THE HOM-INFORM DATABASE – HELP AND INFORMATION

 

1.       Introduction
The Hom-Inform database is a searchable database of references to journal articles and books on homoeopathy - subject terms have been assigned to these references and some contain abstracts.   The database was developed in 1988 by the Academic Departments of Homoeopathic Medicine of Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital under the supervision of Dr David Reilly and Mary Gooch.  For the first time a resource was available which brought together the homoeopathic literature in an easily searchable format similar to what had already been available for the biomedical literature in the form of MEDLINE.  Over the years the size and format of the database has evolved and it now contains nearly 24,000 indexed references to books and journal articles relating to homoeopathy.  The Academic Departments are now proud to present a new version of the database freely available for the first time on the internet.

2.       Contents of the Hom-Inform Database
The database contains indexed references to two types of material:

a)   Books in the Glasgow Homoeopathic Library up to the present

Books in the Faculty of Homoeopathy Library in London (up to 1993)

b)      Journal articles which appear in journals relating to homoeopathy and complementary medicine held by the Glasgow Homoeopathic Library and some additional articles held by the British Library only which have been sourced from the AMED/CATS database.


The Glasgow Homoeopathic Library book catalogue can be accessed in the database search screen by choosing “Book” from the Document Type field box and choosing “Glasgow Homoeopathic Library” from the Location field box.

 

The following list represents runs of journals held by the Glasgow Homoeopathic Library and which have been indexed on the Hom-Inform database. (This list does not cover every journal reference on the database, as there are also individual references to articles appearing in journals not held by the Glasgow Homoeopathic Library.)  Journal titles appear in the database in an abbreviated form which can be seen by browsing the word wheel in the Source field box.  Journal titles can only be searched using these abbreviated forms.

 

Advent of Homoeopathy                                             1991, 1994-
Allgemeine Homöopathische Zeitung                               1985-
Alternative and Complementary Therapies                           1995-
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine                            1995-
American Homoeopath                                              1994-
Archiv für Homoöpathie                                              1992-1997
Berlin Journal of Research in Homoeopathy                           1990-1991
Biological Therapy                                                      1989-1997
Biomedical Therapy                                                      1997-
British Homoeopathic Journal                                1911-
Cahiers de Biotherapie                                           1987-
CCRH Quarterly Bulletin                                                 1988-
Classical Homoeopathy Quarterly                                          1988-
Communications of the British Homoeopathy Research Group               1984-
Complementary Medical Research                                  1987-1992
Complementary Therapies in Medicine                         1993-
Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery                1995-
European Journal of Classical Homoeopathy                           1996
Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies               1996-
Forschende Komplementarmedizin                               1994-
German Journal of Homoeopathy                                       1989-1990
Hahnemannian Gleanings                                             1974-1984
Hahnemannian Homoeopathic Sandesh                             1984-
Hahnemannian                                                        1984-1990
Health and Homoeopathy                                             1991-
Health through Homoeopathy                                       1943-1947
Homéopathie Européenne                                              1993-
Homéopathie Fran?aise                                           1983-1992
Homeopathy Today (US)                                                      1991-
Homeotherapy                                                       1974-1984
HomInt R & D Newsletter                                             1990-

Homoeopath                                                          1981-
Homoeopathic Heritage                                                1987-
Homoeopathy International                                           1987-
Homoeopathic Links                                                     1991-
Homoeopathic World                                              1908-1935
Homoeopathy                                                         1932-1942, 1951-
Homoeopathy Today (UK)                                                      1987-1991
Indian Journal of Homoeopathic Medicine                            1984-
International Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine      1988-
International Journal of Veterinary Homoeopathy                     1986-1989
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine                1995-
Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy                      1965-
Journal of the LMHI                                                     1987-1994
Journal of the OMHI                                                    1988-1990
Midlands Homoeopathy Research Group Newsletter               1979-1984
New England Journal of Homoeopathy                           1993-
Positive Health                                                         1996-
Resonance                                                             1994-1999
Revue Belge d’Homéopathie                                           1989-
Simile                                                                     1991-
Simillimum                                                              1994-
Zeitschrift für Klassische Homöopathie                            1986-

 

The database is updated every 3 months.

