The Abstract (AB) field contains the abstract text as provided by the author of the source document.  BIOSIS editors provide abstract text for book main citations, those which describe the book as a whole, and for meeting summary and main cite items, which describe the meeting as a whole. 

Stopwords, such as "the" and "of" are not searchable.  You may also notice literal representations of symbols.  These abbreviations were enclosed in periods prior to 1994, for example, .tbd. (= triple bond).  You will find a list of these literals in the BIOSIS Search Guide.  Note also that the character string GRAPHICS appears in place of chemical structures, mathematical formulae and other special symbols which cannot be displayed.

Use All Searchable Fields (AF) to search simultaneously in all fields in this list.

The Accession Number (AN) index contains a unique identifying number for each item. The Accession Number is composed of three elements: a product identification code (PREV), product year (YYYY), and an item number (nnnnnnnn), as in PREVYYYYnnnnnnnn.

The Author/Editor/Inventor (AU) index contains the authors name or organization responsible for the source document. The role and e-mail information for the authors are not present in the index but display in the record.

The format for authors is last name followed by one or more initials: Smith James or Smith J. Enter the last name, or if it is a common name, enter the last name and first initial. If you are unsure of the spelling of the last name (macdonald or mcdonald), enter one version and then scroll through the list of names to find the other.

The Biosystematic Codes (BC) field contains the BIOSIS Biosystematic Code for an organism(s) and the corresponding organism classifier discussed in the source document.  The Biosystematic Code will be presented in brackets ([]) followed by the organism classifier.  The classifier may also be followed by new taxon, which identifies when new taxa are discussed in the source item.

You can search Biosystematic Codes by name or code.

Note:  The Biosis Previews Archive does not support the use of "new taxon," which is only available from 2003 onwards.

The Original Language Book Title (non-English) (BO) index contains the non-English title and subtitle of a book. This field does not appear if the source book was published in English or, in the case of titles published in multiple languages, the English language version is the one processed by BIOSIS. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Book Title (English) (BT) index contains the English-language version of the book title and subtitle. Literalizations are substituted for special characters and symbols. If the Book Title is the result of a BIOSIS translation of a non-English title it appears in square brackets ([]). This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The BIOSIS Update (BU) index contains the day the item was originally produced by BIOSIS. For items produced 1969 - 1997, BIOSIS Update contains only the year of production. For items produced from 1998 and later, BIOSIS Update contains the month day and year of production.

This field displays as part of the Update Code (UP) field.

The Chemicals & Biochemicals (CB) field contains the name of a chemical or biochemical which is described in the source. Each Chemical/Biochemical name could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately. You can search for individual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

For example if the source data is: p38 kinase: 165245-96-5, regulation you can search the phrase "p38 kinase.cb." or "p38 kinase regulation.cb." to ensure that the modifier "regulation" refers to the term of interest. You can search the modifiers separately, or search a term and modifier as a phrase (as above) to ensure the accuracy of your search.

The Chemical Role is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Chemical Role in the tool.

The Concept Codes (CC) index contains the five-digit numeric code as well as the code expansions used to represent BIOSIS indexing categories.

You can search Concept Codes by either code or expansion, for example, Behavioral Biology Human behavior.cc. or 07004.cc.

Note that concept code groups are routinely uploaded to the first three digits. Entering the first few letters of the full heading or the first few digits of the code in the index is a particularly effective way to search Concept Codes.

Concept Codes are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Concept Codes in the tool.

The Chemical Information (CI) index contains the Chemicals & Biochemicals (CB) data.

The Date of Publication (DP) field contains the issue year of the journal. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Diseases (DS) index contains the name of a plant, animal, or human disease, disorder, or pathological condition as discussed in the source document. Each Disease could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately. You can search for individual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

The Disease affiliations are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Disease Modifiers in the tool.

Disease coverage begins in 1998. 

