Barbara S. Hutchinson, Antoinette Paris-Greider Using the Agricultural, Environmental, And Food...

Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York BaselTM

Using the Agricultural,Environmental,and Food Literature

edited by

Barbara S. HutchinsonUniversity of ArizonaTucson, Arizona, U.S.A.

Antoinette Paris GreiderUniversity of KentuckyLexington, Kentucky, U.S.A.

Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright 2002 Marcel Dekker, Inc.

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Preface

Since the publication of G. P. Lilleys reference work Information Sources inAgriculture and Food Science in 1981, we have been witness to incrediblechanges both in the area of agricultural research and in our ability to disseminatethe results of that research. Advances have been made in the areas of plant andanimal genetics, in animal and human nutrition and health, and in our understand-ing of the effects of human and climatic actions on the land and its natural re-sources. So, too, have we become more efcient and productive in bringing safeand healthy food to people around the world. These developments have beenmade possible through the efforts of a strong and growing worldwide network ofagricultural researchers and organizations, and by signicant and often dramaticimprovements in technology. Ever more powerful computers, continued rene-ments in miniaturization, the development of the Internet, and expanded commu-nications capabilities have created a foundation from which we are now able tolink people, information, data, and decision-making tools on a 24/7 basis, fromnearly any location, and as conveniently as in the palm of our hands.

Although strongly related to many other disciplinary areas, the applied na-ture of agriculture ensures its close ties to both human systems and technologicaldevelopments. If the results of research are to be put to practical use for the benetof all, a symbiotic relationship must exist among the scientic, educational, andinformation technology communities. In fact, another striking characteristic ofthe past decade has been an increased collaboration among scientists, teachers,extension personnel, technicians, and information specialists to make key infor-mation easily and widely accessible. Also involved in this mix have been thepolicymakers who fund the programs for bringing all these resources to bear on


the challenging human and environmental issues of the day. By working together,people from these diverse backgrounds have made great strides in developingdistributed and broad-based information systems such as the Agriculture NetworkInformation Center (AgNIC) and the National Biological Information Infrastruc-ture (NBII) through which signicant content and learning tools have beenbrought to the public for the rst time. Digital library projects and similar state-of-the-art initiatives also have provided testbeds for accessing specialized re-sources such as geospatial information, images, video, and other nontextual for-mats. This combination of trends has changed the face of the information industryand the nature of scientic communication and, as such, has inuenced the con-tent of this work.

The books 16 chapters reect not only the extent of the agricultural disci-pline but the variety of resources available for the study of these wide-rangingsubjects. Although generally following a common structure, authors were giventhe latitude to accommodate the particular vagaries of their area of interest. Thus,certain chapters highlight resources and aspects that are unique to a topic. Thiscan be seen most notably in Chapters 7, 14, 15, and 16, which include a varietyof resources covering diverse subtopics. In addition, the inclusion of World WideWeb sites have been handled slightly differently. Most of the authors include aseparate list for signicant Web sites, while others have incorporated URLs forselected sites within the categories covered. URLs are also included for electronicjournals if they are available free of charge. URLs for publishers are providedin appropriate sections.

As with any work of this sort, there are many people who contributed timeand expertise to ensure its successful completion. First, of course, are the chapterauthors. We thank them all for their patience and perseverance, and for theirwillingness to spend long hours on compiling and editing their contributions. Inaddition, we express thanks to the many outside reviewers who provided com-ments and suggestions for improvements to the various chapters. Some of thesepeople are noted at the end of the chapters, but we also want to mention a fewothers here. In particular, we thank Tom Greider, Susan Moody, Don Post, andAnne Hedrich for their timely help in reviewing manuscripts. We especially thankHeather Severson, Carla Casler, and Susan Moody for their unwavering assis-tance with many of the more tedious last-minute tasks.

It is our sincere hope that Using the Agricultural, Environmental, and FoodLiterature will provide the basis for further advancements in agriculture and itsrelated elds, and a deeper understanding of their essential role in determiningquality of life for people throughout the world. The book is intended to serveboth as an entry point into the discipline for those new to the eld and as a guidefor those wishing to expand their knowledge beyond their own areas of expertise.We rmly believe that universal access to accurate and current information is


crucial for achieving a more equitable and stable world for ourselves and for thegenerations to come.

May we all eat well and tread lightly.

Barbara S. Hutchinson


Contents

PrefaceContributors

1. An Introduction to the Literature and General SourcesAntoinette Paris Greider

2. Agricultural EconomicsLouise Letnes and Patricia J. M. Rodkewich

3. Agricultural and Biosystems EngineeringMary Anderson Ochs and Mary E. Patterson

4. Animal Health and Veterinary SciencesGretchen Stephens

5. Animal Science and Livestock ProductionJodee L. Kawasaki

6. Environmental Sciences and Natural ResourcesRobert S. Allen

7. Farming and Farming SystemsIrwin Weintraub


8. Field CropsKathleen Ann Clark

9. Food MarketingSue Wilkinson

10. Food ScienceFrancine Bernard

11. Grey Literature and Extension ResourcesSheila Merrigan and Tim McKimmie

12. HorticultureElaine A. Nowick

13. Human NutritionAmy L. Paster and Heather K. Moberly

14. Rural Development and Sociology in the United StatesM. Louise Reynnells

15. International Rural Development and SociologyAnita L. Hayden

16. Soil ScienceCarla Long Casler and Karl R. Schneider


Contributors

Robert S. Allen Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Library,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA

Francine Bernard* Library Services, Food Research and Development Cen-tre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Quebec, Canada

Carla Long Casler Arid Lands Information Center, Ofce of Arid Lands Stud-ies, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Kathleen Ann Clark Life Sciences Library, Purdue University, West Lafay-ette, Indiana, USA

Antoinette Paris Greider Agricultural Information Center, University of Ken-tucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

Anita L. Hayden Arid Lands Information Center, Ofce of Arid Lands Stud-ies, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Barbara S. Hutchinson Arid Lands Information Center, Ofce of Arid LandsStudies, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

* Current afliation: Soils and Crops Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-FoodCanada, Quebec, Canada Current afliation: Biotechnology Librarian, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA


Jodee L. Kawasaki Reference Team, Montana State University, Bozeman,Montana, USA

Louise Letnes Waite Library, Department of Applied Economics, Universityof Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Tim McKimmie University Library, New Mexico State University, LasCruces, New Mexico, USA

Sheila D. Merrigan Cooperative Extension, University of Arizona, Tucson,Arizona, USA

Heather K. Moberly Veterinary Medicine Library, Oklahoma State Univer-sity, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

Elaine A. Nowick Branch Services, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Ne-braska, USA

Mary Anderson Ochs Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca,New York, USA

Amy L. Paster Life Science Library, The Pennsylvania State University, Uni-versity Park, Pennsylvania, USA

Mary E. Patterson Engineering and Computer Science Library, Cornell Uni-versity, Ithaca, New York, USA

M. Louise Reynnells Rural Information Center, National Agricultural Library,ARS-USDA, Beltsville, Maryland, USA

Patricia J. M. Rodkewich Magrath Library, University of Minnesota, St. Paul,Minnesota, USA

Karl R. Schneider National Agricultural Library, ARS-USDA, Beltsville,Maryland, USA

Gretchen Stephens Veterinary Medical Library, Purdue University, West La-fayette, Indiana, USA

Irwin Weintraub Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Sue Wilkinson Information Service, Food Marketing Institute, Washington,D.C., USA


1An Introduction to the Literatureand General Sources

Antoinette Paris GreiderUniversity of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

DEFINING AGRICULTUREWhen we study agriculture, just what is it that we are studying? To look for adenition, one need go only as far as the agencies that serve the discipline. TheWeb site of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nationslists programs such as production agriculture, economics, sheries, and nutrition.Along with these more traditional programmatic areas are newer areas of interestdealing with topics such as biotechnology and ethics in food and agriculture;gender and food security; rural youth; organic agriculture; and biological diver-sity. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Web site lists programareas for food safety; natural resources and environment; rural development;food, nutrition and consumer services as prominently as farm and foreign agricul-tural services; and marketing and regulatory programs.

The diverse elds of study in agriculture are also illustrated through thecurriculums of institutions of higher education. Wageningen University is partof Wageningen University and Research Centre (Wageningen UR), which is astrategic alliance between Wageningen University and the Dutch AgriculturalResearch Institute, DLO. The graduate programs offering Ph.Ds at that institu-tion include Experimental Plant Sciences; Production Ecology and Resource Con-


servation; Food Technology, Agrobiotechnology, Nutrition and Health Sciences;Animal Sciences; Environment and Climate Research; and Social Sciences.

