Databases in the marine sciences Available to Purchase

The serial coverage and indexing policies of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Oceanic Abstracts, Biosis, and Georef were compared. Analyses indicated considerable overlap in serial sources in marine biology for ASFA, Oceanic Abstracts, and Georef. Biosis appeared to include the largest amount of material relevant to marine biology and Georef the largest relevant to marine geology. Oceanic Abstracts and Georef provided the most extensive general subject indexing, Biosis the most complete taxonomic indexing, and ASFA and Georef the easiest systems for geographic retrieval.