Ovid Technologies Field Guide

Newspaper Abstracts [NEWS]


Scope

Newspaper Abstracts is produced by UMI, and provides cover-to- cover indexing with concise and informative abstracts of articles appearing in over 25 newspapers, including the following:

Covered topics include all those found in these newspapers, such as international, national, regional, and local news, business and finance information, editorials, commentaries, letters-to-the-editor, arts and leisure pieces, special series and supplements, sports, and obituaries.


General Information

Producer
UMI
A Bell & Howell Information Company
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
313-761-4700
800-521-0600
800-343-5299 (Canada)

Years of Coverage
1989-present

Default fields for unqualified searches
AB, CO, HW, PN, PR, TI

All Display/Print Fields
AN, AU, TI, SO, SH, PN, CO, PR, AB, DD, LT, GL, PT, EW, IS

Default Display/Print Fields
AN, AU, TI, SO, SH, PN, CO, PR, AB, DD, LT

Update Frequency
Monthly

Searching the Newspaper Abstracts fields

The following alphabetical list provides the two-letter label, the relevant alias, and an example for each Newspaper Abstracts field.

=====        ============
Label        Name/Example
=====        ============

ab           Abstract [Word Indexed]
example:     cultural issues.ab.

With the exception of critical reviews, every citation in Newspaper
Abstracts contains a brief, informative abstract (AB) summarizing the
content of the article.

Stopwords, such as "of" and "the," are not included in the index.
British variant spellings, other than proper names, have been converted
to their American counterparts.


ad           Date of Publication [Phrase Indexed]
example 1:   1995 apr$.ad.
example 2:   1995 apr 1.ad.

The Alphanumeric Date (AD) field contains the article date of
publication and is displayed as part of the Source (SO).  For date
searching, it may be more efficient to search the Numeric Date (ND).


an           Accession Number [Phrase Indexed]
example:     03724192.an.

The Accession Number (AN) field contains a unique 8-digit number that
identifies each record.


au           Authors [Phrase Indexed]
example 1:   goodman ellen.au.
example 2:   goodman e$.au.

The Author (AU) field contains all of the authors for of an article or
or publication.  The author names are indexed in the format of last name
followed by first and middle names or up to two initials, as they
appeared on the original article.  Thus, a person named James Charles
Smith may appear as Smith James C, Smith J. Charles, Smith JC or Smith
J.

In some earlier citations "et al." will appear after the last author.
For citations that list no authors "Anonymous" will appear.


co           Company Names [Word Indexed]
example:     amtrak.co.

The Company Name (CO) field contains the names of companies and
organizations discussed in the article.

Search this field by entering the single most descriptive word
(microsoft, not corporation), and try using both full spellings and
abbreviations.


dd           Document Delivery
             Retired as of entry week 9948
- display only -


ew            Entry Week [Phrase Indexed]
example:      9602.ew.

The Entry Week (EW) field contains a 4-digit number in the format YYMM
representing the year and week in which an item was entered into the
Newspaper Abstracts database.


gl           Geographic Location [Word Indexed]
example:     sherman texas.gl.

The Geographic Location (GL) field lists the parts of the world
discussed in the article.


hw           Heading Words [Word Indexed]
example:     takeover$.hw.

Searching for a Heading Word (HW) is useful when you want to retrieve
every subject heading that contains a particular word.  Only single word
terms may be entered.


is           ISSN [Phrase Indexed]
example:     0028-7806.is.

The ISSN (IS) field contains the International Standard Serial Number
(ISSN) for the journal in which the article was published.


jc           Journal Code [Phrase Indexed]
example:     nybr.jc.

The Journal Code (JC) contains the code that UMI has assigned to each
newspaper.  The Journal Code displays as part of the Source (SO) field.


jn           Journal Name [Phrase Indexed]
example:     new york times$.jn.

The Journal Name (JN) field contains the full name of the newspaper in
which an article was published.

Journal names are indexed as phrases.  To view journal titles in the
index, enter as many of the words or letters in a journal name as are
needed to distinguish it from other journals.

Stopwords such as "of," when they appear within a journal name, ARE
included in the index, but leading articles ("A", "An" and "The") are
not.


jw           Journal Word [Word Indexed]
example:     houston.jw.

The Journal Word (JW) field contains individual words from every journal
name in Newspaper Abstracts.  Searching for journal word is useful when
you want to retrieve every journal name which contains a particular
term, such as "literature."

The index does not display and stopwords such as "the" and "of" have
been omitted.


lt           Length of Article [Phrase Indexed]
             Retired as of entry week 9948 
example 1:   long.lt.
example 2:   short.lt.

The Length (LT) field contains a general estimate of article length
based on a range of column inches. Article length is designated as short
(0-6 column inches), medium (6-18 column inches) or long (18+ column)
inches.


nd           Numeric Date of Publication [Phrase Indexed]
example:     951205.nd.

