FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


1.    Can I limit searches to either drug discrimination or drug self-administration studies?
2.    How can I do a quick simple search of the database?
3.    How can I do full searches that combine different terms?
4.    How to I adjust the format in which search results are displayed?
5.    How do I avoid getting unwanted details when I run a search in a journal format?
6.    What is the meaning of the term "training drug"?
7.    What is the meaning of the term "cross-test"?
8.    What is the meaning of the term "pretreatment"?
9.     What can be done with this database that is impossible with the core biomedical databases such as PubMed?
10.  Should I download the entire database to my computer instead of accessing it through the website?
11.  Why is my paper not in the database?
12.  Sometimes I do not get to an abstract or I see an error message when I click on the MEDLINE abstract button; why?
13.  Why is the abstract not available in this database  when the original publication is only an abstract?
14.  Why are abstracts from meetings of the Society for Neuroscience not included in the database?

Can I limit a search to either drug discrimination or drug self-administration studies?

This is possible when using either the simple or the advance search interface. In the simple search interface at the of of each page, choose the appropriate option in the drop-down list for “Type". In the advanced search page, choose the appropriate option in the first line that appears below “Search Criteria".

How can I do a quick simple search of the database?

There is a basic search interface at the top of each page. Choose the type of reference (drug discrimination or drug-self administration or both) from the drop-down list for Type. You can also search for any word or phrase in the title of a paper , for any author, for keywords, and for year of publication. Run your search by selecting GO on the right side of the search interface. It is important to note that all searchers carried out with the simple interface use the AND operator, so if you enter terms in two or more categories (e.g. author and year) then only those references that meet all criteria will be retrieved. For authors, you should enter either the surname only or use the format “Smith AB". If you search by keywords then you need to know rather precisely what keyword you want (it may be better to use the advanced search that displays all keywords, from which a choice can be made).

How can I do full searches that combine different terms?

Use the menu at the top of the pages to go the Advanced Search page. There are twelve search fields, such as Journal, Year, Author, Training Drug, etc. For most of these fields you can choose whether you want to find references that contain or do not contain selected search terms. It is essential that you first select either Contains or Does not contain; then select your search terms by clicking on Options available and Please select to display a scrolling list of terms for each search field that you want to use. To search using more than one term in a list, repeat the selection process (note you must choose whether you want Contains or Does not Contain before selecting each extra term). If you want to change an entry from Contains to Does not contain or vice versa, you must first clear it and then enter it again.

You can speed up navigation of long lists of terms in the drop-down lists by typing the first letter of the term that you want. It will generally be quicker and more accurate to use the drop-down lists than to enter free text in the Keyword field.

To combine different search terms, the AND / OR Boolean operators are available. These are selected in boxes near the foot of the page. Separate choices can be made for terms across search fields and within search fields. By this means it is possible to build searches as in the following example.

[Ethanol training OR nicotine training] AND [ Psychomotor stimulants cross-test] AND [mice OR monkeys]

To set up this search:
select Contains Ethanol Training and Contains Nicotine Training for the Training Drugs field
select Contains Psychomotor stimulants cross-test from the list of Drug Classes
select Contains Mice and Contains Monkeys from the list of Species.

Make sure that the options for Match all search fields (AND) and for Match any field values (OR) are set by clicking on the appropriate buttons at the lower left part of the page. Then click on Search. To set up a similar search that excludes review articles, in addition to the above, select Does not contain and Review in the Article Type field.

Note that search terms are retained in the Advanced Search page within a session. If you navigate away from the website or close your browser, then previously entered search terms will not be remembered.

How do I adjust the format in which search results are displayed?

You can alter the format either before or after running a search, but there is more choice if you do it before. In the Advanced Search page, options appear at the foot of the page under the subheadings Display and Format. You can add or remove some types of information from the display of search results by checking or unchecking the boxes. To obtain output that closely matches a journal format all options in the list headed Display should be unchecked.  In the Search results page, you can select a different journal format for display but you cannot add or remove displayed items. To change the journal format, select from the list of Presentation formats. You can also have references sorted in different ways (i.e. according to author names, title of the publication, or the year of publication).

How do I avoid getting unwanted details when I run a search in a journal format?

You must use the Advanced search page to prevent these details appearing. Settings need to be adjusted before running the search by unchecking one or more of the options that appear at the foot of the page under the subheading Display.

What is the meaning of the term "training drug"?

In Drug Discrimination research the widely-used term training drug refers to the substance or substances used to establish stimulus control at the beginning of training. Normally the same substance is used throughout the procedures carried out with a given animal or human subject. Rarely, subjects have been retrained with a different drug or drug mixture; these studies may be selectively retrieved by using the keyword behavioral history which appears in the list of methodological terms on the Advanced search page.

In Drug Self-Administration research the term training drug is used to denote the substance first offered for consumption by a given subject. Sometimes the drug is changed for a relatively long period of time and a new baseline of behavior is established with the second drug. In such cases, both substances are indexed as training drugs. If the second drug is offered for only a short period such as 3-5 days, as in some dose-response studies, then it is not indexed as a training drug.

