Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!bionet!bionet-20.bio.net!SHENRY.HILL From: SHENRY.HILL@BIONET-20.BIO.NET (John Edward Hill) Newsgroups: bionet.software Subject: RE: Reference Update Message-ID: <12500767679.28.SHENRY.HILL@BIONET-20.BIO.NET> Date: 9 Jun 89 15:27:46 GMT Sender: daemon@NET.BIO.NET Lines: 47 Kathy Cheah writes in Wed, 7 Jun 89 14:34:26 pst BIOSCI Software Bulletin Board : > Has anyone tried REFERENCE UPDATE ,which is similar to te Current > Contents facility described in Biobit 8? How do they compare ? We > plan to buy a current awareness package something like one of the > above and cannot decide which to get. End users opinions are much > better than the marketing companies! > Kathy Cheah thanks for replies Yes, we have been using REFERENCE UPDATE since the Macintosh version came out and are very pleased with it. It is relatively easy to use although it should be much better when the new version with a good Mac interface is released -- soon, I hope :-) . I have recommended it to friends around the country and in Europe, and all who have tried it have been pleased. Those people who have compared it to the computer version of Current Contents have found REFERENCE UPDATE to be better overall. Some were concerned about the lack of certain journals, but I think that the Deluxe version of REFERENCE UPDATE eliminates most of that problem. REF UPDATE is apparently faster although even REF UPDATE takes several minutes to search each week's database (with a search strategy of >50 terms) on a SE with no accelerator. One friend who has a SE/030 says that the time for searching drops to 10-15 sec on his machine. One caveat: my search strategy, which is admittedly eclectic AND substantial, generally pulls out ~350 references, and browsing through them still takes 30 min to an hour. The great advantage is that by using the same search strategy each week, I know that I'm not missing something just because my eyes are too tired to pick out the title from a page of small print. Furthermore, you can have multiple search strategies if you want to scan for different fields. If anyone would like to contact me for more details, I'll try to answer any questions. DISCLAIMER: I have no connection to Research Information Systems except for being a satisfied customer. John John Edward Hill Dept. of Biological Sciences jh5f+@andrew.cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon University shenry.hill@bionet-20.bio.net 4400 Fifth Avenue 412-268-5122 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890 -------