CANCERLIT® (1963-2002)

Database Description
Fields in This Database:
· Authors and Institution
· Titles and Publishing Information
· Medical Subjects
· Other Subjects
· Abstract
· Issue Numbering
· Codes

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Database Description: CANCERLIT® is a bibliographic database that contains citations and abstracts for cancer literature from over 4,000 different sources, including biomedical journals, proceedings, books, reports, and doctoral theses. The database contains references to cancer literature published from the 1960s to 2002.

Beginning in June 1983, cancer-specific records from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) MEDLINE database, were incorporated into CANCERLIT. NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), is used for subject analysis. This database reflects the 2002 version of MeSH.

PRODUCED BY: National Cancer Institute.
DATES COVERED: 1963-2002.
UPDATES: NCI no longer produces updates for this database.

Fields in This Database

AUTHORS AND INSTITUTION

AUTHOR (.AU.): Starting with 2002 publications, NLM records in this database carry the full author name, with spelled out forenames, if printed as the author of the article. Prior to 2002, NLM supplied only initials of forenames. Every author name in the database is now searchable in two formats:

Spelled out: The spelled out name contains the surname and forenames spelled out. If spelled-out forenames are not available, then initials are given separated by a space; for most pre-2002 articles, only initials are available. This style is displayed in the database.

Initials: Every name is also represented by the old style of forename initials, with no space. This style does not display in the database but is searchable.

Both old records (pre-2002) and new records (2002) include the "initials" form of name. If an author has been consistent in the use of first and middle name or initial on publications, then searching the "initials" form of name finds all articles by that author. Example:

(lysaught mt).au.
finds LYSAUGHT M T and LYSAUGHT M THERESE

However, some authors' use of middle initials is inconsistent, which does affect retrieval. To find all variant forms of a particular author name, you can use Browse by Author and select the variant forms. For example, these forms may be the same author:

Copeland, L
Copeland, Larry J
Copeland, LJ

Or, construct a search statement with the first initial followed by $:

(copeland l$).au.
finds COPELAND L, COPELAND LARRY, and COPELAND LJ

INSTITUTION (.IN.): Institutional affiliation of the first author.

INVESTIGATOR (.INV.): NASA funded principal investigator(s) who conducted the research.

TITLES AND PUBLISHING INFORMATION

TITLE (.TI.): Title of article, report, book, etc. TI always contains an English-language title. For articles published in other languages, TI contains the title translated into English and enclosed in square brackets.

ORIGINAL TITLE (.OT.): Original title of article not published in English.

JOURNAL TITLE (.JN.): Name of journal, spelled out in full, in which the article was published.

JOURNAL ABBREVIATION (.JA.): The standard abbreviation for the journal title. This is the same abbreviation used in Index Medicus and other NLM publications and databases.

APPEARS IN (.AP.): For articles or chapters published within monographs or reports, AP contains the title of the monograph or report, editors' names, publisher, pagination, and year of publication. For meeting reports, AP may contain conference name, place, and date.

MEDICAL SUBJECTS

The fields in this category contain indexing terms from the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), 2002. Indexing terms describe the content of the article.

"Major" subjects describe the most significant topics, or focus, of the article. In the record display, major subjects are preceded by an asterisk *. "Minor" subjects describe concepts which are also addressed in the article, but are not major concepts. In the record display, minor subjects are not asterisked.

Subheadings are terms which cover general, frequently discussed aspects of a subject, such as "diagnosis." NLM indexers link subheadings with MeSH headings to describe exactly what aspects of the subject the author is discussing. The subheadings that apply to a main heading vary from heading to heading.

In the OhioLINK system, MeSH headings and subheadings are typically searched through the system's thesaurus functions. These functions allow users to look for a preferred heading; search, focus, or expand the heading; and select subheadings. "Focus" means retrieving only records in which the heading is a major concept. "Expand" means retrieving records with the heading plus all narrower headings.

Alternatively, if you know the exact MeSH heading and subheadings you're looking for, you can use the field qualifiers described here for quicker searching.

SUBJECTS (.SU.): SU encompasses both major and minor subjects. This field contains main headings only, no subheadings. Using SU, you may search either complete subject phrases or individual subject keywords. For example:

(antineoplastic agents).su.

retrieves:

Antineoplastic Agents
Antineoplastic Agents, Alkylating
Antineoplastic Agents, Combined
Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic

SUBHEADING (.SH.): Each subheading is identified by both a 2-letter code and a spelled-out phrase. Expert searchers sometimes search subheadings in combination with main headings that don't allow those subheadings, in order to retrieve articles that address desired aspects. For example:

acetaminophen.majt. and su.sh.

retrieves records that have Acetaminophen as a major heading, and su (surgery) as a subheading, although this main heading may not be linked to this particular subheading.

EXPLODED SUBHEADING (.XSH.): Some subheadings have hierarchical relationships, for example, "poisoning" and "toxicity" are considered narrower types of "adverse effects." Exploded subheadings retrieve all the subheadings in a hierarchy. For example:

adverse.xsh.

retrieves

adverse effects
poisoning
toxicity

SUBJECT THESAURUS (.SUT.): This field is defined primarily for system use when retrieving subjects through the thesaurus. SUT contains both the main heading and subheading, if applicable. Using SUT, you can search subject keywords or phrases in combination with a specific subheading (use the "with" operator).

