About International Pharmaceutical Abstracts

SCOPE

International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), developed by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, provides citations to articles on drug therapy, toxicity, and pharmacy practice, as well as legislation, regulation, technology, utilization, biopharmaceutics, information processing, education, economics, and ethics as related to pharmaceutical science and practice. More than 750 pharmaceutical, medical and health-related journals are indexed. Coverage is 1970 to present. This database is updated monthly on EBSCOhost.

• International Pharmaceutical Abstracts can be accessed from the UT Library Online Website.
• Click on the Databases and Indexes to Articles link under Finding Information to go to an alphabetical listing of databases.
• Click on "I" from the alphabetical list and click on International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) - (EBSCO)
• From off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your UT EID and password.
• *For articles dealing with pharmacology or clinical use of drugs, consult MEDLINE for more thorough coverage.*

Part One: Search Basics

When you access IPA you will see the Advanced Search screen open on your computer.

KEYWORD SEARCHING

• Identify keywords from your information needs. E.g.: The history of pharmacy in Texas. Keywords: history; Texas. (Pharmacy would not normally be included since it is assumed almost all articles in the database deal with this general topic.
• Think about TRUNCATION when constructing your search. * (asterisk) : "disease*" will retrieve diseases, diseased, etc.
• Click in the blank search boxes provided. Enter your search term (s)(or phrase).
• Use the drop-down menu to combine keywords for Boolean searching. (Using AND, OR, NOT to focus the search.)
• When you have entered the search terms, click on the button.

Other Search Fields

• Use the drop-down menu to choose specific search fields. This is a way to LIMIT your results and be more specific in your search.

LIMITING SEARCHES

• More search limits (ways to narrow your search) are available below the search entry fields: useful limiters include limiting to a particular journal title and dates.
• IMPORTANT: Do NOT use the Full-Text Limiter because there are no fulltext articles in the IPA database.

Part Two: Sample Search