This shows that agriculture encompasses much more than the basic produc-tion of food. Graduates from agricultural programs nd employment in industry,government, and academia, as well as self-employment. The various areas ofmodern-day agriculture are an integral part of modern-day society.

COMPLEXITY OF THE LITERATUREThe complexity of the discipline of agriculture is reected in its literature. Agri-culture has its roots in the basic sciences and must be used in conjunction withthe basic science literature. The student in entomology, for example, must alsobe well versed in zoology and the student in agricultural economics must alsoknow basic economics to be able to carry out their research. In a sense, agricultureencompasses all of the literature in the pure and applied sciences as well as thesocial sciences.

Agriculture as a science in the United States dates back to the late nine-teenth century with the creation of the agricultural experiment stations and theformation of the land-grant colleges. The formal separation between agricultureand the pure sciences remains but the research boundaries have blurred. Sotoo have the literature boundaries. It is no longer possible to scan the majoragricultural journals and have all of the information you need. With areas suchas biotechnology and natural resource management, agriculture crosses over intoevery other discipline and it is necessary to depend on secondary sources to pro-vide a snapshot of the literature. The successful information seeker uses all infor-mation tools at his/her disposal including the traditional literature, World WideWeb, conferences, e-mail, and peer interaction to name a few. There are literallymillions of sources available that a searcher must wade through to teach, conductresearch, or help the general farming population. The amount of information canbe overwhelming and daunting to search.

THE COMPLEXITY OF SEARCHING THE LITERATUREKnowing what to ask for and how to ask for it is the key to successful searching.Precision searching means knowing the vocabulary of the subject being searched.The ease of searching among the various agricultural disciplines varies with thediscipline. Searching in natural resource management is more difcult thansearching in plant sciences because of the interdisciplinary nature of the vocabu-lary. Searching for a species of plant is not difcult because all you have to putin is the plants common and scientic name. Searching for an ecological topicis much more difcult because of the nondescriptive and broad vocabulary usedin the discipline. The plant is a tangible entity while ecology is a concept. A


great deal of thought and some research of the vocabulary are required to executea successful electronic search in most of the subjects. The intellectual effort isat the keyboard as the machine will only give the searcher what they ask for.Being able to articulate the search problem in the appropriate vocabulary is themost difcult part of the literature searching process.

Once the topic is dened it is necessary to choose the correct source tosearch for information. Determining the subject area that has the appropriatesource to search is the most difcult part of searching for information. It is partic-ularly difcult in agriculture because of the scope of the subject. The appropriatesource could be something that is not even traditional agriculture. For example,when searching a uid mechanics question in agricultural engineering, the appro-priate sources could be those that cover agricultural engineering, such as CABAbstracts followed by the engineering sources. To compound the problem, manyof the sources are available in multiple formats and structures. For example, theAGRICOLA Database from 1970 to 2000 is available in print as the Bibliographyof Agriculture and in multiple electronic formats depending on the electronicservice available. It is available through Dialog and FirstSearch on a pay as yougo searching plan and on various other electronic services and products that canbe purchased on subscription. It is available through SilverPlatter, Ovid, directlyfrom the National Agricultural Library (NAL), and now through ProQuest. Allhave the same data but are searched differently. Knowing what is available andhow to search a particular system for a given subject area is another key to suc-cessful information gathering.

The World Wide Web further complicates the information gathering pro-cess. The Web is a vehicle providing access to secondary information sourcessuch as bibliographic databases such as AGRICOLA as well as to provide pri-mary information. Searching the Web is not an easy task and it is impossible tosearch the entire Web. At best, any given search engine covers 40% of the Weband many of the various search engines cover different topical areas. A Websearch can yield both valuable information along with a great deal of informationnot of interest. Precision searching on the Web is more difcult but there aretechniques to improve search results. Learning how to use one search engine wellis an excellent investment of time. Most of the major search engines have helpscreens and spending 30 minutes to learn those features can save hours of search-ing time.

The Web provides access to millions of Web sites and a major challengeis to determine the validity of the content on each site. If the Web site creatoris unknown, then more searching is necessary to determine its credibility. Onemethod is to look at the extension in the address. The extension will tell you theoriginating country of the Web site or what type of agency has provided theinformation. For example, .gov means the Web site was done in an agency ofthe U.S. government while .nl means that the Web site is from a source in the


Netherlands. Home pages from unknown sources should not be used withoutvalidating the information.

Not all information on the Web is free. Many Web-based services chargea subscription fee and limit users to one institution. Government-produced sec-ondary sources such as AGRICOLA and Medline are available through commer-cial vendors for a fee and free through their administering government agencies.There are also many electronic journals available through the Web but the major-ity of them do not have free access to their content. Most scholarly journalsrequire a subscription, as they do in print, but many provide free access to theabstracts of the articles contained in each issue. Current awareness services areavailable through many publishers. These services allow the user to set up aninformation prole that is stored centrally on the publishers computer. The pro-le is run at a specied time (depending on the publication schedule of the infor-mation source) and articles of interest are automatically sent to the users e-mailaddress. Information on these services can be found at the various publishersWeb sites. Access to the full articles generally is available for a fee.

The advent of electronic journals has provided a number of enhanced ser-vices through the databases. Current awareness services are available throughmany of the major database producers. For example, SilverPlatter has a featurein its software that allows users to save a valid search on the SilverPlatter server.The search is automatically run each time the specied database is updated andthe results are sent to the subscribers e-mail boxes. This is most useful in agricul-ture because it allows the searcher to go across traditional disciplines in choosingdatabases. If the library subscribes to all of the necessary databases then thesearcher can set up a subject or journal title search that covers subjects in thepure, applied, and social sciences along with the humanities if necessary.

Many of the electronic services now offer hooks to holdings and articledelivery. Hooks to holdings provide a link to the local library catalog forsources the institution owns. By clicking a tag that indicates to check the catalog,a window opens and the location of the source indicated comes up. If the librarysubscribes to the article linking service, then any e-journals that the library sub-scribes to are linked to the database and only a keystroke away from the informa-tion seeker. As with many of the databases, the enhancements are available fora fee so availability varies from institution to institution.

In this book we are doing more than providing access to sources in agricul-ture but in essence we are redening the agricultural literature. The subject break-down reects the broad scope of agriculture in todays society. The scope ofcoverage was outlined by the editors but each chapter author was given onlygeneral guidelines on how to organize their chapter and given the freedom toalter that organization if they felt it necessary. Authors were asked to discusshow to begin searching for their topics in the literature and to select the most


prominent resources available to the searcher as of the year 2000. They wereasked to include only those sources that would be the most useful to a broadaudience in their subject area. For this reason, the chapters that follow are in-tended to be a selective resource and not an exhaustive treatment of the varioussubject areas. It is intended to provide a starting point for searching and not astep-by-step guide. Each discipline within agriculture has many subdisciplinesthat could not be explored here. It is recommended that a librarian who is asubject specialist be consulted to provide assistance in constructing an in-depthsearch on a given topic.

The Web resources described here are accompanied by an URL. URLs arenot static and do change. The date after the URL (in parentheses) for Web siteslisted is the last date that the Web site was checked and the URL was valid atthat time. You can do some problem solving with URLs by determining whatmight have changed. For instance you are looking for the Journal of Food Scienceand it has the following URL: http:/ /www.acs.jfsc/contents/html. If you cannotnd the Web page you are looking for, begin dropping off elements on the rightend of the URL. By putting in http:/ /www.acs.jfsc you may nd the journal. Ifthat does not work, go to the main Web page (http:/ /www.acs) to see if URLhas been changed for the journal. In some instances you may have to do a Websearch for the publisher to see if their Web site still exists or if they have re-vamped their entire home page.

The book is not intended to be an exhaustive work on all sources in theagricultural literature. Due to page limitations and the time involved, choiceswere made on what resources to include. However, this work does provide somepointers on how to deal with the traditional literature. The focus is not only onthe sources but on how to search for additional sources. As such major secondarysources are described so as to give the user the tools needed for locating a wealthof other pertinent sources. To quote Dr. Samuel Johnson, Knowledge is of twokinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can nd informationupon it. It is hoped this will provide users with the guidance they need to locatethe information that is essential for building and strengthening the worlds ag-ricultural sector and for ensuring the sectors viability for future generations.

GENERAL SOURCESThere are some resources so broad in their coverage of agricultural topics thatthey would have needed to be described in each chapter. To conserve space theyare included here. Further discussion of using these information tools is availablein the various subject chapters with an emphasis on searching the topic beingcovered in the chapter. The descriptions have been contributed by various authorswhose names appear at the end of the abstract.


