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GLLJLL wrote: > > List Members: Mr. J. R. Bruman periodically posts a list of topics > regarding Parkinson's Disease that apparently have appeared in recent > publications. There is never included with the list any instructions > as to how to receive the information contained in a particular > article. > I appreciate Mr. Bruman's postings of these titles but when I sent an > email message to him directly, asking for instructions to access the > information, his reply to me was inadequate and puzzling. Perhaps I > am ignorant of some basic knowledge here, and if I am, would someone > place explain to me the procedure for obtaining the desired > information. > > With thanks and appreciation, > > Janice Long Dear Janice, I'm sorry if you are having trouble using the info that I post. I do get occasional requests for help, but don't recall my exact answer to yours in particular. I have posted some general explanatory material, but the current stuff is long already, and I don't want to make things worse by repeating boilerplate every month. First of all, the CSRINDX to which you refer is just that, a subject INDEX to all the Current Science Reviews that I post once a month (I started these pretty much for my own use, and began posting to the list only after several members said they wanted them.) The Current Science Reviews (CSR) are collections of my brief reviews of articles, mostly from scientific journals that I search for things about Parkinson's. The reference citations that appear in the CSR and its INDEX are terse and abbreviated, partly because in the INDEX I need to fit everything on one line, but they also conform to standard library practice, and any professional librarian can easily tell you what they mean. In fact the original articles themselves always include a citation line just like mine, because librarians who look up a lot of stuff need to save time too. I have also posted a page-long Introduction, last revised in June 1997, which says among other things, that the CSR and its INDEX aren't meant to be basic or comprehensive, but only an indicator of what's going on at present. All the postings mentioned are available from the list's archivist John Cottingham, who should be back from foreign travel soon if not now, but I'll (try to) tack on a copy of the Introduction here. Read it, and good luck. INTRODUCTION to Current Science Reviews INDEX (revised June 1997) As most of you know, I have posted a "Current Science Reviews" message every month for the past two years or so. Last year, I added a separate cumulative INDEX to the CSRs, which I revise each month to include the new material. The CSR INDEX is big (400 or so lines) and grows at about 30 lines per month, so I'm unsure how long I can continue without overloading the system; but since a number of listmembers want it, we'll find a way. For newcomers to the list, I need to tell you what the CSR is, and what it is not: As a new PD patient I wanted to learn all I could about the disease, especially the progress of research that might lead to improved treatment. I joined a local support group, who wanted a science input for their newsletter. While not a medical professional, I had access to a small medical library, where I could regularly scan a few of the more relevant journals, and translate their scientific jargon into English. (The huge UCLA library is open to the public, but a little hard to get to.) So I started the monthly CSR, with these rules in mind: -Stick generally to peer-reviewed articles, for authenticity. -Avoid judgement, selection, or analysis, just list what turns up. -Respect copyright restrictions. I don't retain an article unless it is likely to have some historical significance. CSR items describe current work which may or may NOT prove to be important. Each one is just a piece of the big PD jigsaw puzzle. So the CSR is NOT a good source for basic or comprehensive info about PD. It is NOT a good reference for archival material; there are big sophisticated services, such as Medline, which do that. What the CSR does do is provide an inkling of where we are, what lies ahead. I started it pretty much for my own use, but of course am glad to share it with others of like inclination. Likewise the CSR INDEX is not encyclopedic, but merely a clue to locate any particular item. You can look it up in the CSR of the date given, to see if you want to order the source article from your local library. Or, you can go direct to the source as cited. The reviews that I write for the CSR are not especially timely, as it takes about a year after submission to a scholarly journal, before an article finally appears in print; then the medical library I use depends for some of its journals on donations from personal subscribers, so it may be several months more before I see a new article. Usually an exciting breakthrough is accompanied by a news release, long before it is documented in the literature. It also takes several months for a new article or abstract to get into Medline; recently some of the relevant journals have become available online, at various WWW sites, but I haven't gotten into that as yet. Thanks to the outstanding effort of our computer wizard John Cottingham, back numbers of the CSR that were posted to the list, I think starting with July 1996, are available by e-mail for the asking. Earlier ones, starting with December 1994, and some other incidental notes, are in a BIG (33 pages) file called LAZARUS. I recently corrected several typos in my own copy, arising from line limits in my ISP's interface, so it's not exactly like the one in the list archives. If you want my review of just one item that you might see in the INDEX, I can extract that for you. J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013