Inspec (1969- )
Inspec Archive (1898-1968)

Database Description
Fields in This Database:
· Author and Affiliation
· Title and Publishing Information
· Conference Information
· Subjects
· Abstract
· Date and Issue Numbering
· Codes

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Database Description: Inspec provides access to the world's scientific and technical literature in physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computers and computing, information technology, production, manufacturing and mechanical engineering. Inspec provides a comprehensive index to the literature in these fields; it also has significant coverage in areas such as materials science, oceanography, nuclear engineering, geophysics, biomedical engineering and biophysics.

Over 3400 scientific and technical journals and some 2000 conference proceedings, as well as numerous books, reports and dissertations are scanned each year by Inspec staff for relevant articles to abstract and index for inclusion in the database. Patent information was included in the database from 1969 through 1976 only. Journal list (PDF).

Inspec Archive: The Inspec Archive provides electronic access to Science Abstracts Journals 1898-1968, covering over 70 years of international scientific and technical literature. The Inspec Archive includes the entire collection of Science Abstracts Journals (back to volume one) dating from 1898 to 1968 comprising:

• All aspects of physics (originally published as Physics Abstracts)
• Electrical and electronic engineering (introduced as a separate journal in 1903, and originally published as Electrical and Electronic Abstracts)
• Computing and control engineering (introduced as a separate journal in 1966, and published initially as Control Abstracts, later renamed to Computer and Control Abstracts)

The Inspec Archive 1898-1968 is searched separately from the contemporary database. The Archive includes original indexing and classification terms, plus the nearest equivalent current Inspec Thesaurus Terms and Inspec Classification Codes.

PRODUCED BY: The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE).
DATES COVERED: From 1969.
UPDATES: Weekly.
INSPEC ARCHIVE: 1898-1968.

Fields in This Database

AUTHOR and AFFILIATION

AUTHOR (.AU.): Name of author, co-author, editor, or translator. Surname and initials are given; all words and initials are indexed. Examples:

Einstein, A.
Shaw, E. J., Jr.
Lopez-Boada, R.
Teh Fu Yen

EDITOR (.EDIT.): Name of editor of book, conference paper, or conference proceedings.

AUTHOR AFFILIATION (.AF.): Affiliation of the first-named author at the time the work was done.

TITLE and PUBLISHING INFORMATION

TITLE (.TI.): Title of the journal paper, book, book chapter, conference proceedings, conference paper, patent, dissertation, report or report section being cited. The title of the paper is always in English.

JOURNAL TITLE (.JN.): Title of the journal in which the cited article appears.

JOURNAL ABBREVIATION (.JC.): Abbreviated journal title, consistent with the International Standard: ISO 4-1984(E): Documentation - Rules for the Abbreviation of Title Words and Titles of Publications.

BOOK TITLE (.BKTI.): For chapters published within books, BKTI gives the name of the book.

PUBLISHER (.PUB.): Publisher of the book, conference proceedings, dissertation, or report. From 1996 on, publisher of the journal is also provided in this field.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

MEETING DATE (.MD.): Day, month, and year, as applicable, of the conference. Longer names of months are abbreviated, and season may be substituted for month. Example: 27-29 Sept. 1999.

MEETING LOCATION (.ML.): City, state (if applicable), and country where the conference was held.

SUBJECTS

SUBJECT (.SU.): Controlled index terms assigned to the document from the Inspec Thesaurus.

FREE INDEX TERMS (.FL.): Uncontrolled Indexing. Free index terms are words or phrases which express significant concepts in the document. Free index terms are not selected from an authority list or Thesaurus, but are freely chosen by Inspec's subject specialists from the title, abstract or other text of the document, with additional terms if necessary. These give a more exhaustive description of the content of the document than that which is provided by the original title or by controlled index terms. Free index terms are not standardised, either in spelling or terminology. This field may contain chemical formulae (e.g. CO); organic compound names; acronyms or full names (e.g. CAD or computer-aided design); or proprietary names (e.g. IBM PC/AT).

CLASSIFICATION CODE and TEXT (.CC. and .CCT.): CC contains a code from the Inspec Classification, and CCT contains the textual description of the category. An outline of the classification system is available online. Copies of the full classification are available for sale from the IEE. The classification system has these main areas:

A – Physics
B – Electrical and Electronic Engineering
C – Computers and Control
D – Information Technology for Business
E – Manufacturing and Production Engineering

SUBJECT THESAURUS (.SUT.): This field is defined for system use when retrieving subjects through the thesaurus. People are unlikely to use this field for searching.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT (.AB.): Omit stopwords when searching AB.

DATE and ISSUE NUMBERING

YEAR (.YR.): Year of publication of the article, book, conference proceedings, dissertation, or report.

PUBLICATION DATE (.PD.): Day, month, and year, as applicable, of publication of the journal, book, conference proceedings, dissertation, or report. Longer names of months are abbreviated, and season may be substituted for month.

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

ISSUE NUMBER (.NO.): Number of the issue in which the article appeared.

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

CODES

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

ASTRONOMICAL OBJECT INDEXING (.AST.): This field contains controlled designations for astronomical objects discussed in the document. For further information, see Inspec's Astronomical Catalogue Designations. You can search an entire astronomical phrase or any separate element. Include periods and hyphens, but replace a plus sign (+) or a slash (/) by a blank space.

Example	Search as
SAX J1819.3-2525	(sax j1819.3-2525).ast.
GRS 1915+105	(grs 1915 105).ast.

RECORD TYPE (.AT.): A word or phrase describing the type of document. Search by the word or complete hyphenated phrase.

Journal-Paper
Book
Book-Chapter
Conference-Proceedings (incl. Conference Proceedings in Journals)
Conference-Paper (incl. Conference Papers in Journals)
Patent (prior to 1977 only)
Dissertation
Report
Report-Section

CODEN (.CDN.): Standard CODEN of the journal.

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

ISBN (.ISBN.): International Standard Book Number of the book, conference proceedings, or dissertation. Searching by ISBN retrieves both the book record and individual chapter records, if present in the database.

LANGUAGE (.LA.): Language of the document, spelled out in full.

NUMERICAL DATA INDEXING (.NUM.): This field contains structured numeric data that is likely to be of use for retrieval, such as altitude, frequency, and temperature. For further information, see Inspec Numerical Data Indexing Thesaurus (PDF).

REPORT NUMBER (.RNUM.): This field contains the primary identification number of a report. This is normally the number given to the report by the issuing organization (not the US Government Clearing House Number). The Inspec Database covers IEEE Standards and treats them as reports. For these records, the Standard Number is put in this field.

TREATMENT CODE (.TE.): A word or phrase indicating the approach taken to a subject by the author. These codes were first used in 1971. Treatment codes are especially useful where a search has produced a large number of documents on the required subject. In these circumstances, treatment codes offer a means of selecting those records which are of the greatest interest, for example those which take a practical approach to the topic.

Application
Bibliography
Economic
General or Review
New Development
Practical
Product Review (1985- )
Theoretical or Mathematical
Experimental

March 2005

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