SUBJECT THESAURUS, MAJOR (.MAJT.): This field is defined primarily for system use when retrieving subjects through "focus" in the thesaurus. MAJT contains both the main heading and subheading, if applicable. Using MAJT, you can search subject keywords or phrases in combination with a specific subheading (use the "with" operator).

OTHER SUBJECTS

KEYWORDS (.KW.): Controlled subject terms assigned by an organization, but not from MeSH. A parenthetical note at the end of the keyword identifies the agency that assigned the term:

HMD -- History of Medicine Division, NLM
HSR -- National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology, NLM
KIE -- Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
NASA -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
PIP -- Population Information Program, Johns Hopkins School of Health
SIS -- Divison of Specialized Information Services, NLM

PERSON AS SUBJECT (.PS.): Name of person discussed in the article. For 2002, NLM may now supply the full personal name, with spelled out forenames. Prior to 2002, NLM supplied only initials of forenames. Because there are relatively few occurrences of Person as Subject in the database, we recommend searching by surname alone.

SPACE FLIGHT/MISSION (.SPM.): Space flight or mission name and/or number when results of research conducted in space are covered in the publication.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT (.AB.): Omit stopwords when searching AB. Some abstracts carry a parenthetical note that identifies the agency that composed the abstract:

AAMC -- American Association of Medical Colleges
AIDS -- Non-author abstracts written for special AIDS publications
KIE -- Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
PIP -- Population Information Program, Johns Hopkins School of Health
NASA -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (abstracts written for consumers)

ISSUE NUMBERING

PUBLICATION DATE (.PD.): Date of the journal issue in which the article was published. PD contains year, month or season, and day, if applicable.

YEAR (.YR.): Year of publication for all types of material.

MONTH (.MO.): Month or season (and day, if applicable) of publication of the issue. The month is given as a 3-letter abbreviation (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec). Seasons are spelled out.

VOLUME (.VO.): Volume of the journal in which the article was published.

ISSUE (.IP.): Designation of the issue, part, or supplement in which the article was published.

ARTICLE PAGINATION (.PG.): If you remember the starting page of an article but not the full citation, searching with PG might be useful. Enter the starting page and the truncation symbol $.

CODES

AGE LIMIT (.AGLT.): A phrase describing the human age groups covered by the article, if applicable. This list of ages is also available as a pull-down menu limit, after you have completed a search. To search an age limit, enter the word or entire hyphenated phrase.

Infant-newborn (birth to 1 month)
Infant (1-23 months)
Child-preschool (2-5 years)
Child (6-12 years)
Adolescence (13-18 years)
Adult (19-44 years)
Middle-age (45-64 years)
Aged (65-79 years)
Aged-80-and-over

PUBLICATION TYPE (.AT.): A phrase describing the type of publication. This list of publication types is also available as a pull-down menu limit, after you have completed a search. To search a publication type, enter the word or entire hyphenated phrase.

COUNTRY OF PUBLICATION (.CP.): The country in which the journal was published.

DATE COMPLETED (.DC.): Date the citation was completed. The date is formatted YYYYMMDD. For example, August 14, 2002 is 20020814. To find citations completed in a particular month, truncate the date with $ , for example, 200012$ for December 2000.

GRANT/CONTRACT NUMBER (.GC.): Research grant or contract number that designates financial support by any agency of the U.S. Public Health Service or any institute of the National Institutes of Health. These numbers occur only in MEDLINE-derived records.

GENE SYMBOL (.GS.): This field contains the "symbol," or abbreviated form of gene names as reported in the literature. This field was supplied in MEDLINE records only from 1991-1995.

ISSN (.IS.): The International Standard Serial Number of the journal.

LANGUAGE (.LA.): A 3-character code identifying the language of the article. For a complete list of codes, see MARC Code List for Languages from the Library of Congress. Common codes:

eng -- English
fre -- French
ger -- German
ita -- Italian
jpn -- Japanese
rus -- Russian
spa -- Spanish

MOLECULAR SEQUENCE (.MS.): Source databanks and accession numbers of molecular sequences discussed in the article. This information is added to a MEDLINE citation if it appears in the printed journal article.

PUBMED UNIQUE IDENTIFIER (.PMID.): Record control number assigned for NLM's PUBMED system. PMID occurs only in MEDLINE-derived records.

REGISTRY NUMBER (.RN.): The unique 5- to 9-digit hyphenated number assigned to chemical substances by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), or the Enzyme Commission (EC) number assigned by the Enzyme Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. This field also contains the name of the chemical substance or enzyme.

CITATION SUBSET (.SB.): A code that indicates whether the journal is from any of the following categories of journals. This list of journal subsets is also available as a pull-down menu limit, after you have completed a search.

IM -- Index Medicus
AIM -- Core clinical journals
D -- Dentistry journals
N -- Nursing journals
X -- AIDS/HIV journals (non-IM)
B -- Biotechnology journals (non-IM; pre-2001)
K -- Consumer health journals (non-IM)
H -- Health administration journals (non-IM)
R -- Population journals (pre-2001)
F -- Foreign journals
C -- Communication journals (non-IM)
T -- Health technology assessment journals (non-IM)

SUBJECT LIMIT (.SULT.): This field contains any of four values that describe the population covered by the article: human, animal, male, female. Searching with SULT is the same as using the checkboxes for these terms on the main search page or the limiting page.

UNIQUE IDENTIFIER NUMBER (.UI.): Record control number assigned by database producer; unique to each record in the database. Searching by UI is a method for returning directly to a record that you have retrieved previously.

February 2003

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