AgNIC (http:/ /www.agnic.org) (cited August 15, 2001). Beltsville, MD: U.S.National Agricultural Library. The Agriculture Network Information Center(AgNIC) is a voluntary alliance of the NAL, land-grant universities, and otheragricultural organizations, in cooperation with citizen groups and governmentagencies. AgNIC focuses on providing agricultural information in electronic for-mat over the World Wide Web using the Internet. One of the objectives of AgNICis that member participants take responsibility for small vertical segments ofagricultural information (including basic, applied, and developmental research;extension; and teaching activities in the food, agricultural, renewable natural re-sources, forestry, and physical and social sciences) and develop Web sites andreference services in specic subject areas (Introduction, AgNIC Alliance Gover-nance Document). Subject pages include traditional agricultural subjects such asplant sciences and extension as well as pages on consumer and family studies;earth and environmental sciences; and people and organizations. The site alsoincludes a calendar of agriculturally related conferences, meetings, and seminars;has a search feature with a thesaurus; and allows the user to ask a question. (A.P.Greider)AGRICOLA. 1970 . Beltsville, MD: U.S. National Agricultural Library.AGRICOLA (AGRIcultural OnLine Access), titled CAIN (Cataloging and In-dexing) during the years 197075, covers all elds of the broadly denedterm agriculture. It includes bibliographic records for all materials added to thecollection of the NAL, plus materials submitted by cooperating institutions.AGRICOLA is the best resource for locating publications of the USDA and theU.S. land-grant institutions. Ninety percent of the items in AGRICOLA are jour-nal articles or book chapters. The remaining 10% include monographs, micro-forms, audiovisuals, and so forth. Since 1985 a controlled vocabulary has beenused to assign descriptors to most records in AGRICOLA. The vocabulary comesfrom either (or both) the Library of Congress Subjects Headings (Library of Con-gress 2000) or the CAB Thesaurus (Wightman 1999). In addition to the subjectheadings used, subject category codes are added for each record. AGRICOLA isavailable to the public through the World Wide Web at http:/ /www.nal.usda.gov/ag98. It is also available online and on CD-ROM through several vendors. Olderissues (pre 1970) are available in paper format under the title Bibliography ofAgriculture (Pat Rodekwich and Louise Letnes).

Related Sources to AGRICOLAList of Journals AGRICOLA is Indexed in (http:/ /www.nalusda.gov/indexing/ljiarch.htm) (cited November 20, 2000). 1995 . Beltsville, MD: U.S. NationalAgricultural Library. Provides two lists of the journals indexed in a specicyear: one list is arranged alphabetically by the full title of the journal, the otherlist is arranged alphabetically by the abbreviated name of the journal. Lists of


the journals that have been added or subtracted from the List of Journals In-dexed in in a particular year are provided as well. Not all journals indexed inAGRICOLA are abstracted, so there is a separate list of journals that are ab-stracted (Kathleen Clark).Subject Category Codes and Scope Notes. (http:/ /www.agnic.org/cc/hv.html)(cited August 15, 2001). Beltsville, MD: U.S. National Agricultural Li-brary. Subject Category Codes (SSC) and Scope Notes are alphanumeric desig-nations for the broad subject areas in agriculture. The codes are assigned by theindexers to records to aid in subject searching (A.P. Greider).Agricultural Information Centers: A World Directory. 2000. J.S. Johnson, R.C.Fisher, and C.B. Robertson, eds. Twin Falls, ID: IAALD. The directory is ar-ranged alphabetically by country and then by city and parent institution and pro-vides descriptions of approximately 3,900 agricultural information resource cen-ters in 180 countries. All entries include scope and language of library collection,databases maintained, search services provided, name and telephone number ofthe director, and e-mail addresses and Web sites where available. The one-volumework includes institution, city, and subject indexes (Irwin Weintraub).AGRIS. 1975 . Rome: AGRIS Coordinating Centre. AGRIS is an elec-tronic database that covers worldwide literature dealing with all aspects of agri-culture. The print version of AGRIS is Agrindex (1975 ). AGRIS is updatedmonthly. The records for AGRIS are input by 161 national and 31 international/intergovernmental centers, which submit about 14,000 items per month. Thus,AGRIS provides good coverage of the major journal literature as well as of re-gional publications not elsewhere indexedthe so-called grey literature. AllAGRIS records are assigned subject headings from AGROVOC, a multilingualagricultural thesaurus. AGRIS records are also assigned AGRIS categories. TheAGRIS centers collect bibliographic references (to date, about 3 million) to eitherconventional (such as journal articles, books) or nonconventional materials (suchas theses, reports) not available through normal commercial channels. AGRISencourages the exchange of information among developing countries, whose lit-erature is often not covered by other international systems. AGRIS, AGROVOC(in print), and the AGRIS Subject Categories (not in print) are freely availableon the Internet from the FAO at http:/ /www.fao.org/agris/. Additionally, severalvendors offer subscriptions to AGRIS, such as SilverPlatter and DIALOG (Kath-leen Clark with added information by Sheila Merrigan and Tim McKimmie).

Related Sources to AGRISAGROVOC (http:/ /www.fao.org/agrovoc/) (cited August 21, 2001). Rome:FAO. Searchable thesaurus for the controlled terms used in the AGRIS data-


base. Allows the searcher to look up the term in English, French, Spanish, orPortuguese and provides the term in all languages on each record.

AGRIS/Caris Subject Category Codes (http:/ /www.fao.org/scripts/agris/c-categ.htm) (cited August 21, 2001). Rome: FAO. Similar to the Subject Cate-gory Codes used in AGRICOLA. Allows the searcher to search broad subjectcategories such as plant sciences with a subject code.BIOSIS Previews (online). 1969 . Philadelphia, PA: BIOSIS. Available onCD-ROM and through various vendors on the World Wide Web. BIOSIS Pre-views covers both the biological and medical literature worldwide and providesthem in a structured database. Approximately 550,000 items are added annuallyto this database, which contained 13 million citations at the end of 1999. Thedatabase provides enhanced access through the use of codes to pull out broadsubject areas. The print counterparts to BIOSIS Previews includes BiologicalAbstracts that provides access to the journal literature in the life sciences andBiological Abstracts/RRM (reports, reviews, meetings) that covers meeting pa-pers, symposia, conference proceedings, workshops, books, literature reviews,reports, patents, and CD-ROM and other software. The database contains over2 million records and is updated monthly. A complete description of BIOSISproducts and services can be found at www.biosis.org.

Print CounterpartsBiological Abstracts, v. 1 1926 . Philadelphia, PA: BIOSIS.

Biological Abstracts/RRM, v. 1 1967 . Philadelphia, PA:BIOSIS. (SheilaMerrigan, Tim McKimmie, and A.P. Greider).CAB Abstracts. 1973 Wallingford, UK: CABI. Provides comprehensive,worldwide coverage of all aspects of agricultural, forestry, veterinary medicine,and biological information. Over 14,000 serials and journals in over 50 languagesare scanned, as well as books, reports, and other publications. It is updatedmonthly and available online from 1973 to the present. CAB Abstracts is theaggregate, electronic version of nearly 50 printed indexes including primary andsecondary review journals, some of which go back as far as 1913. This databasecumulates 45 individual abstract journals covering most branches of agriculture.CAB uses a controlled vocabulary that is outlined in the CAB Thesaurus to indexeach record. In addition, each record is assigned a CABICODE that allows lim-iting keyword searches to records in a specic subject area. Combining theseCABICODEs with descriptors allows great precision in searching. CAB Ab-stracts is available online through various vendors and is also available on CD-ROM. Access to CAB Abstracts is available electronically from a variety ofvendors including Dialog, Ovid, SilverPlatter, and CAB.


Print CounterpartsAnimal Breeding Abstracts, 1933Dairy Science Abstracts, 1939Forest Products Abstracts, 1978Forestry Abstracts, 1939/40Helminthological Abstracts, 1932Horticultural Abstracts, 1931Index Veterinarius, 1933Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews, 1931Plant Breeding Abstracts, 1930Review of Applied Entomology, 1913Soils and Fertilizers, 1938Veterinary Bulletin, 1931Weed Abstracts, 1952World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts, 1959

(Kathleen Clark with added information by Pat Rodkewich, Louise Letnes, andA.P. Greider).

Related Sources to CABCAB Thesaurus. 1999. Wallingford, UK; New York: CAB International. In analphabetic, hierarchical structure, provides the subject headings that are appliedto records in CAB Abstracts as well as AGRICOLA. Beyond its utility as a guideto the CAB Abstracts and subject headings, this book is a useful tool for locatingalternative keywords when searching for agricultural literature in any database(Kathleen Clark).CABI Codes (diskette). 1994. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. ISBN:851989659. CABICODES are derived from the classication schemes used inthe AGRICOLA and AGRIS databases with changes made to allow for differentsubject code emphasis. These codes enable searchers to locate general subjectsby using a code consisting of two identical alphabetic characters and three digits.There are approximately 250 codes and a listing of codes with no scope notescan be found at http:/ /www.cabi.org/publishing/products/dbmanual/cabicode/List.asp.

