Library and Information Science

The author investigated the trends in biomedical research and the exhaustivity and consistency of animal indexing through an analysis of laboratory animal information in bibliographic databases, with special reference to BA Previews and Excerpta Medica.

Comparing the indexes of laboratory animal names in the both databases, the author studied (i) the frequency of laboratory animal names indexed in the databases, (ii) the evolutional scale between man and a laboratory animal, (iii) which organic systems were studied using a certain laboratory animal, or which laboratory animals were mostly used in the study of a certain organic system, (iv) in which subject areas a certain laboratory animal was used, and (v) the exhaustivity of animal indexing.

Laboratory animal names are significant and useful information as indexing terms, and should not be selected according to their weight in the literature. In this study, however, Excerpta Medica was found to be not exhaustive in animal indexing.

For the analysis of the databases, IDEAS/77, the database management system developed by the Science Information Processing Center, University of Tsukuba, was used. For data processing, the computer system, ACOS 800/II of the Center was used.