224 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
Abstracting and indexing services and biblio- 
graphic services have existed since the 17th cen- 
tury and have grown in number and size as pub- 
lished literature has expanded. The first major 
services for scientific information were published 
by professional societies (e.g., Chemical Abstracts) . 
Some were sponsored by the Federal Government 
(e.g., Air Pollution Abstracts and AGRICOLA) or 
by commercial enterprises (e.g., Current Contents 
and Environmental Abstracts) (8). Some, such as 
the Chemical Information System, originated in 
Government and were later converted into com- 
mercial enterprises (12). 
The largest abstracting and indexing service for 
biological and biomedical research is BIOSIS, the 
BioSciences Information Service. In 1985, its cov- 
erage extended to 440,000 items from over 9,000 
sources worldwide. The file accumulated to date 
contains over 6 million items, the largest biologi- 
cal file in the English language. Items covered in- 
clude abstracts and citations for journal articles 
and other serial publications, and citations to 
reports, reviews, and scientific meetings (6). 
A typical abstract of a journal article and an il- 
lustration of how it is indexed by BIOSIS appear 
in figure 10-1. Information like this is contained 
in the semimonthly publication Biological Ab- 
stracts. Another publication, Biological Abstracts/ 
RRM , contains bibliographic entries for research 
reports, reviews, meetings, and books (see fig. 10- 
2). BIOSIS also offers several computer-based serv- 
ices that provide citations tailored to the custom- 
er’s information needs. All of these resources are 
regularly used by scientists. As the figures illus- 
trate, however, it is often difficult to tell from a 
title, or even from an abstract, whether a particu- 
lar article would satisfy a reader’s needs. 
Once a citation has been obtained, it is easy to 
acquire the full text of a research report. Most 
libraries have the necessary services available, or 
the inquirer can write to the author and ask for 
a reprint. In addition, some commercial vendors 
offer to supply by mail the full text of virtually 
any article (see fig. 10-3). 
A recent comparison of databases for literature 
on 10 pesticides illustrates the problem of over- 
lap (15). Eight databases had to be searched in or- 
der to get 90 percent of all data relevant to a par- 
ticular regulatory decision. The share of citations 
produced by these databases that were not rele- 
vant ranged from 11 to 2 7 percent. Used together, 
the four most consistently relevant databases— 
TOXLINE, CAB Abstracts, BIOSIS, and Chemical 
Abstracts— produced 25 to 91 percent of all rele- 
vant citations, with an average of 69 percent. 
These statistics illustrate the fragmentation that 
may accompany a literature search. Although the 
number of databases that need to be searched may 
be small for some fields, questions of an interdis- 
ciplinary nature require substantial resources for 
a complete literature search. 
Retrieving Unpublished Information 
Citation services are available for some unpub- 
lished data and testing in progress. Federal data- 
bases and publications include the Bioassay Status 
Report and Tox-Tips of the National Toxicology 
Program (NTP), the EPA Chemical Activity Status 
Report , the Current Research Database of the Na- 
tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 
NTIS 's Federal Research in Progress , and the Smith - 
sonian Science Information Exchange (no longer 
active). There are also many small databases used 
to keep track of specialized data, such as informa- 
tion used in the implementation of a specific law. 
Similar citation services to unpublished data or 
ongoing testing exist on an international level. The 
International Agency for Research on Cancer, 
which has substantial U.S. support, coordinates 
the sharing of information about current carcino- 
genicity testing in laboratories around the world 
and publishes an information bulletin, Survey of 
Chemicals Being Tested for Carcinogenic Activity . 
The International Program on Chemical Safetyof 
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 
is establishing a database for Chemicals Currently 
Being Tested for Toxicological Effects. This data- 
base is designed for long-term or otherwise expen- 
sive studies other than those on carcinogenicity. 
Participants in both programs include govern- 
ments, industry, academia, and research institutes. 
In addition, Infoterra, a service of UNEP, publishes 
a directory through which experts in numerous 
subject areas can be located. Assistance is also pro- 
vided by national representatives. The U.N.’s In- 
ternational Registry of Potentially Toxic Chemi- 