CSA (online). Bethesda, MD: CSA. Formerly called Cambridge Scientic Ab-stracts (CSA), this data le is an electronic collection of over 50 databases inthe life sciences. CSA provides one search interface to search all data les. Thedata les are organized by broad subject and can be selected as a group orsearched individually. Content coverage includes life sciences; environmentalsciences and pollution; aquatic sciences and sheries; biotechnology; engi-


neering; computer sciences; materials science; sociology; and linguistics. Thesearch interface provides both easy and advanced searching. Printed counterpartsare available for many of the databases. Coverage dates vary for each database(A.P. Greider).CARIS (http:/ /www4.fao.org/caris/). Rome: FAO. Current Agricultural Re-search Information System (CARIS) was created by the FAO in 1975 to identifyand facilitate the exchange of information about current agricultural researchprojects being carried out in or on behalf of developing countries. CARIS identi-es projects dealing with all aspects of agriculture: plant and animal productionand protection, post harvest processing of primary agricultural products, forestry,sheries, agricultural engineering, natural resources and the environment as re-lated to agriculture, food and human nutrition, agricultural economics, rural de-velopment, agricultural administration, legislation, education, and extension.Some 137 national and 19 international and intergovernmental centers participatein CARIS (Sheila Merrigan and Tim McKimmie).CRIS (http:/ /cristel.nal.usda.gov:8080/). 1975 . Beltsville, MD: USDA Co-operative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Science and Educa-tion Resources Development. The Current Research Information System(CRIS), established by the USDA, serves as the USDA documentation and re-porting system for publicly supported agricultural, food and nutrition, and for-estry research in the United States that is ongoing or recently completed. Projectsare conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experi-ment stations, the state land-grant university system, other cooperating state insti-tutions, and participants in a number of USDA research-grant programs. Similarto the FAOs CARIS database, CRIS is of interest to eld agronomists becauseit may point to research in progress but not yet published. To maximize searchefcacy, use the Manual of Classication of Agricultural and Forestry Research,which is a type of subject categorization used for CRIS (Kathleen Clark).

Related Sources to CRISManual of Classication of Agricultural and Forestry Research Classicationsused in CRIS (http:/ /cristel.nal.usda.gov:8080/star/manual.html). 1993. Wash-ington, D.C.: USDA Current Research Information System, Cooperative StateResearch Service. Provides the taxonomy used in CRIS to categorize researchprojects. The manual is available for download from the Web site (KathleenClark).Current Contents (online). Philadelphia, PA: Institute for Scientic Informa-tion. Current Contents is a current awareness service from Institute for Scien-tic Information that provides access to complete bibliographic information forover 8,000 journals and 2,000 books. Print and diskette copies of Current Con-


tents cover the following areas: agriculture, biology, and environmental sciences;arts and humanities; clinical medicine; engineering; computing and technology;life sciences; physical, chemical, and earth sciences; business collection; andelectronics and telecommunications collections. The online le merges all topicsinto one database. Electronic les for Current Contents allow the user to set upauto-alert proles that provide users with e-mail lists of the new citations thathave been added to the database each week. Current Contents is available throughthe Institute for Scientic Information and several other vendors and coveragevaries with the service (Kathleen Clark and A.P. Greider).Dissertation Abstracts (http:/ /wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/gateway). AnnArbor, MI: Proquest Information and Learning. Dissertation Abstracts containsmore than 1.6 million entries and is the single, authoritative source for informa-tion about doctoral dissertations and masters theses. The database represents thework of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. Forty-seventhousand new dissertations and 12,000 new theses are added to the database eachyear. Citations for dissertations published from 1980 to the present and for mas-ters theses from 1988 to the present include abstracts. The most current twoyears of citations and abstracts in the Dissertation Abstracts database are availableonline free of charge. Titles published since 1997 are available in PDF digitalformat and have previews that are 24 pages long. Institutions with a subscriptionto Dissertation Abstracts have access to dissertations back to 1861. Full disserta-tions can be ordered for a fee. Dissertation Abstracts is also available in printwith the same coverage (Sheila Merrigan and Tim McKimmie).FirstGov (http:/ /www.rst.gov.gov) (cited August 23, 2001). 2000 . Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Ofce of First Gov, Ofce of Government Policy, GeneralServices Administration. Ofcial U.S. government portal to 30 million pagesof government information, services, and online transactions. FirstGov featureseverything including an index to various topics, forms to complete some of yourgovernment transactions online, and links to state and local governments. TheWeb site has a basic search engine that allows searching the federal government,a particular state government, all states in one search, or a combination of bothfederal and state governments. The search engine provides an advanced featurefor more precise searching. It is the aim of the Web site to give the user secureand seamless access to government publications and services.

Guide to Sources for Agricultural and Biological Research. 1981. J.R. Blanchardand L. Farrell, eds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Describesand evaluates the important sources of information for the elds of agricul-ture and biology with major emphasis on agriculture and related subjects. Thereferences are arranged by broad subject and then by format within the subjectand works published prior to 1958 are generally not included unless important


for retrospective searching. A brief narrative precedes each subject section ofshort, descriptive, sequentially numbered annotations. There is an author index,title index, and subject index at the end of the volume. Subject categories includeagriculture and biology in general, plant sciences, crop protection, animal sci-ences, physical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, environmental sciences,social sciences, and computerized databases for bibliographic searching. Thoughsomewhat dated, this work and its previous edition, The Literature of AgriculturalResearch (1958) provide good information on many of the standard sources inthe eld (A.P. Greider).Information Sources in Agriculture and Food Science. 1981. G.P. Lilly. London,ed.: Butterworths. Part of the series Butterworths Guides to InformationSources, this work concentrates on information sources in agriculture only. Thevolume is organized around format and provides a series of bibliographic essayswritten by different information specialists from the United Kingdom. There isa combined title and subject index at the end of the work. While not as useful asthe Blanchard and Farrell guide as a quick reference tool, this book does provide athoughtful discussion on the types of sources used by agricultural scientists (A.P.Greider).International Union List of Agricultural Serials. 1990. Wallingford, Oxon, UK;New York: CAB International. Lists the serials indexed in AGRICOLA,AGRIS, and CAB Abstracts. Although out of date, the list is still useful for deci-phering abbreviated journal titles. In addition to the title(s) of the journals, itprovides the name and location of the publisher, beginning volumes and dates,earlier or later titles, language of text, ISSN, frequency of publication, and whichof the three databases index the journal (Kathleen Clark).Journal Citation Reports. 1973 . Philadelphia, PA: Institute for ScienticInformation. Also available online. A bibliometric analysis of journals in theInstitute of Scientic Information database. The journal titles are taken from Sci-ence Citation and Social Sciences Citation data les. The report does not followa standard format throughout, but basically includes what journals have beencited, how often, and how frequently. It also includes both the citing and citedjournal. The 1988 volume has two physical volumes. The rst contains citedjournals, where they have been cited, and how many times. The second volumehas citing journals and includes various rankings such as impact factor and imme-diacy index. The product is also available electronically for a fee (A.P. Greider).Web of Science. 1945 . Philadelphia, PA: Institute for Scientic Informa-tion. A relatively new product, Web of Science provides a user-friendly onlinesearch interface to the three ISI citation indexes, the Science Citation Index, theSocial Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Itprovides the most current index to over 8,000 journals of the worlds leading


scholarly research journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humani-ties, as it is updated weekly. About 1,000 of the journals covered are in agricul-ture, biology, or the environmental sciences. So, while the agricultural coveragein Web of Science is not as complete as in AGRICOLA or CAB Abstracts, cer-tainly the most important agricultural journals are well represented. In additionto the capability to search for topics by keywords, Web of Science has a uniquecited reference feature for nding articles that have cited a given article. Thismimics the natural way scientists seek additional material on a topic, that is, byfollowing the cited or citing literature. Abstracts are provided for most of therecent articles. Although Web of Science is primarily a database of journal cita-tions, cited materials may be books, dissertations, government reports, in-press articles, or any other material. As there are many errors in the ways literatureis cited, this database may be used to track down the correct citation for errantcites. Although the journals indexed in Science Citation Index are leading schol-arly and technical journals, the citation part of the index includes all of thereferences in each article. These references include a great deal of gray litera-ture (Kathleen Clark with additional information by Amy Paster and HeatherMoberly).WorldCat (Available through FirstSearch on the World Wide Web). Dublin, OH:OCLC Inc. This database contains over 41 million records of all materials cata-loged by OCLC member libraries. The database includes all formats of informa-tion and has entries dating back as early as 1,000 BC. Access to records in thedatabase is broad. In addition to the standard author, title, and keyword, userscan also search by series, ISBN and ISSN numbers, and many other elements.This product is available at most institutions through FirstSearch (A.P. Greider).


