CORK: A Database of Substance Abuse Information

The CORK database includes over 61,000 items. Of these, there are more than 53,500 journal articles and 7,500 books, book chapters and reports selected for their value to health care professionals, policy makers, and those in the substance abuse field. The database was initially established to provide support for a medical education initiative inaugurated at Dartmouth Medical School in 1978. Over the years, the database has broadened to respond to the needs of clinicians working in treatment centers as well as those involved in prevention or policy initiatives.

Database Characteristics

Time Period: 1978 to the present with selected retrospective coverage.
Size: over 60,000+ documents.
Updates: Quarterly. (March, June, September, December)
Indexing: Materials are indexed by 400 terms. These can be joined in searches.
Searching: The database can be searched by subject terms, author, journal title, key words and date, as well as free text searching.
Format: A full citation is provided with an abstract, the number of bibliographic references, and the academic affiliation and address of the first author.
Scope: The earliest materials date to the 1800s, although the bulk of materials date from 1978 to the present. CORK is updated quarterly, with approximately 1500 items per load.

The materials are interdisciplinary — from the social sciences and the life sciences as well as clinical information. Materials are drawn, for the most part, from refereed professional publications. In addition, the database includes books and "fugitive literature" such as reports by state and federal agencies, private groups, foundations and presentations. CORK provides access to substance abuse information which is only partially indexed in a number of places, but not well indexed in single one.

The database uses a controlled vocabulary of 400 words that can be used for subject searches. Words in other fields are searchable also.

The database includes selected materials only. Basic science information, well indexed by Medline, is excluded, as are animal studies. Landmark animal studies are added retrospectively and selected basic science review articles are incorporated into the collection.

Strength of the Database

The collection's focus is on information of direct interest to health care professionals and health care educators. The subjects of particular strength include:
• attitudes towards substance use • screening tests • court cases
• college and university campuses • etiology and genetics • curriculum
• the biomedical consequences • health insurance • treatment methods
• impaired health professionals • impact on society • special populations
• treatment outcome studies • cost-benefit analyses • treatment programs
• employee assistance programs • special populations

CORK vs Other Databases

There are a number of databases available for searching for the substance abuse literature: such as Medline, Psychinfo, ERIC, or IDA, sponsored by National Clearinghouse on Alcohol and Drug Information. [ ETOH which had been produced by NIAAA is no longer available.] Each of these databases is more focused and less inclusive in terms of the breadth of substance abuse literature. Medline is restricted to medical literature and does not index journals from the social sciences. Also, it does not index substance abuse journals cover to cover as it does many medical journals. In addition, the indexing and inclusion of substance abuse journals is not a priority activity, and there is often a 9 month to a year between the publication date and being entered on Medline. PsychInfo and PsychLit focus upon psychological literature and some other social sciences, excluding medical and other clinical literature. IDA is of limited use, as there is a mix of popular and professional literature and there is no clear policy either for including or excluding the professional literature.

Tips on using CORK

It is recommended that people browse the documentation, the list of the subject terms and also how these are used. For example: if interested in the impact of substance use on children in the family, what do you search for? There are any number of possibilities. By scanning the list of subjects used in CORK, you will have a better chance of not missing materials as well as avoiding finding things that are not really related to your area of interest.

Access to the CORK Database

The database is mounted on the Dartmouth College Online Catalog system. The url for the Basic Search is <http://dciswww.dartmouth.edu:50080/?&&&36&s> The link for an Advanced Search is <http://dciswww.dartmouth.edu:50080/v3?db=36&conn=813528929&page=e&seq=1025190463>