INFORMATION UPDATE  
   December 2007                        Number 89

Welcome to INFORMATION UPDATE, a monthly resource for
information seekers and users.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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   => Do It Yourself – Identify Opinion Leaders Using
                             Authoratory
   => Did You Know – Biology Browser Tracks Conferences
   => Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

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DO IT YOURSELF – Identify Opinion Leaders Using Authoratory
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Authoratory http://www.authoratory.com/ "is a unique database
of contact information, professional interests, social
connections and funding of 630,570 leading scientists."  This
free database is recommended for identifying expert witnesses
and key opinion leaders.  The content comes from a computer
program that analyzes articles indexed in PubMed.  In order
to use the full capabilities of this database, take advantage
of the free registration.

I recommend you experiment with the search options to see
how it works, but here's an example.  Once you are registered,
click on 'keywords' in the left hand margin and enter the 
search term 'prostatic neoplasms'.  You could enter other 
terms, such as prostate or prostate cancer, however, since 
this database is created from PubMed, I've opted to use the 
indexing term used in  PubMed to mean prostate cancer.  That 
term is 'prostatic neoplasms.'  Authoratory returns 7000 hits.

The results are broken out by year from 2000-2007.  Click on
tabs by year to see the number of publications by each author
during that year.  Click on the All tab to see the compiled
results.  For our search on prostatic neoplasms we find
Peter T. Scardino at the top of the list with 132 publica-
tions.  In order to get a closer look at Dr. Scardino's 
collaborators and co-authors, click on his name.  This brings
us to a page that provides a summary of his work, a list of
co-authors, his specialties and interests, his funding, and
a list of articles.

Authoratory is a privately funded search engine that is still
under development.  It is updated quarterly and includes
many features not discussed in this article.  I'm not sure
how long this database will be available for free, so take it 
for a spin soon and let us know what you think.
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DID YOU KNOW - Biology Browser Tracks Conferences
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BiologyBrowser is a free resource from Thomson Scientific.
The current offerings seem to focus on zoology and organisms,
however, you can also search for conferences in the life
sciences.

Go to the Home Page at http://www.biologybrowser.org/ and
look on the right side for a link to Search All Conferences.
Click on the link and enter your search terms in the box. A
search on 'san diego 2008' yielded 4 hits.

The site is organized to provide information for researchers,
librarians, and students and educators.

Thomson Scientific offers a wide range of databases and 
services.  For more information contact Shamel Information
Services - http://shamelinfo.com.
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Notes, News, and Announcements
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ResearchBuzz - http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/
A newsletter and blog for news about search engines, 
databases, and other information collections.

Technorati - http://www.technorati.com/
"Currently tracking 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million 
pieces of tagged social media."  Use this site to search for
blog content.

Information Seekers may now subscribe to Information Update
using the web form at http://shamelinfo.com.  If someone has
forwarded this newsletter to you, why not register for your
own free copy?  Use the form on the Shamel Information
Services web site at http://shamelinfo.com.

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Shamel Information Services Web Site 
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The Shamel Information Services web site at 
http://shamelinfo.com contains Information Update archives. 
Just click on "Newsletters" and check for any issues you 
might have missed.

Cynthia L. Shamel, editor

Shamel Information Services
  Decisions-Informed
Telephone: +1 858-673-4673

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SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
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the form at http://shamelinfo.com.  To unsubscribe, please send 
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Copyright 2007 Shamel Information Services

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Online archives at http://shamelinfo.com/newsletter.htm

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