2Agricultural Economics

Louise Letnes and Patricia J. M. RodkewichUniversity of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Economics is a study of how people, individually or in groups, allocatescarce resources among competing wants to maximize satisfaction overtime for each and for the group.Sjo, 1976

Economics is a social science. All the social sciences focus on the study of hu-man behavior, either individually or in groups. Economics focuses on the humanbehaviors involved with how people make their living, how they producegoods and services, how they exchange these goods and services, and how theyacquire wealth. The discipline of economics has developed a body of principlesand theories that clarify complex relationships and provide methods that canbe applied to solve specic problems. Economists who apply these testedeconomic principles and theories to solve real-world problems in a speciceconomic sector are called applied economists. Applied economists who workwith agriculture and related agricultural economic problems are agriculturaleconomists.

In the early history of the United States about 90% of the population werefarmers and agriculture was the most important sector in the economy. The focusof agriculture was almost completely on the family farm and the crops and live-


stock it produced and used. Each farmer was an independent operator and forthe most part produced enough to feed, clothe, and shelter his own family withlittle left over to trade and, actually, with little need to trade. The IndustrialRevolution changed everything. In a long and slow transformation workersleft farms and moved to live and work in towns where factories were beingbuilt. These factories began to produce goods that farmers wanted and neededto buy and in turn the workers needed the food the farmers produced. Farmproduction increased and farmers were able to raise more food than theyneeded for their own use and now they had a market for their extra crops. Thisnew system required a middle man operation because every farmer couldnot contact every consumer. This middle man would buy from farmersand sell to consumers or, often, add value to the product and then sell to con-sumers.

All of these changes demanded a new name, agribusiness, and a new de-nition. Agribusiness is:

. . . the sum total of all operations involved in the manufacture anddistribution of farm supplies, production operations of the farm, and thestorage, processing and distribution of farm commodities and itemsmade from them. (Davis, 1957, 3)

The agricultural sector had transformed into the agribusiness sector. It was stillthe job of the agricultural economist to apply the principles and theories of eco-nomics but the scope of possible research had become much broader. Some exam-ples of research topics examined by agricultural economists are conservationcosts and returns, water needs and costs, weather and its effects, production,transportation, government policy, laws and regulations, biotechnology resultsand affects, new crops, agricultural trade, rural growth, rural businesses, farminputs, markets, futures, labor, migrant workers, land costs, fuel costs, taxes,inheritance problems, consumer preferences, and marketing studies. Agriculturaleconomists often serve governmental bodies seeking to make policy decisionsby completing economic studies that predict outcomes of various actions basedon the economic models used in the study. Governments rely on the research ofagricultural economists to assist them in formulating food and agriculture policydecisions for their countries.

The research interests of the agricultural economists have continuously ex-panded. Environmental economics and natural resources economics, which mightbe viewed as separate areas of research, actually overlap in many ways withagricultural economics and are rapidly becoming part of the core research inter-ests of agricultural economists. International development, which usually takes,at least in its early stages, the form of agricultural and rural development, is alsoa natural expansion of research for agricultural economists.


THE LITERATURE OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICSEvery body of literature has its traditions, its own way of doing things. Thescholarly works of one academic eld are presented many times in a differentway than are the scholarly works of another eld. Agricultural economists arequite traditional in their literature, publishing articles in scholarly journals andscholarly books, except for the practice of sending out working papersworksin progress circulated for review and comment before publication.

The traditional arbitrator of scholarly published journal literature has longbeen and continues to be the professional academic societies. The societies havedeveloped a rigorous review and editing system that is followed before a paperis accepted and published. Respected scholars who are members of the societiesvolunteer to review papers as part of their contribution to their organizations.This insures that the standards of the society are upheld.

Book literature quality rests on the reputation of the author and also thepublisher. Book literature does not undergo the same peer review system thatjournal articles do, but instead relies on a very structured editing system by ahighly qualied editor. There is a review system, but it takes place after the bookis published rather than before. Many of the professional journals publish reviewsof new books.

Agricultural economists share the tradition of working papers with manyof the social scientists. The working paper is a form of an informal peer reviewprocess. Authors use the suggestions and comments returned from their peers tostrengthen their papers before they are submitted to a professional journal. Most,if not all, university economics departments (theoretical and applied) sponsorworking-paper series. The agricultural economics working papers have been anelusive literature until recently when they began to be collected, indexed, andavailable full text on the Internet.

A large part of an agricultural economists work has been to synthesizescholarly information so that others can apply the information. To do so, theagricultural economists follow the traditions of agricultural scientists and usestate agricultural extension and experiment station publications to bring researchresults to the persons needing it the most, the rural community. Many also publishin the trade literature read by farmers and others working in agribusiness. TheU.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published much research in agricul-tural economics and they also have provided many statistical resources for theeconomists use.

It is necessary to remember that the scope of agricultural economics isbroad and the search for its literature is just as broad. An agribusiness studymight be indexed in the business indexes rather than the agricultural indexes.Environmental or conservation studies with an economic emphasis might appear


in the biology literature rather than the agricultural. The key to locating all inter-esting research is to think and search broadly.

Those interested in the history of this discipline might wish to consult oneor both of two works by Henry C. Taylor. In the rst work, Taylor traces anddescribes the beginnings of a new discipline named agricultural economics (Tay-lor, 1905). The second work, published much later, describes the achievementsin agricultural economics from 18401932 (Taylor, 1952).

ABSTRACTS AND INDEXESThe eld of agricultural economics is served by four major indexes: AGRICOLA,CAB Abstracts, AGRIS, and EconLit. The interdisciplinary nature of researchsometimes, or even often, requires that other subject-specic indexes beyond theagriculture or economics indexes normally searched by agricultural economistsbe used if the researcher wishes to be comprehensive.

AGRICOLA, CAB Abstracts, and AGRIS are agriculture databases thatinclude agricultural economics literature. The three databases overlap somewhatin coverage. One study (Thomas, 1990) found that of 11,619 titles indexed byat least one of the three indexes, only 450 were in all three indexes. Another briefstudy (Nixon, 1995) directly investigated the overlap in agricultural economicsliterature. It found little or no overlap between AgECONCD (a subset of CABAbstracts) and AGRICOLA. An earlier study (Farget, 1984) compared 15 Euro-pean and North American databases, including AGRICOLA, AGRIS, and CABAbstracts by searching 9 socioeconomic agricultural topics. CAB Abstracts faredthe best both in number and quality of references retrieved.

AGRICOLA covers all elds of agriculture, including agricultural econom-ics. AGRICOLA is the best resource for locating publications of the USDA andthe U.S. land-grant institutions. In the early 1970s the American AgriculturalEconomics Association and the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the USDAjointly created the American Agricultural Economics Documentation Center(AAEDC). The goal of the AAEDC was to increase the indexing of agriculturaleconomics literature in AGRICOLA. Records with abstracts were added for allagricultural economics journal articles as well as many materials authored byagricultural economists in land-grant institutions and government agencies in theUnited States and Canada. The project ended in 1985 with the U.S. NationalAgricultural Library (NAL) taking over responsibility for adding these materialsto AGRICOLA. The inclusion of abstracts on the records was halted at that time.

Since 1985 a controlled vocabulary has been used to assign descriptors tomost records in AGRICOLA. The vocabulary comes from either (or both) theLibrary of Congress Subjects Headings (2000) or the CAB Thesaurus (1999).Checking these vocabulary lists is important. A search for Agricultural Policyas a subject term in AGRICOLA turns up no citations. A check of the CAB


Thesaurus shows that the used subject heading is Agriculture and State, a phrasethat will lead to many hits.