The Numeric Date (ND) index contains 6-digit dates of publication for
every article.  Only the Alphanumeric Date, however, is displayed as
part of the Source (SO).

To search for all articles published in a particular month and year, you
can truncate the numeric date after the first four digits: 9406$, for
example, will retrieve every record published in June 1994.


nt           Notes [Word Indexed]
example:     photograph.nt.

The Notes (NT) field contains descriptive notes about the article, such
as reference information and whether maps, charts or graphs are
included.

The Notes field is displayed as part of the Source (SO).


pg           Pagination [Word Indexed]
example:     "8".pg.

The Page (PG) field consists of the page where a newspaper article
appeared in print.  The system of pagination may vary from paper to
paper.

Page is displayed as part of the Source (SO) field.


pn           Personal Names [Word and Phrase Indexed]
example 1:   jordan barbara.pn.
example 2:   jordan b$.pn.

The Personal Name (PN) field contains the names of prominent individuals
discussed in an article.  Personal names appear in the index last name
first.  For deceased individuals, years of birth and death are given,
and, in instances where one individual might be confused with another,
the person's occupation appears as well.


pr           Product Names [Word Indexed]
example:     jeep wrangler.pr.

The Product Name (PR) field contains the brand-specific names of any
products discussed at length or reviewed in the article.

To search for a particular product, enter as much of the name that you
know, for example, "walkman" or "saturn."  To retrieve broader coverage
of a particular kind of product, search the Subject Heading (SH) field.


ps           Section [Word Indexed]
example:     "3".ps.

The Section (PS) field consists of the section of the newspaper where a
newspaper article appeared in print.  Section names or numbers may vary
from paper to paper.

Section is displayed as part of the Source (SO) field.


pt           Publication Type [Phrase Indexed]
example:     editorial cartoon.pt.

The Publication Type (PT) provides an editorial classification for every
type of article in the database.  Examples include feature articles,
speeches, interviews, business reporting, instructional material and
various kinds of reviews.


sh           Subject Headings [Phrase Indexed]
example:     land reclamation.sh.

The Subject Headings (SH) field contains the subject headings used by
indexers at UMI to describe the content of an article.

Newspaper Abstracts subject headings are taken from a Thesaurus
published by UMI.


ti           Title [Word Indexed]
example:     holiday sales.ti.

The Title (TI) field contains the title of an article as it appeared in
the print publication.

Stopwords such as "of" or "the" will display in the document title, but
do not appear in the Title index.  However, the word "a", which is a
stopword in other fields, can be searched in the title.


yr           Year of Publication [Phrase Indexed]
example 1:   1996.yr.
example 2:   "96".yr.

The Year (YR) field contains the year in which an article was published
and is displayed as a part of the Source (SO).

Newspaper Abstracts Limits

The following limits are available for NEWS:

Document Delivery:
Sentence Syntax:     limit 1 to available from umi

Length of Article
Sentence Syntax:     limit 1 to medium

Publication Type:
Sentence Syntax:     limit 1 to movie review

Year of Publication:
Sentence Sytax:      limit 1 to yr=95
Command Syntax:      ..l/1 yr=95


Change to NEWS from another database

Command Syntax:        ..c/news
Sentence Syntax:       use news


Sample NEWS Documents

<1>
Accession Number
  03870587
Authors
  Neuborne, Ellen.
Title
  Wal-Mart going on line via Microsoft.
Source
  USA Today (US).  Section B, page 1, col 5. 1996 Jan 29.
Subject Headings
  Online information services. Joint ventures. Discount department
  stores.  Home shopping. Company Names. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  Microsoft
  Corp.
Company Names
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  Microsoft Corp.
Abstract
  Wal-Mart Stores and Microsoft are developing a joint online shopping
  venture set for launch in the spring of 1996 that will allow shoppers,
  via the Internet, to browse and buy Wal-Mart's regular array of
  merchandise online. There are no details on how shoppers will receive
  merchandise or what the virtual discount store will look like on line.
Publication Type
  News
Entry Week
  9605
Length of Article
  Medium (6-18 col inches).
ISSN
  0161-7389
Document Delivery
  Photocopy available from UMI. Article Clearing House Number: 60430.00.

<2>
Accession Number
  03690866
Authors
  Peres, Judy.
Title
  On the record:  Shimon Peres.
Source
  Chicago Tribune (CT).  Section 2, page 3, col 1. 1995 Sep 10.
  [Photograph]
Subject Headings
  Public officials.  Politics.
Personal Names
  Peres, Shimon.
Abstract
  Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres is interviewed concerning his
  quest for peace.
Geographic Location
  Israel
Publication Type
  Interview
Entry Week
  9501
Length of Article
  Long (18+ col inches).
ISSN
  1085-6706
Document Delivery
  Photocopy available from UMI. Article Clearing House Number: 60190.00

Revised 04 April, 1997