INFORMS Online
Guided Tour of PubsOnLine
By Matthew Saltzman
If you are an INFORMS member but don't subscribe to our electronic journals, you may think that there is nothing worth seeing at INFORMS PubsOnLine. But if you haven't visited the site before, it's worth a stop on your ventures through the World Wide Web. There are useful, publicly accessible features, and there are some services other than full-text journal articles that are accessible to members.
Publicly Accessible Features
The front page of PubsOnLine links to the publicly accessible features. There are navigation bars across the top of the page and down the left-hand side. Down the side, there are graphical links for the 10 INFORMS print journals, plus the electronic journal INFORMS Transactions on Education (ITE) and the student newsletter OR/MS Tomorrow. The ITE and OR/MS Tomorrow links are highlighted in yellow. The highlighting means that you have full access to the materials at those sites. The non-highlighted links allow you to view abstracts only. Each print journal link takes you to a listing of available issues, and following an issue link takes you to a table of contents. From the table of contents, you can download the abstract (in PDF format). The link labeled "Home" next to each journal takes you to the editor in chief's page.
The horizontal navigation bar has links to go to the home page, search page, contact tech support, get subscription information or go to the IOL Web site. The search page supports searching on title, author, keywords and abstract body text. Each field can be matched based on whether it does or does not contain the string as a substring, match the string exactly, or begin or end with the string. An additional criterion can be applied to one of the fields. The search can be Boolean and/or OR, and the search can be restricted to selected journals. The results contain the full citations of matching articles and links to download the abstracts.
Member Login
If you follow the "Log In" link from the horizontal navigation bar on any page, you arrive at a form that prompts you for your last name, member number and password. Your member number is included on most communications that you receive from INFORMS, including the plastic membership card you received with your renewal invoice or new-member kit. If you have not set your password, it defaults to your member number. If you have forgotten your password, there is a link to a form that asks for your e-mail address. You must enter the e-mail address that you provided to INFORMS with your membership. The system will reply automatically with your member number and password. (Obligatory security reference: changing your password is always a good idea.)
Subscriber Features
Once logged in, you will see the home page again, but instead of being listed as "PubsOnLine User (Guest)," you will be logged in under your name. The top navigation bar now shows "Log Out" and "Change Info" buttons, and the left navigation bar now highlights all journals to which you have electronic subscriptions. PubsOnLine Suite subscribers will see all 10 journal icons highlighted. In addition, all members see highlighted icons for OR/MS Today, ITE, International Abstracts in Operations Research (IAOR), OR/MS Tomorrow and the Annual Comprehensive Index (ACI) database housed at IOL. For highlighted journals, any article that you find in a table of contents or search result page will now include a link to "Download Full Article."
The "Change Info" link allows you to change your e-mail address, password or contact information, and to view your current subscription list.
Annual Comprehensive Index
The IOL ACI database (also accessible from the "Searchable Databases" link on the IOL front page) contains approximately 40,000 entries dating from 1976 through 2001. The 1976-1987 entries are from INFORMS journals, while the 1988-2001 entries represent OR/MS-related articles from over 700 INFORMS and non-INFORMS journals. Currently, the latest references in the ACI are from 2001. It will eventually contain abstracts from all volumes of all INFORMS journals; that project, however, is still under way.
International Abstracts in OR
All members, regardless of what journals they subscribe to, receive access to IAOR Online, the Web version of International Abstracts in Operations Research, sponsored by IFORS and published by Palgrave. Following the highlighted IAOR icon after logging in to PubsOnLine automatically logs you into the IAOR site. You arrive on a search page from which you can search a database of abstracts from more than 40,000 articles in 180 OR/MS journals from 43 countries, dating back 12 years and growing at a rate of 300 entries per month.
Each abstract provides full bibliographic details, a contact address for the lead author and the text of the abstract as published (or a summary written specially for IAOR), The database is fully searchable on all the fields with simple Boolean logic included. From the left navigation bar, you can also browse the current issue of IAOR.
The IAOR subscription has been a member benefit since 2002. It is a powerful tool for searching the OR/MS literature. Check it out!
Matthew Saltzman (mjs@ces.clemson.edu) is an associate professor of Mathematical Sciences at Clemson University and the editor of INFORMS Online.
OR/MS Today copyright © 2003 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved.
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