Searching keywords combined with a subject category code will direct thesearch to appropriate citations. For example, enter the category code E110 andpolicy and Canada as keywords. The category code E110 (Land Development,Land Reform, and Utilization) limits the search to that category, which meansthe search for policy and Canada are returned if they t into that category. Subjectcategory codes used for agricultural economics include:

A500: Agricultural Research and MethodologyC210: U.S. Extension ServicesD500: Laws and RegulationsE100: Agricultural Economics (General)E110: Land Development, Land Reform, and Utilization (Macroeco-

nomics)E130: Agricultural Production (Macroeconomics)E200: Farm Organization and Management (Microeconomics)E300: International Agricultural Development Aid ProgramsE310: U.S. Food and Nutrition ProgramsE400: CooperativesE500: Rural SociologyE550: Rural DevelopmentE560: Rural Community Public ServicesE700: Distribution and Marketing of Agricultural ProductsE710: Grading, Standards, LabelingE720: Consumer EconomicsP200: Water Resources and ManagementX100: Mathematics and StatisticsX700: Economics and ManagementX800: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Education

A complete list of these codes is found on this Web site: http:/ /www.agnic.org/cc.AGRIS indexes international information on all aspects of agriculture. TheAGRIS category codes for agricultural economics include:

E10: Agricultural Economics and PoliciesE11: Land Economics and PoliciesE12: Labour and EmploymentE13: Investment, Finance, and CreditE14: Development Economics and PoliciesE16: Production EconomicsE20: Organization, Administration/Management of Agricultural Enter-

prises or Farms


E21: Agro-IndustryE40: CooperativesE50: Rural SociologyE51: Rural PopulationE70: Trade, Marketing, and DistributionE71: International TradeE72: Domestic TradeE73: Consumer EconomicsE90: Agrarian Structure

The complete list of subject categories for AGRIS is found on the AGRIS Webpage in the Documentation Tools section: http:/ /www.fao.org/agris.

CAB Abstracts indexes agricultural literature, including agricultural eco-nomics and rural development. CAB uses a controlled vocabulary that is outlinedin the CAB Thesaurus (Wightman, 1999) to index each record. It is essential touse the CAB Thesaurus when doing a comprehensive search in CAB Abstracts.The following example from the thesaurus shows the term, Agricultural Insur-ance, and the additional terms that broaden or narrow, or lead to a related termconnected to the topic. BT (broader term) expands the search, NT (narrower term)tightens the search, and RT (related term) leads to other terms:

Agricultural InsuranceBT1 insuranceNT1 animal insuranceNT1 crop insuranceNT1 hail insuranceNT1 livestock insuranceRT agricultural disastersRT cooperative insuranceRT re insuranceRT social insurance

In addition, each record is assigned a CABICODE that allows limiting key-word searches to records in a specic subject area. Combining these CABI-CODEs with descriptors allows great precision in searching. CABICODES foragricultural economics include:

EE100: Economics (General)EE110: Agricultural EconomicsEE120: Policy and Planning (General)EE130: Supply, Demand, and PricesEE140: Input Supply IndustriesEE145: Farm Input UtilizationEE150: Environmental Economics


EE160: Land Use and ValuationEE165: Agricultural Structure and Tenure SystemEE170: Water Resources, Irrigation, and Drainage EconomicsEE200: Farming Systems and ManagementEE300: CooperativesEE350: Industry and EnterprisesEE450: Development Aid, Agencies, and ProjectsEE500: Food Policy, Food Security, and Food AidEE520: Food IndustryEE600: International TradeEE700: Distribution and Marketing of ProductsEE720: Consumer EconomicsEE730: TransportEE800: Investment, Finance, and CreditEE900: Labour and EmploymentEE950: Income and Poverty

The complete list of CABICODEs is found online at http:/ /www.cabi.org/WHATSNEW/Content/Cabicodes.htm.

The agricultural economics section of CAB Abstracts is available sepa-rately on a CD-ROM titled AgECONCD covering the years 1973 to the present.The print publication of the agricultural economics section of CAB Abstracts istitled World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts (1958 ).EconLit. 1969 . Philadelphia, PA: American Economic Association. EconLit(Economic Literature Index) is the major index for economic literature. Agricul-tural economists use EconLit to investigate economic theory and its applications,which they then apply to the specic agricultural economics problem they areresearching. More than 400 economics journals, plus collective volumes, books,dissertations, and some working papers are indexed and abstracted. These cita-tions are also included in the print quarterly journal, Journal of Economic Litera-ture. Included in EconLit is the Cambridge University Press Abstracts of Work-ing Papers in Economics (AWPE).

EconLit uses the Journal of Economic Literature classication system toprovide subject category codes for its citations. A complete list is found on theWeb at http:/ /www.econlit.org/econlit/elhomsub.html. Using these codes in con-junction with relevant keywords is the most productive use of the database. Whileall sections of EconLit are of potential interest to agricultural economists, theQ1 section is specically dedicated to the discipline:

Q1: AgricultureQ10: GeneralQ11: Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis; Prices


Q12: Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm InputMarkets

Q13: Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; AgribusinessQ14: Agricultural FinanceQ15: Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; IrrigationQ16: Research and Development; Agricultural Technology; Agricultural

Extension ServicesQ17: Agriculture in International TradeQ18: Agricultural Policy, Food PolicyQ19: Other

EconLit is available in print as the Index of Economic Articles in Journal andCollective Volumes, online as the Economic Literature Index, and on CD-ROM.

Other IndexesAlthough not as central as the previous indexes, the following indexes are alsovaluable for research in agricultural economics.

ABI Inform. 1971 . Ann Arbor, MI: Bell and Howell. ABI Inform is a businessand management database, abstracting more than 1,000 international serials andproviding online full-text articles from more than 600 of its serials. ABI Informindexes journals, newspapers, and magazines. ABI Inform uses a controlled vo-cabulary and category codes. Included in the vocabulary terms are agribusiness,agricultural banking, agricultural commodities, agricultural co-operatives, ag-ricultural economics, agricultural lending, agricultural policy, agricultural sub-sidies, farm loans, farm price supports, and many more. The category code foragriculture is 8,400 (Agriculture Industry). ABI Inform is available online andon CD-ROM.

AgEcon Search: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics (http:/ /agecon.lib.umn.edu). 2000. St. Paul, MN: University of Minnesota, University of Minne-sota Libraries. This Web-based service provides indexing to over 3,000 full-text reports in agricultural economics. The reports include working-paper seriesfrom many United States and some international departments of agricultural eco-nomics at major universities. Also included in the service are conference pa-persmainly from the annual meetings of the American Agricultural EconomicsAssociation and the Western Agricultural Economics Association. Other organi-zations such as the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium haveincluded their papers on AgEcon Search. Users may search the entire databaseby keyword or author, or may limit their search to a particular institution. Ab-stracts are provided for most entries. AgEcon Search was developed at the Uni-versity of Minnesota with the support of the American Agricultural EconomicsAssociation, the Farm Foundation, and the USDAs Economic Research Service.


F&S Index: Europe. 1978 ; F&S Index: International. 1967 ; F&S Index:United States. 1960 . Foster City, CA: Gale Group. The F&S Indexes containcitations to international literature on industries and companies from businessand trade magazines and newspapers as well as government and internationalagency reports. The indexes are organized by Standard Industrial Classication(SIC) codes. Agricultural trade publications are among those indexed. This is agood database for information on agribusiness. The F&S Indexes are availablein print, online, and on CD-ROM.

IDEAS (Internet Documents in Economics Access Service) (http:/ /ideas.uqam.ca/). Montreal, Quebec, Canada: University of Quebec. IDEAS is an Internetservice that indexes and provides access to economics working papers. IDEASuses the data from the RePEc (http:/ /repec.org) database that includes over 130archives of working papers from organizations such as the National Bureau ofEconomic Research and the U.S. Federal Reserve Banks. Other collections ofeconomics working papers are included such as EconWPA (Economics WorkingPaper Archive) (http:/ /econwpa.wustl.edu) and WoPEc: Electronic Papers inEconomics (http:/ /netec.mcc.ac.uk/WoPEc.html). The database contains infor-mation on nearly 70,000 working papers with about one-third of them linked tothe full text of the papers. Some of the papers have Journal of Economic Litera-ture codes (http:/ /www.econlit.org/econlit/elhomsub.html) and can be browsedby these codes or searched by keyword. The Journal of Economic Literaturecode for Agricultural and Natural Resources Economics (Q) lists many papersof interest to agricultural economists, but a search of the database by keywordwill retrieve many more items.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Ser-vice. The Congressional Information Service established a Universe Library in1998 consisting of Statistical Universe, Congressional Universe, History Uni-verse, State University, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. The Lexis-NexisAcademic Universe provides news, business, legal, and reference information touniversity libraries and individuals. Lexis-Nexis is a powerful option for search-ing for business (including agribusiness) information. Lexis-Nexis indexes a widerange of business periodicals, trade literature, newspapers, and government publi-cations, many of them with links to the full text of the article. Lexis-Nexis Aca-demic Universe is available online and through the Internet by contract.

PAIS International. 1972 . New York, NY: Public Affairs Information Service,Inc. PAIS International indexes and abstracts a wide variety of U.S. and interna-tional material in the areas of public affairs, public policy, and general socialsciences. Agriculture, environment, international relations, business, and eco-nomics are just a few of the subjects covered that make this a rich resource foragricultural economists. Another important aspect of this database is the many


formats of material includedjournal articles, books, government documents,congressional reports, reports of public and private agencies, conference proceed-ings, and so forth. Materials are indexed with a controlled vocabulary developedby PAIS. PAIS International is available in print (PAIS Bulletin, PAIS ForeignLanguage Index, and PAIS International in Print), as well as online and inCD-ROM.

