Article type
Year
Abstract
Introduction: Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world and consumes 20% of the world's drugs. It therefore cannot be excluded in literature search of RCTs.
Objective: A comparative analysis was made of the content and accessibility of three Japanese databases and on American, i.e., (1) Japan Pharmaceutical Information Center Documents (JAPICDOC), (2) Japanese Medicine (JMEDICINE), (3) Japan Information Center for Science and Technology - English (JICST-E), and (4) MEDLINE, in terms of (1) language; (2) number of journals cited; (4) thesaurus and publication type for identifying study method.
Methods: Review of manuals, interview of database producers and actual search was conducted.
Results:
JAPICDOC JMEDICINE JICST-E MEDLINE
Language Japanese Japanese English English
No. of journal 239 ca 2300 ca 1900 126
Access difficult CompuServe STN yes
Thesaurus fair poor poor good
JMEDICINE has complicated structure, consisting of two files, i.e., JICST and Japan Centra Revuo Medicina. The thesaurus is not well developed for quality assessment of papers. It is noteworthy that no "RCT" is found although there are many "Double blinded studies".
Discussion: Preliminary and exploratory search could be made using JICST-E for non-Japanese searchers for identifying research topics and scopes, but suitable Japanese partner will be needed for comprehensive search.
Objective: A comparative analysis was made of the content and accessibility of three Japanese databases and on American, i.e., (1) Japan Pharmaceutical Information Center Documents (JAPICDOC), (2) Japanese Medicine (JMEDICINE), (3) Japan Information Center for Science and Technology - English (JICST-E), and (4) MEDLINE, in terms of (1) language; (2) number of journals cited; (4) thesaurus and publication type for identifying study method.
Methods: Review of manuals, interview of database producers and actual search was conducted.
Results:
JAPICDOC JMEDICINE JICST-E MEDLINE
Language Japanese Japanese English English
No. of journal 239 ca 2300 ca 1900 126
Access difficult CompuServe STN yes
Thesaurus fair poor poor good
JMEDICINE has complicated structure, consisting of two files, i.e., JICST and Japan Centra Revuo Medicina. The thesaurus is not well developed for quality assessment of papers. It is noteworthy that no "RCT" is found although there are many "Double blinded studies".
Discussion: Preliminary and exploratory search could be made using JICST-E for non-Japanese searchers for identifying research topics and scopes, but suitable Japanese partner will be needed for comprehensive search.