Partners tout new global bioscience database

US-based software vendor Ovid Technologies has partnered science publishing giant Elsevier to create a bioscience database with some four million global bibliographic records.

The database, dubbed EMBiology, would target small to midsize academic institutions, pharmacological and biotechnology companies doing research, the company said in a statement.

Scott MacFarland, vice-president of content product management at Ovid, said a strong market existed for "affordable" bioscientific information.
 
“Our goal is to provide a mix of complementary bibliographic and full text bioscience sources," MacFarland said.

Ovid said the EMBiology database comprised some four million global bibliographic records dating back to 1980.  About 250,000 records would be added each year to keep it current.

The database would harness Ovid's Web Gateway platform to index some 2800 active titles, such as journals, trade magazines and websites. Two thesauri, Elsevier's EMTREE and a new biotechnology taxonomy of 500,000 terms, would be merged into one file, the company said.

EMBiology would cover biochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, genetics, biotechnology, cell and developmental biology, plant and animal science, agriculture and food science, ecology and environmental science, and toxicology, Ovid said.