The Geopolitical Locations (GE) field describes a location or place mentioned in the source document.  Each Geopolitical Location could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately.  You can search for individual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases

For example if the source data is: Edmonton: Alberta, Canada, North America, Nearctic region you can search the phrase edmonton.ge. or edmonton canada.ge. to ensure that the modifier "canada" refers to the term of interest. You can search the modifiers separately, or search a term and modifier as a phrase (as above) to ensure the accuracy of your search.

Geopolitical Locations coverage begins in 1993.  Geopolitical Terms and Zoogeographical Regions are searchable via the Controlled Vocabulary Geographic Classifiers in the tool.

Sometimes you may wish to retrieve every Subject field that includes a particular word or phrase. You may do this by searching the word or phrase word in the Heading Word (HW) field.

Heading Word includes the fields:

Stopwords, which include commonly occurring words such as "of" and "the" will not be indexed. All valid terms in the tool are also included.

The Institution (IN) index contains the postal address of the corresponding author of the source document, identified by 'Reprint Author.' The Institution is in the language of the source document, and may include the following information: department name or corporate division, institution or organization name, street address, city, town, country, state or province, zip code or postal code, and country. Institution coverage begins in 1978. The information is taken from the source document and is not standardized. Enter the single most descriptive word in an institution (harvard, not university). Consider both full spellings and abbreviations.

The Issue (IP) index contains the number of the issue of a serial publication of the source item. Supplement information will also appear here when applicable. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Journal Name (JN) index contains the title of the serial publication of which the source item appears. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

Stopwords such as "of" are included in the JN index, but when "the" is the first word of a journal, it is stripped.

The Journal Word (JX) field contains individual words from every journal name. This field can be used to retrieve every occurrence of a journal which includes a particularly distinctive word or phrase, such as "forestry". A single heavily posted word, such as "journal", will search slowly. Therefore, include such a word within a phrase from the title when appropriate. For example, if you are looking for a title with "pharmaceutical" and  "journal", enter the phrase in one search statement rather than searching each word individually and and then combining the two. Your search statement will look similar to this: (pharmaceutical and journal).jx.

Stopwords such as "the" or "of" are not included.

The Local Messages (LM) field contains messages created by your Ovid System administrator to indicate holdings information about journals held in your library or institution.

The Major Concepts (MC) index indicates the broad subject area discussed in the source item. Terms following the colon indicate the broader subject areas.

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately. You can search for individual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

For example if the source data is: Allergy: Clinical Immunology, Human Medicine, Medical Sciences you can search the phrase allergy.mc. or allergy medical sciences.mc. to ensure that the modifier "medical sciences" refers to the term of interest. You can search the modifiers separately, or search a term and modifier as a phrase (as above) to ensure the accuracy of your search.

Major Concepts are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Major Concept Terms in the tool.

The Meeting Information (MF) index contains the title, location, date or date range of a scientific meeting or conference described in the item or from which the item was taken.

Meeting Title coverage begins in 1969; Location and Date coverage begins in 1993.

The Organisms (OR) index contains the name of an organism as given by the author(s) of the source document. Each organism name could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately. You can search for individual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

For example if the source data is: Sprague-Dawley rat: adult, male [Muridae] You can search the phrase "sprague-dawley rat.or." or "sprague-dawley rat male.or." to ensure that the modifier "male" refers to the term of interest. You can search the modifiers separately, or search a term and modifier as a phrase (as above) to ensure the accuracy of your search. Organisms coverage begins in 1993.

Taxonomic levels are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Type of Name, Organism New Taxon is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary New Taxon Modifiers, Developmental Stages are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Developmental Stage, Organism Role is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Organism Role, Fossil Indicator is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Fossil Modifiers and Gender is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Gender in the tool.

The Original Title (non-English) (OT) field contains the non-English title of an item described within the citation, taken from the source item.  Literalizations are substituted for special characters and symbols. The Original Title is indexed in the Title (TI) index. Original Title (non-English) coverage begins in 1998.

The Patent Country (PC) index contains the name of the country in which the patent was granted.

