Apologies for cross-posting, but please circulate widely
within UK further and higher education.
This message is also available at
http://www.bids.ac.uk/info/news/isiclose.htm
Closure of the ISI Service at BIDS --
Launch of the ISI Web of Science Service at MIMAS
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
The BIDS ISI service providing access to the ISI Citation Indexes and ISTP
will be switched off on Monday 31st July 2000. The replacement service is
called Web of Science. The search interface to Web of Science has been
created by ISI, and the service is operated by MIMAS at the University of
Manchester. It is available now at http://wos.mimas.ac.uk
Some Frequently Asked Questions
===============================
[Based on text originally published in the University of Birmingham
Information Services Bulletin Vol. 5 No. 1]
Why is the BIDS ISI service being withdrawn?
--------------------------------------------
For the last 10 years, the UK Higher Education community has had an
arrangement with the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) to lease
the raw data for the Science Citation Index, the Social Science Citation
Index, the Arts and Humanities Citation Index and the Index to Scientific
and Technical Proceedings (ISTP). The contract was negotiated by CHEST on
behalf of the JISC. The data has been made available to higher education
users via Bath Information & Data Services (BIDS) since February 1991,
initially via a telnet interface, and, more recently, via a Web interface.
The interfaces have been designed and developed by BIDS.
In 1999, CHEST on behalf of the JISC negotiated an agreement for a renewal
of the licence to access the data. ISI were keen that the new agreement
should be based on their proprietary interface, called ISI - Web of
Science, rather than on the BIDS interface. ISI argued that it was in
students' best interests to become accustomed to an interface that was
used internationally in both commercial and academic sectors.
The new service is being hosted by MIMAS (Manchester Information &
Associated Services).
How long will I be able to continue using the BIDS ISI service?
---------------------------------------------------------------
The BIDS ISI service will continue as usual until Monday 31st July 2000.
If you are a regular BIDS user, and will not require access after that
date, you may prefer to stick with what you know and not switch to Web of
Science.
However, if you will require to use the ISI data after the BIDS service
closes, then you should start exploring Web of Science as soon as
possible. Although the data is the same, the search interface is quite
different. In addition, there are some features in Web of Science that
were not in the BIDS service, and there are some BIDS service features
that don't currently exist in Web of Science.
So BIDS is closing then?
------------------------
No, BIDS is not closing. BIDS is an organisation that has held the
contract to run the ISI service for the last 10 years. Although ISI was
the first dataset offered by BIDS, it also offers access to many other
services, including the full text service ingentaJournals. You can find
out more about these services at
http://www.bids.ac.uk/info/fs_services.htm
Note that not all services offered by BIDS are necessarily licensed for
your institution.
What exactly is Web of Science?
-------------------------------
ISI - Web of Science (WoS) is the brand name for ISI's own interface to
the Science Citation Index, the Social Science Citation Index and the Arts
and Humanities Citation Index. Access is also provided to the Index to
Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP). The WoS interface looks
different to the BIDS ISI interface and uses a different syntax for search
expressions, but it is designed to be simple to use. WoS citation
searching, which allows you to search for articles which cite a particular
article, has some features not available on the BIDS service.
How do I access WoS?
--------------------
To access WoS, you will need a networked computer and a web browser. The
Web browser should be configured so that it is 'Java-enabled'. The web
address for WoS is: http://wos.mimas.ac.uk
What about usernames and passwords?
-----------------------------------
WoS will accept the same ATHENS usernames and passwords as the existing
BIDS ISI service.
Does Web of Science support telnet access?
------------------------------------------
Web of Science does not support telnet access, and so this facility will
end when the BIDS ISI service is switched off.
Can I transfer my 'saved searches' on BIDS to Web of Science?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately not. The interface differences between the two services make
it difficult to achieve automatic conversion of BIDS saved searches to Web
of Science format. However MIMAS have produced a comparison of the
features of the two services that might help you convert your BIDS
searches into WoS format. See http://wos.mimas.ac.uk/transition.html for
more details.
I use the AutoJournals e-mail alerting facility. Can I continue to use
this with Web of Science?
-------------------------
Again, unfortunately not. At present there is no equivalent on Web of
Science. This service will therefore cease on Monday 31st July.
I have been using the EndNote personal database system to access BIDS ISI.
Can I continue to use this with Web of Science?
-----------------------------------------------
No. EndNote uses a version of the Z39.50 database searching protocol to
communicate with the BIDS ISI service. At present this protocol is not
supported by Web of Science.
I am an advisor and would like to find out what progress my institution
has made with persuading our users to move to Web of Science.
-------------------------------------------------------------
MIMAS have detailed information on the progress being made by sites in
converting users to Web of Science. Please contact them for more
information and advice.
--- End Forwarded Message ---
----------------------
Dr. Alicia Wise
JISC Collections Manager
Old Library
King's College London
Strand, London WC2R 2LS
[log in to unmask]
(020) 7848 2938 office
(020) 7848 2556 direct line
(020) 7848 2939 fax
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|