Social Science Research Network (http:/ /www.ssrn.com).2000. Social ScienceElectronic Publishing, Inc. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a com-mercial Internet service that disseminates social science research abstracts ofworking papers and journal articles. Some of the abstracts have links to an elec-tronic library of full-text papers. A subset of SSRN is the Economics ResearchNetwork that includes abstracting journals in several subdisciplines of economics,including agricultural and natural resource economics, as well as internationaltrade and development economics. There is a fee for subscribing to the abstractingjournals, but access to the database is free.Social Sciences Citation Index; Science Citation Index. 1973 . Philadelphia,PA: Institute for Scientic Information. Social Sciences Citation Index is a largemultidisciplinary database that indexes those journals it has determined to becore journals in each social sciences eld. Social Sciences Citation Index coversmost of the list of core journals listed in the journals section of this chapter, butmakes no pretense of providing the coverage of economics offered by indexessuch as EconLit. A weakness in the searching of Social Sciences Citation Indexis that there is no thesaurus of terms to be used as a guide for searching, nocategory codes to use, and no abstracts to search. Its strengths lie in the fact thatyou are doing a search across all social science elds and this allows the searchto stray outside the strictly economics eld into others that might produce unex-pected results. One study (Ekwuzel and Saffran, 1985) found that Social SciencesCitation Index covers less than half of EconLits journals. It would not be asubstitute for EconLit, but instead, a good complement.

Social Science Citation Index has a companion index for the sciences titledScience Citation Index. It indexes the core journals in science and technologyelds. Because it is very probable that articles on the economics of anythingcan be published in the anything journal as well as the economic journal, itis useful to do the same search in the Science Citation Index as well as the SocialSciences Citation Index. That search will pick up the economics of crop produc-tion found in Crop Science or the economics of hog lots in Animal Science.

The unique aspect of the citation indexes is that they not only index thenew articles in the core journals, they also index the citations at the end of eachof those articles. This is useful in two ways. First, it leads to the possibility ofother references that might be valuable, and second, a search can be done to see


who else has cited an article. If the researcher knows of a particularly usefularticle, say, the classic work in a subject, the database can be searched to ndout who else has cited that classic work. The indexes are available in paper,online (Web of Science), and on CD-ROM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIESBibliographies, selected and annotated by scholars in the eld, are good placesto begin a search for the scholarly literature of a subject. Often they can be locatedby searching library catalogs using subject-appropriate keywords connected to anadditional keyword, bibliography. A search of the indexes, again using subject-appropriate keywords with the additional term, review, often retrieves specialarticles called review articles. Review articles are very useful because the writer,who is an expert in the eld, produces a history of the subject to date, and identi-es the researchers and the articles that have brought it to this point. Attachedto review articles are extensive bibliographies of all the important works to date.Several books that review agricultural economics literature are mentioned in thecore literature section of this chapter.

Widespread electronic access to databases and library catalogs has madeit possible for almost anyone to quickly create their own extensive bibliographytailor-made to their own needs by searching appropriate indexes and library cata-logs. These bibliographies would be in the category of quick and dirty listsof possibly useful materials, not selective lists. The NAL has published a seriesof AGRICOLA searches titled Quick Bibliography Series. These searches canbe easily updated as the search strategy is included in the publication. Many ofthese bibliographies are focused on topics related to the economics of agriculture.

Dissertations are also an excellent source of bibliographies in specializedsubject areas. A major review of the literature of the subject of the thesis is arequirement for acceptance of the thesis. Information on locating dissertations isprovided later in this chapter.

Agricultural economics department publication lists are important re-sources useful for keeping up with new publications by research faculty. TheAGECONdotCOM Library contains a list of Departments of Agricultural Eco-nomics (http:/ /www.aeco.ttu.edu/Links/acadepts.htm). Most departments link toa list of their department and faculty publications from their home pages. A goodexample is the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics list of agriculturaleconomics publications (Dote, 2000) from the University of California.

BIOGRAPHIESSearches of various databases and online library catalogs can be done to retrievebiographies of agricultural economists. CAB Abstracts, AGRICOLA, and Library


of Congress Subject Headings all use the term Agricultural Economists asa subject heading. Pairing this term with Biographies in CAB Abstracts andAGRICOLA, or Biography in online library catalogs will retrieve informationon individual agricultural economists. In addition, The New Palgrave: A Diction-ary of Economics (Eatwell, 1987) contains about 700 biographies of economists.Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences International Whos Who. 1994. 5th edition.New York, NY: Stockton Press, 1,157 p. This directory contains an alphabeticallisting of notable persons involved with agriculture. Each listing includes a briefbiographical sketch with an address. At the end of the volume, names are listedalphabetically by country and subdivided by subject category. One of the subjectcategories under each country is agricultural economics.

American Men and Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of TodaysLeaders in Physical, Biological and Related Sciences. 1998. 20th ed. New Provi-dence, NJ: R.R. Bowker, 8 vols., 8,500 p. This directory includes listings withbrief biographical information. One of the categories of interest is agriculturaleconomics. This directory does not cumulate from edition to edition, so it isnecessary to check older editions for biographies of economists who are deceased.

Whos Who in Economics. Blaug, M., ed. 1999. 3rd ed. Northampton, MA: Ed-ward Elgar, 1,235 p. This alphabetical list of economists who are most oftencited in the journal literature has a principal eld of interest at the back of thebook, which includes agricultural economists and natural resources economists.A brief biography of each economist, including career history, professional afl-iations and awards, brief statements of principal contributions, and bibliographiesis available. The dictionary covers 17001996 and is indexed by place of birthand residence.

CORE LITERATUREThere have been numerous studies done through the years detailing the historyof scholarly work in the discipline of agricultural economics. By reviewing thepublication output of researchers, it is possible in retrospect to identify changesin research direction and concentration that have resulted in new approaches tosolving the economic problems of agriculture. These historical reviews have pro-duced lists of the most signicant scholarly work published during the nearly100 years of the disciplines existence. Two of the studies (Martin, 197792)and (Olsen, 1991), are interesting because, although they are not years apart inpublication time, they are years apart in methodology. The Martin volumes areextensive studies that rely on a scholars approach to the eld and personal knowl-edge of all work that has gone on before to identify the signicant contributionsto the literature. The Olsen book relies on a system of citation analysis to deter-


mine the most important publications based on the number of times they arecited.

Another method of looking at important literature in a eld is to examinematerials awarded prizes by professional associations. For example, the AmericanAgricultural Economics Association provides an annual award for outstandingjournal articles, published research reports, theses, and publications of enduringquality. The awards are listed each year in the nal issue of the American Journalof Agricultural Economics.

MonographsGardner, B.L. and R.C. Rausser, eds. 2001. Handbook of Agricultural Economics.2 vols. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science. This work contains aset of commissioned articles that survey the eld of agricultural economics. Thepublication is in two volumes, 1A: Agricultural Production, and 1B: Marketing,Distribution and Consumers.

Martin, L.R., ed. 197792. A Survey of Agricultural Economics Literature. 4vols. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. This work, commis-sioned by the American Agricultural Economics Association, is a comprehensivesurvey of agricultural economics literature. The volumes cover the literature fromthe 1940s to the 1970s and review monographs, journal articles, and documentliterature. The literature was selected and the chapters written by outstandingscholars. Volume 1 covers the traditional elds of agricultural economics; volume2 covers quantitative methods; volume 3 covers welfare, rural development, andnatural resources; and volume 4 covers agriculture in economic development.

Olsen, W.C. 1991. Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology: The Contempo-rary Core Literature. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 346 p. Olsens bookis the most comprehensive guide to core books and monographs for agriculturaleconomics. Through an involved citation analysis, Olsen compiled the top-rankedmonographs for developed countries and then did the same for developing coun-tries. Also listed in Olsens book is a compilation of 11 classic monographs deter-mined by a vote of the Fellows of the American Agricultural Economics Associa-tion in 1987 (p. 334).Sondag, P., G. Dote, and L. Letnes. 1991. Core Monographs in AgriculturalEconomics: Survey Report. Michigan State University, Department of Agricul-tural Economics, Staff Paper 9149. East Lansing, MI: 16 p. This article reportsthe results of a 1990 survey of agricultural economists to identify core mono-graphs in the eld of agricultural economics. Agricultural economics faculty wereasked to list titles that were classic, core, basic, must-have titles for agricul-tural economics. The list in the report consists of 35 titles that were cited morethan once by survey respondents. A full list of cited titles (160) is also included.