The Pagination (PG) index contains the total or inclusive pagination for the source document. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Publisher Information (PI) index contains the name and address of the publisher who produced the source book. The information is not standardized. Enter the single most descriptive word in an institution (heart not association). Consider both full spellings and abbreviations.

The Parts, Structures & Systems of Organisms (PS) field contains components of organisms above the macromolecular level as discussed in the source document.  Each Part, Structure and System of Organisms could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately.  You can search for indifidual terms or search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

For example if the source data is: gastrocnemius muscle: muscular system, ultrastructure. You can search the phrase "gastrocnemius muscle.ps." or "gastrocnemius muscle ultrastructure.ps." to ensure that the modifier "ultrastructure" refers to the term of interest. You can search the modifiers separately, or search a term and modifier as a phrase (as above) to ensure the accuracy of your search.

Parts, Structures & Systems of Organisms coverage begins in 1998.  Organ Systems are searchable via the Controlled Vocabulary Organ System Modifiers in the tool.

The Publication Type (PT) index contains one or more terms used to describe the type of the source document.

The Registry Numbers (RN) index contains five-to-nine-digit CAS Registry Number's (R) and chemical names for the chemicals discussed in the source document. Beginning in 1993 the Registry Numbers will display with their main terms in the Chemicals and Biochemicals (CB) field.

The Record Owner (RO) field indicates the original producer of the item as well as the copyright holder.

The Serials Title (SE) contains the name of the series that the book or item was issued as part of. The Series Title is indexed under Title (TI) and displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Source (SO) field includes a display of all the basic information needed to locate a citation, including:

The Super Taxa (ST) index contains the organism classifier and corresponding BIOSIS Biosystematic Code followed by the high-level taxonomic terms. This permits retrieval of items that refer to broad categories of organisms, including microorganisms. Super Taxa are presented in order from lowest level taxa to highest.

The Super Taxa is searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Super Taxa Terms in the tool.

The Series Volume (SV) field contains the volume number or other sequential designation of the source book. The Series Volume field is indexed under Volume (VO) and displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Title (TI) index contains the English-language title that is described within the citation. Literalizations are substituted for special characters and symbols, such as 'alpha' for Greek letter alpha and 'fwdarw' for a forward arrow.

Stopwords such as "of" or "the" display in documents but do not appear in the TI index. However, the word "a," which is a stopword in other fields, CAN be searched in titles.

The Time (TM) index contains a geological time period or era mentioned in the source document. Each geological time period could be followed by one or more of the following modifiers:

The modifiers are individually added to the terms to create phrases, as well as being indexed separately. You can search for individual terms of search for terms and modifiers as phrases.

For example if the source data is: Quaternary: Cenozoic you can search the phrase "quaternary".tm. or "quaternary cenozoic".tm. to ensure that the modifier "cenozoic" refers to the term of interest.

The Geologic Time Classifiers are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Geologic Time Classifier in the tool.

The Taxa Notes (TN) index contains the organism classifier followed by common names of broad groups of organisms and microorganisms discussed in the source document.

The Taxa Notes are searchable by means of the Controlled Vocabulary Taxa Note Terms in the tool.

The Textword (TW) index includes all of the fields in a database which contain text words and are appropriate for a subject search.

The Textword index includes:

The Update Code (UP) field contains a six-digit number indicating the year and week of the update. The format is YYYYWW, where WW indicates the week in which the document was added. For example, 200316 signifies the 16th week of 2003.

The Volume (VO) index contains the volume number or other sequential designation of the serial publication of the source item. This index also includes the Series Volume information. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

The Year of Publication (YR) index contains the publication year as it appears within the source document. This field displays as part of the Source (SO) field.

A limit to Full Text will restrict retrieval to those citations for which there is a full text link. Both Ovid full text and external full text are included in this limit.

A limit to Ovid Full Text Available will restrict retrieval to those citations for which an Ovid full text link is available. When viewing a citation with full text available use the LINK button to display the full text.