Internet Resources: December 2021 Edition

Selected reviews of digital reference resources from the December 2021 issue of Choice.

Posted on December 2, 2021 in Internet Resources

Dimensions. Digital Science, 2021

Dimensions. Digital Science, 2021. Contact publisher for pricing.
https://www.digital-science.com/products/dimensions/

“Dimensions is a combined analytical, search and discovery, and information management database that … includes content from six Digital Science information services, including Altmetric and Figshare,” providing “Open Access and integrated service for more than 153 million records: publications, grants, patents, clinical trials, policy documents, and records,” wrote Jane C. Duffy for ccAdvisor. She went on to mention that “the site also makes 1.2 billion citations freely accessible.” Additional features such as “links among policy papers, grant information, clinical trials, and other information” are available through a paid subscription to Dimensions Plus, intended primarily for academic administrators, institutions, publishers, and librarians.

The well-designed, user-friendly interface enables users to easily navigate the content using the search screen’s three main sections: Filters, Results, and Analytical Views. Several different types of search are available, such as Full-data searching (essentially full-text searching across publications), Title and Abstract searching, and DOI searching. As Duffy elaborated, “all searches are Boolean operable” and “results may be navigated, mined, and controlled by content type” and other post-search filters like title, year, author, research discipline or field, journal list, and Open Access. Impressively, “users may [even] generate visualizations such as plot graphs, heat maps, time lines, and others from analytical views,” and “Favorites, Alerts, and customized Groups may be created and saved from any search.” In fact, “much [of the] filtering is left to searchers to generate a meaningful and useful compilation of information,” which will likely be appreciated by advanced users, though it “could easily overwhelm novice searchers.” 

“Other bibliographic and citation databases” offering similar content “include PubMed, Our Research’s Unpaywall, Elsevier’s Scopus, Clarivate’s Web of Science, and Google Scholar,” although Dimensions’s “holdings are approximately 25 percent larger … and provide research meta-information not found elsewhere.” Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students and faculty.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Jane C. Duffy, MacEwan University, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2021 by The Charleston Company. —Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

Education Source. EBSCO Information Services, 2021. Contact publisher for pricing.
https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/education-source

“Education Source, an EBSCO database, offers users access to thousands of full-text journals and conference papers, millions of citations, thousands of abstracts, and hundreds of videos,” covering a range of topics relating to education, such as “educational policy, pedagogy, communication and information in education, educational grants, and education economics,” wrote Thomas J. Beck for ccAdvisor. Some of the publications available include the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS), Education for Primary Care, and Education Economics. “Those researching education and its related disciplines will find this database very useful,” Beck contended, adding that “it will be of the greatest value to college and university students and their instructors.”

To sort through the content, users have access to both basic and advanced search pages, either of which can be set as the landing page, depending on subscriber preferences. As Beck continued, “the former has a single search bar and the latter multiple search bars (with various limiters beneath).” Advanced search also offers standard Boolean connectors and the option to search for a term within a specific field, such as abstract, personal author, corporate author, title, subject, ISBN, or ISSN, among others. Results are returned in the same format for both search options, and selecting a title from the full list of results takes users “to an intermediate page where a citation for the document, an abstract, and a link to the full text are available.” 

“Education Source is an upgrade (or possible future replacement) for two of EBSCO’s other education databases, Education Research Complete and Education Full Text,” offering more content than both. “The most obvious and well[-]known [competitor] is probably ERIC,” Beck concluded, either from ProQuest or the US Department of Education, though it is not a full-text resource, whereas Education Source is. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through two-year students.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Thomas J. Beck, University of Colorado, Denver, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2021 by The Charleston Company. —Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

Library and Information Science Source. EBSCO Information Services, 2021. Contact publisher for pricing.
https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/library-information-science-source

“EBSCO’s Library and Information Science Source (LISS) is a subscription database … featur[ing] journals, periodicals, conference proceedings, monographs, and book reviews in the field of library and information studies,” and “includ[ing] full-text access to more than 180 journals in English and other languages,” wrote Stephanie Luke for ccAdvisor. This includes “a large number of high-impact journals in the field,” such as “general publications on librarianship and information science as well as those that are more specialized, such as cataloging, rare books, and archival science.” Luke went on to note that the platform “also provides extensive indexing, a comprehensive thesaurus, and [full-text] coverage from as early as the 1930s.” “The largest full-text database for library and information science studies,” according to EBSCO, LISS is intended “primarily [for] librarians, archivists, and other information professionals and institutions that offer programs in library and information studies.” One potential drawback, however, is the database’s “lack of Open Access content,” which “is at odds with library science’s increasing commitment to freely accessible content,” Luke stated.

LISS uses EBSCO’s standard interface, which is streamlined and easy to navigate, with both Basic and Advanced search features. As Luke elaborated, “users can choose subject heading or keyword searching,” and can also access the “expansive, searchable thesaurus of more than 11,000 terms.” Using advanced search provides a number of search modes, limiters, and expanders. To sort through search results, users can filter by full text, scholarly journals, publication type, and publication date.

EBSCO also offers two related products: Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) and Library Literature & Information Science Retrospective: 1905–1983. Competitors include ProQuest’s Library Science Database and Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) and Gale’s OneFile: Information Science. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Stephanie Luke, University of Texas at Arlington, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2021 by The Charleston Company.—Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

Music Index with Full Text. EBSCO Information Services, 2021. Contact publisher for pricing.
https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/music-index-full-text

“Music Index with Full Text is an expansion of Music Index (formerly The Music Index Online), an EBSCO music periodical database that provides comprehensive coverage of the music field from 1970 to the present,” wrote Alyson Vaaler for ccAdvisor. Intended for “undergraduate, graduate, and faculty music scholars, particularly those with research interests in popular music, music education, pedagogy, or interdisciplinary topics,” the database indexes more than 800 journals covering various music styles and topics, Vaaler added. About 600 of those are considered “core” journals and are fully indexed and abstracted, including BBC Music, Guitar World, and Music Education Research. Another 200 journals are marked “priority” and may be more interdisciplinary in nature, including Reggae Report, Moravian Music Journal, and Early Childhood Connections. “About half of the full-text journal offerings are scholarly and peer reviewed,” while “the other half include magazines, newsletters, or trade journals,” like Rolling Stone, and all can be navigated fairly easily through the EBSCO interface, which will likely be familiar to many users. 

Ultimately, Music Index with Full Text “offers a healthy mix of scholarly and contemporary information,” with a wide offering of citations that will be beneficial to researchers, “as is the variety of information and formats,” which is unique to this database. “The interdisciplinary nature of the [resource] is also valuable to music scholars engaged in ethnomusicology or researchers from other disciplines who may include music in their research.” However, the platform may be less useful to “researchers focusing purely on historical music scholarship.”

Three prominent alternatives include ProQuest’s Music Periodicals Database and both Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) and Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (RIPM) from EBSCO, which vary mainly by the subjects and time periods covered. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Alyson Vaaler, Texas A&M University, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2021 by The Charleston Company. —Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

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