marks, otherwise and OR will be assumed between each word.
Database records provide information on the species and tissue of origin, the way in which the cell line was established, the properties of the cell line and the culture conditions required.
The ATCC catalogue is acessible via the LGC Promochem website alongside a number of other collections such as:
This database contains specialised collections and cell banks from within Italy and other European countries, with some non-ATCC cell lines available with information on 4,850 human and animal cell lines. It permits a search to be made for cell line collections available at the following institutions:
Istituto Giannina Gaslini, Genova - Italy: Dermal fibroblast and amniotic fluid cells from patients affected by inherited metabolic diseases.
Istituto di Patologia Generale dell'Universita' degli Studi, Modena - Italy: Fibroblasts from patients affected with familial metabolic disorders.
Centro Studio Malattie Tessuto Connettivo, Dip. Biochimica dell'Universita' degli Studi, Pavia - Italy: Dermal fibroblast from patients affected by inherited connective tissue disorders.
Laboratorio di Genetica Umana, Istituto di Genetica Biochimica ed Evoluzionistica, CNR, Pavia - Italy: Human fibroblast and UV sensitive CHO mutants.
Servizio di Immunogenetica dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genova - Italy: Mouse HLA transfectants.
Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow - Russia: Human somatic cells from patients with hereditary diseases.
German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig - Germany: Continuous, immortalized human and animal cell lines.
The European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC), Health Protection Agency, Porton Down, Salisbury - UK: Human and animal cell lines of diverse origins. The ECACC catalogue may also be searched from the ECACC web site.
Interlab Cell Line Collection, Centro di Biotecnologie Avanzate, Genova - Italy: Human and animal cell lines.
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale, Brescia - Italy: Human and animal cell lines, mainly from the ATCC.
Galliera Genetic Bank c/o Laboratorio di Genetica Umana, Ospedali Galliera, Genova - Italy: Human fibroblasts, trophoblast and amniotic fluid cells.
A database of references with abstracts on alternatives to in vivo skin irritation testing.
ECVAM Scientific Information System
List the status of different alternative methods and recommendations for deletion of existing methods. A list of EU alternatives research projects and Invitox protocols are also available via this site.
A collection of genomes and genome and gene analysis tools, including a chromosome-by-chromosome global research listing, gene expression data gene mapping tools and tools to assist with the design of molecular biology techniques.
PubGene Gene and Protein Database
A simple menu-driven text-mining facility with scroll-over help menu. Contains literature and sequence information and analysis tools for genomes and proteomes of a number of organisms and allows information to be visualised for various biological pathways and gene homology to be mapped.
There is an advanced search option with drop-down menus to restrict searches according to reliability of data and to annotate according to selected criteria, such as disease association.