3.       Indexing Method
Almost all the journal article references and a selected number of book references which appear in the database have been indexed.  This means that the content of the original source material has been examined closely and relevant keyterms have been allocated to give an idea of what the article or book is about.  Hom-Inform has followed the indexing method used by the British Library Health Care Information Service for its AMED/CATS (Allied and Alternative Medicine/Current Awareness Topics Service) database.  AMED/CATS has based its indexing on MeSH, the Medical Subject Headings of the US National Library Of Medicine (used to index citations in the Medline database) but has simplified the MeSH thesaurus by taking only the main headings and the keyterms that it uses frequently and using these for AMED/CATS.  However the AMED/CATS thesaurus lacks specialised terms specific to homoeopathy, e.g. “aggravation” or “doctrine of signatures” ,and for this reason a new thesaurus of terms specific to homoeopathy has been developed by the Documentation Sub-Committee of the European Committee for Homoeopathy (available at http://www.hom-inform.org).  The Hom-Inform database therefore has been indexed using a combination of keyterms taken from the AMED/CATS thesaurus, the MeSH thesaurus and the ECH Homeopathic Thesaurus.

4.       Some Search Hints
The All Terms field
The purpose of using a controlled set of key terms in the indexing process is to allow material on a given concept to be retrieved always under one term thus eliminating the uncertainty which synonyms pose, e.g. “cancer” and “tumour” are synonyms for “neoplasms”, but all citations relating to these concepts in the Hom-Inform database can be retrieved by entering “neoplasms” in the All Terms field rather than the synonyms.  It is important to be aware of the appropriate keyterm for a concept in order to maximise retrieval on this concept.  Browsing the Word Wheel in All Terms allows you to see  which keyterms have been allocated and will give you an idea of the best search terms to use.  However the following table offers a few hints as to what terms should be used to search for items on certain topics.  The left-hand column relates to a topic or concept which people commonly search for, and the right-hand column lists the controlled standard indexing and search terms which should be applied to search for a citation on that topic or concept.

 

                 CONCEPT

      STANDARD SEARCH TERM

homoeopathy

homeopathy

cancer

neoplasms

allergies

hypersensitivity

childbirth

pregnancy OR labor

cardiac disease

heart dis

stroke

cerebrovascular disorders

AIDS

acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

dentistry

tooth dis OR mouth dis

oestrogen

estrogen

oedema

edema

children

child OR infant

 

      The All Fields field

Using the All Fields field box is perhaps the easiest way to do a search of the database if not the most sophisticated.  It allows you to do searches unrestricted to a specific field – any search criteria (e.g., author; title; keyword; year) can be entered in this box and the program will undertake what is called a “free text” search, i.e. it searches for the search criteria throughout every field in the database.  Terms or words can be combined in this field:  / is used to carry out an OR search, e.g. asthma/ecezma searches for all records which contain either the words “asthma” or “eczema”; & is used to carry out an AND search, e.g. asthma&eczema searches for all records which contain both the words “asthma” and “eczema”. 

 

AND, OR NOT droplists

Use the above to conduct more complex searches when you want to combine one or more separate fields.  See the program specific help for more details on how to use these.

 

Searching for clinical trials

Hom-Inform endeavours to keep up-to-date with new research in homoeopathy and realises that many users of the database are especially interested in finding out about clinical trials of homoeopathy.  Clinical trials on humans and with a control group have been very carefully indexed and the best way to retrieve them is to enter “controlled clinical trial” into the All Fields box.  To find other clinical trials enter “clinical trials”.

5.       Document Delivery Service
Hom-Inform also operates a document delivery service.  Articles can be ordered by e-mailing your request to Hom-Inform from the search results page.  Details of our charges can be seen on our website http://www.hom-inform.org under “Charges”.