CIOS has added a new feature to complement our ComIndex and ComAbstracts databases: ComVista.

ComVista is a guide to programs of study in communication-related departments in North American higher education. ComVista can help you make better decisions about places to work or study and it can assist in the evaluation of a program’s impact in the field.

1. Use ComVista to find information on colleges and universities by state or province. Select a state or province and you’ll be shown a list of all 4 year colleges and universities with substantial communication or journalism departments. Select an institutional profile to view a summary of the significant research specialties of faculty who work in the communication-related programs within the institution.

Or select the option to view a profile of departments and faculty. You’ll be shown a roster of communication-related departments and faculty teaching courses in them. Select a faculty member within a department and you’ll be able to review all his or her published research appearing in the CIOS’s comprehensive ComAbstracts database (personal or institutional subscription required).

2. Use ComVista to locate colleges and universities that are leading centers for research in the field’s primary areas of study. Select an area of research and you will be shown a ranked list of the top institutions associated with published research on the selected topic.

OSU Libraries has established a subscription to the Current Index to Statistics (CIS).

The Current Index to Statistics is a bibliographic index to publications in statistics, probability, and related fields. It replaces the print Current Index to Statistics, which ceased publication in 1999.

The on-line CIS Extended Database (CIS-ED) indexes

• the entire contents of over 160 “core journals”, in most cases from 1975 (or first issue if later) to the current end year, and pre-1975 coverage for some,
• selected articles with statistical content since 1975 from about 1200 additional journals (cumulatively) in related fields
• about 11,000 books in statistics published since 1975.

The Current Index to Statistics is a joint venture of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

In the near future, LexisNexis Academic will be switching to a new interface. You can take a look at the new version by clicking on the Try the Beta release now link at the top of the web page when you are in LexisNexis Academic.

New features will include:

• Shepard’s Citations will expand to cover all federal and state courts
• Company Dossier will be included in all U.S. subscriptions
• Search across broad content such as all news or all federal and state cases
• Powerful source selection using language, geographic, topic, and other facets
• Ability to create ad hoc combined sources
• Sophisticated results clustering feature
• SmartIndexing Technology™ at work throughout the interface
• Support for article-level linking
• Support for federated searching