Faced with a request for information on 'GINSENG', for example, a
search of the CROS database might proceed as follows:
TYPE DATABASE NAME_: CROS
DS/CROS/ SESSION 6122
COPYRIGHT BY The Dialog Corporation GmbH, Berne, Switzerland
1 All
2 Business & Market Research
3 Companies
4 News
5 Biomedical Sciences
6 Drug Information
7 Science & Technology
8 Social Sciences & General Reference
9 Practice Files
10 Your Choice
Please enter choice or HELP and choice
_: 5
50 All Biomedical Sciences
51 Biology
52 Medicine
53 Chemistry
54 Toxicology
55 Biotechnology
Please enter choice or HELP and choice
_: 51.
When you log into CROS you will see eight main subject groupings of
database. You choose the group you want by entering its number, then
type the search statement in the usual way. As long as your search
statement is fairly simple the result will come reasonably quickly.
Truncation:
If you enter an unlimited truncation, e.g. HEART$, or more than,
say, three search terms, e.g. ARTIFICIAL WITH HEART WITH
(DEVELOPMENTS OR TRENDS), or very commonly occurring words such as
COMPUTER, BIOLOGY, ANIMALS then the response time in CROS will be
slow.
When to use CROS:
CROS is extremely useful if you have a very specific request - for
example an unusual or very new product name or drug name, or an
author's name - which you think may occur in many databases. CROS
will quickly tell you which, if any, of the databases have
information on it.
Results:
If you see 'OVERFLOW' against any of the results it means that your
request contained a truncated term which yielded more than 1'000
terms.
Charging:
CROS charges only for the DataStar connect time; royalties are not
charged here.
Your choice of databases:
If you have a request which does not really fit into one of the
predefined subject groups, you can make up your own group of
databases to a maximum of 100. Choose option 8 in the 'menu'.
After any CROS request you will have the following options:
1 FOR NEW SEARCH ON SAME CROSS SET
2 FOR CROSS MENU
3 TO RANK RESULT
4 TO REQUEST A DATABASE
5 FOR SAME SEARCH IN NEW CROSS SET
6 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN REQUESTED DATABASES
7 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN THE DATABASES WITH THE HIGHEST
SEARCH RESULTS. UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 15 DATABASES WILL BE SEARCHED.
ENTER NUMBER
_: 3
RANK give the list again, this time showing databases with positive
results only, highest results first.
BIYY BIOSIS PREVIEWS 1970 TO 1992 1390 OF 8574399
1 FOR NEW SEARCH ON SAME CROSS SET
2 FOR CROSS MENU
3 TO RANK RESULT
4 TO REQUEST A DATABASE
5 FOR SAME SEARCH IN NEW CROSS SET
6 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN REQUESTED DATABASES
7 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN THE DATABASES WITH THE HIGHEST
SEARCH RESULTS. UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 15 DATABASES WILL BE SEARCHED.
ENTER NUMBER
_: 6
Enter any combination of database label(s), CROSS set number(s) or
personal database list(s) separated by commas
_:
Choose one of the options (1-5) to check the CROS index or directory
to databases on DataStar.
Choose option 6 to ..REPEAT the same search in other database(s),
CROSS set(s) or personal database list(s) in order to have DataStar
execute your last search and give you the possibility to ..PRINT
relevant documents.
Remember that only up to 14 more databases can be processed with
..REPEAT.
Once you have decided which of the databases shown with CROS is
the best for you, instead of choosing option 6 just type its label
(CROSS set numbers or personal database lists are accepted as well)
after the ..REPEAT command and DataStar will execute your search:
ENTER NUMBER
_: ..REPEAT BIYY
*CONNECT TIME CROS: 0:00:43 HH:MM:SS 0.012 DEC HRS. SESSION 2599*
D-S/BIYY/BIOSIS PREVIEWS 1970 TO 1992 SESSION 2600
COPYRIGHT BY Biological Abstracts Inc, Philadelphia PA, USA
00001 GINSENG
RESULT 1391
Saving searches:
You can save a search on CROS with ..SAVE to execute it later in the
appropriate database but not in CROS.
Using HELP in CROS:
If you type HELP followed by the desired group, you are given the
following list:
Please enter choice or HELP and choice
_: help 51
1 FOR NEW SEARCH ON SAME CROSS SET
2 FOR CROSS MENU
3 TO RANK RESULT
4 TO REQUEST A DATABASE
5 FOR SAME SEARCH IN NEW CROSS SET
6 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN REQUESTED DATABASES
7 TO ..REPEAT YOUR LAST SEARCH IN THE DATABASES WITH THE HIGHEST
SEARCH RESULTS. UP TO A MAXIMUM OF 15 DATABASES WILL BE SEARCHED.
ENTER NUMBER
_: 5
Enter any combination of database label(s), CROSS set number(s) or
personal database list(s) separated by commas
_: help 51
DB DATABASE NAME START HITS KWIC PLUR MEDW R/M
-- ------------- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---
ACAD ACADEMIC INDEX 1976-WK41/94 YES YES YES YES YES NO
BIAF BIOSIS UEF AUTHROITY FILE NO YES NO YES YES NO
BIOL BIOSIS PREVIEWS 1993 TO DATE YES YES YES YES YES YES
BIYY BIOSIS PREVIEWS 1970 TO 1992 YES YES YES YES YES YES
CABI CAB ABSTRACTS '73-JAN'00 YES YES YES YES YES NO
CBIB C.CONTENTS: BIBLIOGRAPHIC, 1995- YES YES YES YES YES YES
CTOC C.CONTENTS: CONTENTS TABLES, 1995-YES YES YES YES YES YES
ELBI ELSEVIER BIOBASE-1994 TO 2000/08 YES YES YES NO YES YES
EMYY EMBASE 1993 TO DATE YES YES YES YES YES YES
EMZZ EMBASE - 1974 TO DATE YES YES YES YES YES YES
HUMN CAB HEALTH '73 - 01/2000 YES YES YES YES YES NO
JIST JICST-EPLUS:JAPANESE SCI/TECH 85- YES YES YES YES YES NO
MEYY MEDLINE 1994-MAR.2000 (-ED000127) YES YES YES YES YES YES
MEZZ MEDLINE - 1966-MAR2000(-ED000127) YES YES YES YES YES YES
NSCI NEW SCIENTIST 1994- YES YES YES NO NO NO
PASC PASC: 1984 TO WEEK08 2000 YES YES YES YES YES YES