When Searching for Nanotechnology Information, Think Inspec®
In 1993, Inspec introduced the ‘nanotechnology’ search term to its database for its subscribers. Erica Mobley, Director of the Americas with Inspec Inc., has seen the demand for nanotechnology information grow significantly. “Coverage in the early 1990s was in the region of approximately one thousand [searchable] items each year,” she explains. “Research in this field has grown enormously, and today, we cover over 40,000 items each year, and the current growth rate year to year has reached 25%.”The ingredients for Inspec’s success include an established engineering society and more than 8.5 million searchable records for its clients
Produced by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in the United Kingdom, Inspec®is the leading English-language bibliographic information service providing access to the world's scientific and technical literature. Founded in 1871, the IEE is the largest professional engineering society in Europe and has a worldwide membership of 120,000. Ms. Mobley told NWN, “Inspec’s history dates back to the beginning of Science Abstracts in 1898. The brand name ‘Inspec’ was first used in late 1969 at the beginning of the database era. Originally it stood for ‘information services in physics, electronics and computing’; however today, the subject coverage is much broader.” Though based in the UK, its sales are worldwide, with over 80 percent exported.
Inspec covers all the major publications that cover nanotechnology or nanostructured materials, plus hundreds of others that may publish the occasional article. Inspec records are currently selected from over 3400 journal titles, plus over 3000 other publications including conference proceedings. Since nanotechnology covers such a broad range of disciplines and industries, how does Inspec handle its classification of information it deems to be categorized as ‘nanotechnology’? “The Inspec database covers over 8.5 million records from 1969 to date in the fields of physics, electronics, electrical and control engineering, computer science, information technology, production engineering and more recently, mechanical engineering,” explains Ms. Mobley. “This enormous breadth of subject coverage results in many interdisciplinary subjects being covered. Each paper is indexed with specific terms; in addition, several classification codes are also assigned which reflect the cross disciplinary nature of the subject content.”
Inspec’s customers include engineers, scientists, patent specialists and information professionals in academic, corporate and government organizations worldwide. Customers use Inspec’s database for such activities as collecting new product information, technological forecasting, competitive intelligence, and patent-related searching. Recent market research by Inspec shows that researchers rate the comprehensiveness and quality and reliability of the data very high compared to other information service providers. The search for accurate and timely nanotechnology information is growing, thus leading to increased competition for the company. Inspec is ready to face the challenge. “Inspec prides itself on producing a quality product that provides comprehensive coverage and accurate in-depth subject indexing, enabling researchers to find all they need using one major source,” notes Mobley.
For researchers whose organization does not subscribe to Inspec, they can subscribe to a weekly e-mail updating service in nanotechnology providing abstracts to all recent papers, many of which have links to the electronic article (http://www.iee.org/inspec/currentawareness). There is also an article on nanotechnology coverage in Inspec’s latest newsletter:
http://www.iee.org/Publish/Journals/MagsNews/OnMags/IM/