What is the meaning of the term "cross-test"?

In Drug Discrimination research cross-test refers to procedures in which a novel substance is administered as a substitute for the training drug; by this means the presence or absence of stimulus generalization can be determined. Different doses of the novel drug may be administered. Tests where doses of the training drug that differ from that used for training are not called cross-tests on this website.

In Drug Self-Administration research the term cross-test is used to denote a procedure in which a substance other than the training drug is made available for consumption. Sometimes the drug is offered for a relatively short period of time, for example in a single test of 1 hour duration. In other cases the substance may be offered repeatedly in sessions carried out over several days to examine whether a stable pattern of behavior is established. The availability of the cross-test drug is time-limited and is followed by a return to self-administration of the training drug.

What is the meaning of the term "pretreatment"?

In Drug Discrimination research the term pretreatment refers to procedures in which a novel substance is administered in addition to the training drug; by this means the ability of the novel drug to modify the response to the training drug can be determined. Different doses of the novel drug may be administered. In many cases the novel drug is an antagonist or potential antagonist of the training drug, whereas in other cases it may be expected to act additively or synergistically with the training drug. Most often the pretreatment agent is administered prior to the training drug; for example the dopamine antagonist haloperidol may be administered 30 min before amphetamine, the latter drug being administered 15 min before a behavioural test session. The temporal sequence is determined primarily by pharmacokinetics; if the hypothesized antagonist is short-acting, then it may be administered at the same time as or even after the agonist. Use of the term pretreatment is therefore related to the functional relationship between the two drugs, rather than the temporal sequence of their administration.

In Drug Self-Administration research pretreatment is used to denote procedures in which a novel substance is administered as well as the training drug. The novel substance is usually given as experimenter-administered doses and may not itself be offered for consumption. Sometimes the novel drug may be administered on a single occasion whereas in other experiments it is administered repeatedly in sessions carried out over several days. As in drug discrimination research, the purpose is usually to determine whether the pretretament substance interacts with the training drug in an antagonistic, additive or synergistic manner; similarly, use of the term pretreatment is related to the functional relationship between the two drugs, rather than the temporal sequence of their administration.

What can be done with this database that is not possible with the core biomedical databases such as PubMed?

This database has the following attributes:

(i)     Publications on drug discrimination and drug self-administration can be retrieved comprehensively.  All known search strategies to retrieve these publications from other databases are either under-inclusive or over-inclusive (neither Drug Discrimination nor Drug Self-Administration is a MESH term).

(ii)    Books, book chapters and archival abstracts, many of which are not covered by other databases, are included.

(iii)   It uses a unique system of keywords tailored to the needs of researchers in the area. Publications are indexed according to the way drugs are used in terms of training, cross-test and pretreatment functions. Area-specific methodological keywords are also used.

(iv)    Members of the team that maintains the database have extensive research experience in the field and are therefore sensitive to the needs of users of the database.

Should I download the entire database to my computer instead of accessing it through the website?

This depends on several factors including the personal preferences of individual users. The main reasons for downloading are:
(i)     Access to all Reference Manager™ search functions that enable complex seraches to be set up more quickly than on the website; Cite While You Write™ capability; generate bibliographies in a much wider range of journal formats.
(ii)    Ability to generate lists of references that include citations other that those on drug self-administration and discrimination research, as needed for most journal articles.
(iii)   No need for an internet connection and typically faster operation, although this does depend upon your broadband and computer speeds.

The main advantages of using the website are:
(i)     Always accesses the latest, most up-to-date version of the database.
(ii)    The different search interface with separate lists of keywords subdivided into logical categories can facilitate searching.
(iii)   Direct links to PubMed abstracts for many citations.
(iv)   It is not necessary to purchase Reference Manager™.

Why is my paper not in the database?

The database aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the literature but with regard to self-administration research it is still at an early stage and coverage is not yet complete. If your work is missing we will look into the reason; please provide the bibliographic details of the publication (authors, title, publication date, journal, etc.). If the article is appropriate for inclusion in the database it will be added at the earliest opportunity. Email your report to Ian Stolerman

Sometimes I do not get to an abstract or I see an error message when I click on the MEDLINE abstract button: why?

Abstracts for many older publications are not present in MEDLINE and PubMed. The date varies from one journal to another, but in many cases abstracts are only available from 1975 onwards.

Why is the abstract not available in this database when the original publication is only an abstract?

Many abstracts are copyright-protected and the copyright-holders are not always willing to allow them to be reproduced. That is one reason for the provision of links to PubMed abstracts when they are available, rather than copying the abstract into this database. Abstracts are also not available for book chapters.

Why are abstracts from meetings of the Society for Neuroscience not included in the database?

Older abstracts were provided only to members and are not held by many libraries, especially outside the USA; they are not eligible for inclusion as archival abstracts. Abstracts from 2006 onwards are freely available online and are therefore eligible. These will be included in the future but it is not presently possible to state when that will be.