Subject searching with science citation index: Preparation of a drug bibliography using chemical abstracts, index medicus, and science citation index 1961 and 1964

A bibliography on the drug thalidomide was prepared through a search of Chemical Abstracts (CA) and Index Medicus (IM) for the years 1956–1964, which took 14.6 hours. This was compared with a similar bibliography prepared through a search of Science Citation Index (SCI) 1961 and 1964, carried out for an equal length of time according to search procedures described, in an effort to determine if and how SCI might be helpful in subject searches. A satisfactory procedure for manual search of SCI was developed. The cumulative number of references found through SCI plotted against time gave a convex curve, while corresponding data from the conventional indexes gave a linear response. For periods up to eight hours, SCI yielded more references than did either IM or CA. However, at 14.6 hours SCI did not produce all references obtainable through CA‐IM. Each of the three indexes produced a high percentage of unique references, SCI's being the highest. SCI‐1964's coverage of articles published in 1964 was more complete than was IM‐1964's. CA‐IM gave superior coverage of chemical papers, patents, and papers in the less common languages. SCI's coverage of pharmacological papers was superior to that of either CA or IM. In this search SCI and conventional indexes could be profitably used together; each produced a large number of references not to be found in the other. In this search SCI was not appreciably less efficient in retrieving drug references than were CA and IM; for short time intervals, it was more efficient. More general conclusions must await further investigation.