| THE CIS NEWS | February 2004 |
| This issue of The CIS News is coming to you from the CIS E-mail address -- cissupport@nisc.com. Comments, questions, concerns, etc., should be directed to that address. | |
| UPDATES | |
| Several existing CIS databases were updated early in February. | |
| RTECS®: | |
| A quarterly
update to RTECS increased the number of records in the database to 157,719. In addition, full-text links have been added to those RTECS (R) records that cite documents from the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Research (ATSDR) or the US National Toxicology Program (NTP). These links appear at the tops of records much like the links you will occasionally see in RTECS (R) records to the full texts of TSCATS documents (from the US EPA). To see an example of a record with the new links, enter RTECS in the Database File box on the search screen and 57-74-9 in the Chemical Name/CAS Reg. No. box. The resulting record has links to both ASTDR and NTP documents. |
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| RCRIS: | |
| This database (also known as RCRAInfo) now contains 617,624 records relating to RCRA-licensed facilities in the United States. As always, the database has been adapted to adjust for incorrect ZIP codes, mis-spelled or abbreviated names, etc., so that you are more likely to get a complete response from a search of RCRIS on CIS than from any other source. (As always, too -- however -- there is no guarantee that any given search will retrieve everything that the search SHOULD retrieve -- the variability in the underlying data being too great. OR-ing together the results of several different search strategies -- a ZIP-code search AND a city-name search, for example -- is always your best bet for maximizing appropriate retrievals.) | |
| DOCKET: | |
| The DOCKET database
has been re-named ICIS -- Integrated Compliance Information System. However,
entering DOCKET in the Database Name box will still limit searches to the database.
Despite the name change, the content has not changed materially: The database still
contains records of administrative and judicial actions for alleged violations of
environmental laws and regulations. There are now 43,149 records of administrative
proceedings in the database and 5,781 records of formal judicial proceedings. One substantive change has taken place in this database, however, and that relates to a reduction in the number of records that contain EPAIDs -- the 12-digit numbers (like CTD123456789) that denote particular facilities. EPAIDs are being phased out of the database by EPA. Consequently, if you are accustomed to searching for records by EPAID, you would be wise in future to search by BOTH EPAID AND site/facility name. You can do this on the EXPERT search screen, as follows: --Click on Change Search Display Level on the right-hand side of the screen. --Click on "Expert search mode," then on "Continue." --In the new search screen that appears, enter "EI=" plus your EPAID on the first line -- as in "EI=CTD123456789". --On the second line, enter "NM=" plus your site/facility name -- as in "NM=STERLING CHEMICALS". --On the third line, enter "#1 OR #2". --On the fourth line, enter "DB=ICIS". --On the fifth line, enter "#3 AND #4". --Now press the SEARCH button on the right-hand side of the screen. The results of that fifth-line search will include ICIS/DOCKET results from BOTH the first-line and second-line searches. |
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| ISHOW, HSDB, and MALLIN: | |
| A small number of new or revised records were added to each of these databases. | |
| INCREASE IN FREE LINKS TO FULL TEXTS AND ABSTRACTS | |
| In addition
to the full-text links described above in connection with RTECS (R), some 25,000
additional links to full texts and/or abstracts were added to CIS records in the course of
the February update. These links will turn up in the following databases: AQUIRE,
BIOLOG, DATALOG, EMIC, ENVIROFATE, MEDLINE, and NIOSHTIC. The links you'll
encounter in these CIS databases -- and others -- will take you as far as the
publication's website permits you to go: to a full-text article, if that's possible, to an
abstract if access to the full text is restricted. Whenever possible, the link will carry
you to the particular article/abstract; if that's not possible, you may have to navigate
to what you want through a table of contents. CIS users should bear in mind, however, that the textual links described above are just those automatically available to ALL users of CIS. If your company or library has subscriptions to the electronic versions of other journals, you can vastly expand the textual linking you see in CIS by providing us with information about those subscriptions. Once we've set you up for linking out of CIS databases to the electronic journals to which you subscribe, the number of links you see in CIS will greatly increase. We happened recently to be on the phone with a CIS user in Europe when he first logged on to see the subscription links we had set up for him. The response was gratifying: "Good Lord, look at that!" If you'd like to find out whether your existing subscriptions can generate that same kind of response, contact us at cissupport@nisc.com, and we'll let you know the information that we need. |
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View November 2003 Newsletter |
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