Core Journal ArticlesFox, K.A. and D.G. Johnson. 1969. Readings in the Economics of Agriculture.The Series of Republished Articles on Economics, v. 13. Homewood, IL: RichardD. Irwin, 517 p. This volume is one of a series sponsored by the AmericanEconomics Association to republish and provide an overview of major studiespublished in journals or conference/symposium volumes from 194566. Thisvolume surveys the literature of agricultural economics.

Peters, G.H., ed. 1995. Agricultural Economics. International Library of CriticalWritings in Economics. Brookeld, VT: Edward Elgar, 633 p. This volume isa collection of important journal articles in the eld of agricultural economics.Most of the articles are from the 1980s and 1990s, but some were published inthe 1960s and 1970s. The articles are divided into sections: Dominant Issues inAgricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy Analysis, Agricultural Policy Stud-ies, and Issues Relating to Developing Countries.

Keeping Up with New PublicationsKeeping up with new monographs that originate from so many sources is difcult.New books are regularly reviewed in some journals (often long after they arepublished) and some have a list of newly received (waiting to be reviewed) books.Some journals contain publishers advertisements for new books. A discussionand list of the core journals of agricultural economics is found later in this chapter.Journals that feature book reviews and/or lists of new books are identied in thislist. See the article by Clark and Mai (2000) for more agricultural economicsjournals that include reviews.

DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIASDowdy, G.T. and L.W. Garnett. 1966. Dictionary of Agricultural Economics andRelated Terms. Tuskegee Institute, AL: Tuskegee Institute, 90 p. While some-what dated, this short volume does a good job of dening words and/or phrasesfrequently found in agricultural economics publications.

Eatwell, J., M. Milgate, and P. Newman. 1987. The New Palgrave: A Dictionaryof Economics. 4 vols. New York, NY: Stockton Press. More like an encyclope-dia than a dictionary, the nearly 2,000 articles included are detailed, and writtenby subject experts. Each article includes an extensive bibliography and refers torelated articles within the publication. The article on agricultural economics cov-ers the history of the discipline and describes the development of many subeldssuch as marketing and supply/demand analysis. Other areas covered are agricul-tural growth and population change, agriculture and economic development, ag-


ricultural supply, free trade and protection, and futures markets. Biographies ofmany economists are included in the dictionary.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 1992. Glossary ofTerms for Agricultural Insurance and Rural Finance. FAO Agricultural ServicesBulletin 100. Rome, Italy: FAO, 155 p. This work is targeted at researchers,teachers, and practitioners. Two main elds are coveredrural nance and ag-ricultural insurance. The purpose of the publication is to ease dialog and compari-sons between countries using these services.

Fuell, L.D., D.C. Miller, and M. Chesley. 1988. Dictionary of International Ag-ricultural Trade. Agriculture Handbook (USDA) no. 411. Washington, DC: U.S.Foreign Agricultural Service, 96 p. Su DOCS no.: A 1.76 no. 411. This publica-tion is useful for those studying international agricultural trade. Included aredenitions of terms related to commodities, policies, programs, transportation,and storage. Appendices cover conversion factors for various commodities.

Heil, S. and T.W. Peck, eds. 1998. Encyclopedia of American Industries. 2nded. 2 vols. Detroit, MI: Gale Research. These volumes rst provide industrysnapshots, followed by information on organization and structure; backgroundand development; current conditions; industry leaders; information sources;workforce descriptions; overviews of the relationship of the U.S. industry to therest of the world; and information about research and technology in the world.The publication covers food industries such as meat-packing plants, uid milk,grain-milling products, sugar beets, wheat, rice, beef cattle feedlots, hogs, farm-management services, and general farms. The volumes include many graphs andcharts.

Hinkelman, E.G. 1999. Dictionary of International Trade: Handbook of theGlobal Trade Community: Includes 12 Key Appendices. 3rd ed. Novato, CA:World Trade Press, 412 p. This dictionary is more than an ordinary dictionaryas it includes maps, currencies, weights and measures, a list of Web resources,and a list of reference resources on international trade.

Lipton, K.L. 1991. Agriculture, Trade, and the GATT: A Glossary of Terms.Agriculture Information Bulletin (USDA) no. 625. Washington, DC: USDA. Eco-nomic Research Service, 58 p. Su DOCS no.: A 1.75 no. 625. Terms associatedwith the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), plus other terms re-lated to agriculture programs, food assistance, trade and development, and conser-vation policies are dened.

Lipton, K.L. 1995. Dictionary of Agriculture: From Abaca to Zoonosis. Boulder,CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 345 p. The emphasis of this dictionary is ag-ricultural policy and economics. Also included is a listing of major U.S. agricul-


tural and trade legislation, provisions of North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) affecting agriculture, and a guide to weights and measures.Lipton, K.L. and S.L. Pollack. 1989. A Glossary of Food and Agricultural PolicyTerms, 1989. Agriculture Information Bulletin no. 573. Washington DC: USDA,Economic Research Service, 46 p. Su DOCS no.: A 1.75 no. 573. This glos-sary is designed to serve as a practical guide to the many terms associated withfood and agricultural policies and programs. Embodied in a myriad of complexprograms, these policies cover agricultural commodities, international trade anddevelopment, domestic and international food assistance, and conservation. Theglossary includes program descriptions, terms used in implementing the pro-grams, and the Federal agencies involved (p. i).Magill, F.N. 1991. Survey of Social Science: Economics Series. 5 vols. Pasadena,CA: Salem Press. Magills work includes sections on agricultural economics,international trade, and other topics of interest to agricultural economics. Eachsigned article is followed by a bibliography of suggested readings. A subjectindex provides the reader with cross-references to related sections of interest.

Schapsmeier, E.L. and F.H. Schapsmeier. 1976. Encyclopedia of American Ag-ricultural History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 467 p. This encyclopediaincludes denitions of agricultural programs, legislation, and organizations. Theitems are arranged alphabetically with special topic indexes at the end of thevolume bringing terms and phrases on particular issues together.

Womach, J. and C. Canada. 2000. Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs,Laws and Websites. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 247 p. Nearly2,000 terms and phrases related to agriculture are dened in this work. The em-phasis of the glossary is on agricultural policy. Also included are acronyms, agen-cies, programs, laws, and Web sites connected to agriculture. An earlier versionof this work (1997) is available as a Congressional Research Report 97-905 ENRon the Internet at http:/ /www.cnie.org/nle/AgGlossary/AgGlossary.htm.

World Bank. 1994. Annotated Glossary of Terms Used in the Economic Analysisof Agricultural Projects; Taken from J. Price Gittinger, Economic Analysis ofAgricultural Products. Washington, DC: World Bank, 134 p. This glossary con-tains the denitions of words frequently used in agricultural project analysis. Theterms are dened in Spanish and in English.

DIRECTORIESSome might question the value of directories at a time when so many companiesand organizations have Internet sites that probably give more up-to-date informa-tion than a directory would. These are valid comments and if someone wanted


the address of a particular company and the name of its CEO, the rst place tolook probably would be the Internet. But if the question to be answered is oneasking for a list of all the cooperatives based in Minnesota, a directory wouldbe the place to go. The value of the old-fashioned paper directory is that it bringstogether similar organizations or companies then divides them by state or region,by product, or by size, etc.

American Agricultural Economics Association, 1987 . Directory and Hand-book. Ames, IA: The Association. Published annually. This alphabetical list ofagricultural economists includes their names, contact information, and specialtylisting. Also included in the directory is a list of agricultural economics depart-ments in the United States and Canada.

American Economic Association, 1999. 1997 Survey of Members Including Clas-sication Listings. In American Economic Review 87(6): 31674. The Ameri-can Economics Association occasionally publishes a membership survey as aspecial edition of its journal, the American Economic Review. In this directory,members are listed alphabetically with a brief biography. This is followed by aclassication of members by elds of specialization and academic afliation.Many agricultural economists are included in this directory. This directory is alsoavailable on the Web at http:/ /www.eco.utexas.edu/AEA.

American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. 1929 . MembershipDirectory. Denver, CO: The Society. Published annually. The mission of theAmerican Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers is to represent profes-sionals in nancial analysis, valuation, and management of agricultural and ruralresources (1997 annual). This directory contains a list of their membership.Baumann, S.C., compiler. 1995. The Economics Institute Guide to GraduateStudy in Economics and Agricultural Economics in the United States of Americaand Canada. 9th ed. Boulder, CO: The Economics Institute, 372 p. This compre-hensive directory provides a list of 170 graduate training programs in economicsand agricultural economics at universities in the United States and Canada. Infor-mation is included on size, location, strengths, and degree requirements. In addi-tion, each entry contains a list of faculty members with

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