JICST-E (Japan Information Centre of Science and Technology—English File): its construction in providing access to online Japanese biomedical information with selected comparisons to EMBASE and MEDLINE

Abstract

The database JICST-E (Japan Information Centre of Sci ence and and Technology, English language database in Sci ence, Technology and Medicine) is compared with EMBASE and MEDLINE for the coverage of Japanese biomedical litera ture. Six different searches were run in each of these databases using the terms (1) diclofenac, (2) lymphokine activated killer cells, (3) tumour necrosis factor, (4) atrial natriuretic peptide, (5) Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and (6) OK-432 (human studies) to retrieve all documents of Japanese origin on these topics (i.e. from Japanese language Journals and English lan guage Japanese Journals). A "base" of unique documents was thus created for the purpose of comparison. Of all Japanese language papers found by searching these databases, 21.7% and 28.9% could be found via EMBASE and MEDLINE, respectively, and 82.3% via JICST-E. When EMBASE and MEDLINE were combined as if they were a single database, their contribution increased to 34.2%. Of the total Japanese language literature, 65.8% could only be found by searching JICST-E. Of all papers from English language Japanese jour nals, 68.9% could be retrieved from JICST-E and 71.6% via the combined EMBASE plus MEDLINE database; overlap was 40.5%, i.e. references found in both JICST-E and the combined database. The results indicate the specific value of JICST-E as a source of Japanese language literature in the biomedical field.