A specialist toxicity database (TRACE) is more effective than its larger, commercially available counterparts

The retrieval precision and Iec;lll of a specialist bibliographic toxicity database (TRACE) and a range of widely available bibliographic databases us ed to identify toxicity papers were compared. The analysis indicated that t he larger size and resources of the major bibliographic databases did not, for a series of test queries, assure superior retrieval of relevant payers. The specialist database, in which document selection and indexing is under taken hv the same expert toxicologists who use the database in their day-to -day work, achieved markedly better retrieval, using simpler search strateg ies, than the other databases. Specialist databases may offer a valuable al ternative to the existing major bibliographic databases. The concept of rel evance, as used to determine the effectiveness of bibliographic databases, is discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.