A Comparison between Two Main Academic Literature Collections: Web of Science and Scopus Databases

Nowadays, the world’s scientific community has been publishing an enormous number of papers in different scientific fields. In such environment, it is essential to know which databases are equally efficient and objective for literature searches. It seems that two most extensive databases are Web of Science and Scopus. Besides searching the literature, these two databases used to rank journals in terms of their productivity and the total citations received to indicate the journals impact, prestige or influence. This article attempts to provide a comprehensive comparison of these databases to answer frequent questions which researchers ask, such as: How Web of Science and Scopus are different? In which aspects these two databases are similar? Or, if the researchers are forced to choose one of them, which one should they prefer? For answering these questions, these two databases will be compared based on their qualitative and quantitative characteristics

Pay-as-you-go data integration for bio-informatics

Scientific research in bio-informatics is often data-driven and supported by numerous biological databases. A biological database contains factual information collected from scientific experiments and computational analyses about areas including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microarray gene expression and phylogenetics. Information contained in biological databases includes gene function, structure, localization (both cellular and chromosomal), clinical effects of mutations as well as similarities of biological sequences and structures. In a growing number of research projects, bio-informatics researchers like to ask combined ques- tions, i.e., questions that require the combination of information from more than one database. We have observed that most bio-informatics papers do not go into detail on the integration of different databases. It has been observed that roughly 30% of all tasks in bio-informatics workflows are data transformation tasks, a lot of time is used to integrate these databases (shown by [1]). As data sources are created and evolve, many design decisions made by their creators. Not all of these choices are documented. Some of such choices are made implicitly based on experience or preference of the creator. Other choices are mandated by the purpose of the data source, as well as inherent data quality issues such as imprecision in measurements, or ongoing scientific debates. Integrating multiple data sources can be difficult. We propose to approach the time-consuming problem of integrating multiple biological databases through the principles of ‘pay-as-you-go’ and ‘good-is-good-enough’. By assisting the user in defin- ing a knowledge base of data mapping rules, schema alignment, trust information and other evidence we allow the user to focus on the work, and put in as little effort as is necessary for the integration to serve the purposes of the user. By using user feedback on query results and trust assessments, the integration can be improved upon over time. The research will be guided by a set of use cases. As the research is in its early stages, we have determined three use cases: Homologues, the representation and integration of groupings. Homology is the relationship between two characteristics that have descended, usually with divergence, from a common ancestral characteristic. A characteristic can be any genic, structural or behavioural feature of an organism Metabolomics integration, with a focus on the TCA cycle. The TCA cycle (also known as the citric acid cycle, or Krebs cycle) is used by aerobic organism to generate energy from the oxidation of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Bibliography integration and improvement, the correction and expansion of citation databases. [1] I. Wassink. Work flows in life science. PhD thesis, University of Twente, Enschede, January 2010

Statistical and Numerical Study of Asteroid Orbital Uncertainty

The knowledge of the orbit or the ephemeris uncertainty of asteroid presents a particular interest for various purposes. These quantities are for instance useful for recovering asteroids, for identifying lost asteroids or for planning stellar occultation campaigns. They are also needed to estimate the close approach of Near-Earth asteroids, and subsequent risk of collision. Ephemeris accuracy can also be used for instrument calibration purposes or for scientific applications. Asteroid databases provide information about the uncertainty of the orbits allowing the measure of the quality of an orbit. The aims of this paper is to analyse these different uncertainty parameters and to estimate the impact of the different measurements on the uncertainty of orbits. We particularly deal with two main databases ASTORB and MPCORB providing uncertainty parameters for asteroid orbits. Statistical methods are used in order to estimate orbital uncertainty and compare with parameters from databases. Simulations are also generated to deal with specific measurements such as future Gaia or present radar measurements. Relations between the uncertainty parameter and the characteristics of the asteroid (orbital arc, absolute magnitude, ...) are highlighted. Moreover, a review of the different measuments are compiled and the impact of these measures on the accuracy of the orbit is also estimated.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted by A&

The research of standardized protocols for dog involvement in animal-assisted therapy: A systematic review

Dogs are considered the most important species involved in animal-assisted therapy (AAT), and the scientific literature focuses on the benefits linked to the involvement of dogs in various therapeutic areas. In this study, we carried out a systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, exploring the scientific literature from the last 5 years (2016–2021) on three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) to highlight the characteristics of the dogs involved in AATs. Based on the scientific literature relevant to such dogs, we considered different parameters (i.e., number, age, sex, breed, temperament, methods of choice and training, health status, research goals, and activities with dogs) to include studies in our paper. After screening 4331 papers identified on the searched databases, we selected 38 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Analysis of the included articles showed that the characteristics of the dogs were neglected. Our findings indicated a lack of information about the dogs, as well as the absence of standardized and univocal criteria for dog selection, training programs, and health protocols

Research activities in the sub-Antarctic

Current scientific activity in the sub-Antarctic islands is assessed in the context of past achievements and potential future issues. Brief mention is made of the scientific expeditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A survey of international bibliographic databases revealed the dominance of research in the life sciences, reflecting the unique characteristics of sub-Antarctic ecosystems. Research and monitoring in geosciences are also important components of scientific activities in these islands. Climate change and non-native species are two issues which dominate current and probably future studies in the sub-Antarctic

Holistic Indexing: Offline, Online and Adaptive Indexing in the Same Kernel

Proper physical design is a momentous issue for the performance of modern database systems and applications. Nowadays, a growing amount of applications require the execution of dynamic and exploratory workloads with unpredictable characteristics that change over time, e.g., social networks, scientific databases and multime

Iberoamérica a 500 años del descubrimiento : la producción científica de una región en ciencias biomédicas en la década de los ochenta

The celebration of the fifth centenary of the discovery of Latin America raises the need for describing and assessing the scientific production characterizing the region after five centuries of historical evolution with the aim of establishing a reference point for comparison to be used in future decades to analyze the development and the interest of the rest of the world in this geographical area. The inclusion of serials from the region in international databases and repertories was studied. The main characteristics of the scientific production generated by or about the region were analyzed. The outcomes showed the existence of a limited scientific production; a scarce representation of the publications in the international databases and repertories; a minimum consumption of the literature of the area in the international current; a scientific production model which is mainly clinical; and the existence of numerous local journals, which are not adequate for the dissemination of the scientific development of Latin America, thus provoking a great drain of scientific papers to foreign journals. A substantial interest on the region was observed through the great number of papers written about it. A first level was attained in the characterization of the scientific production of the studied area