Module 4 of the CAB Abstracts Agora basic course provides instructions on accessing and utilizing the CAB Abstracts database for agricultural and life sciences research. It details the login process, how to search for articles, and various search options such as using Boolean operators and limits. The module concludes with exercises and encourages continuation to the next module on summon searching.

1. CAB Abstracts
AGORA Basic Course: Module 4

2. How to Use CAB Abstracts
What Is CAB Abstracts?
• Internationally recognized database of
information for applied agriculture and life
sciences
• Covers research and development literature
from thousands of international serials
• Provides abstracts (brief article descriptions)
and links to full-text articles

3. CAB Abstracts and AGORA
• CAB generously offers a subset of CAB
Abstracts to AGORA users
• It also provides full-text articles found in
AGORA
• Covers about 50% of journals in AGORA
• You must log in to AGORA and then open
CAB Abstracts (bottom of Content page)
Note: AGORA covers many general topics such as management, economics, research, law, population,
statistics, etc. not covered by CAB. With the implementation of Summon, you will be able to search
probably 95% of what is in AGORA, if not more.

4. Type in user name and password exactly as provided by
your institution. Passwords are case-sensitive.
Click Sign In
Note: With the migration to a new authentication server (Jan
2014), we recommend use of Chrome or Mozilla. If you use
Internet Explorer, you will need to login twice.

5. If you are using Internet Explorer,
repeat the Login process on this 2nd
page and you will be redirected to
the AGORA Content page.

6. Using CAB Abstracts
After completing the Login,
the Journals page will display;
click on ‘Search inside AGORA
full-text using CAB Abstracts’

7. Enter rice production
AND pesticides and
click on Search

8. Displayed are the results from the
rice production AND pesticides
search – 820 citations
Click on Journal
home page – to
access the article
Note the complete
citation to the
journal article

9. Open v. 27 Special Issue
– to view the full text article

10. Highlighted is the link
to the full text article – from the
Planta Daninha vol 27 Special
Issue table of contents page

11. Click on full text
to access the
highlighted article
Note that most
articles have a
brief abstract
Note the complete
citation to the
journal article

12. CAB Abstracts has linked
to the Weed Science article
- available in full text (html)
or PDF versions
To email, export and
other personalised
actions. click here
Scroll down for the
full text and abstract

13. Now opened is the
downloadable PDF
version of this article

14. Click on Full text icon
to open ‘Cultivar and
insecticide…’ article

15. CAB Abstracts has not been able to
locate the article via the publisher’s
portal. Look for the article in AGORA.
Return to the CAB Abstracts search –
to get the citation to the article

16. Open AGORA’s Content page. In
the Journals collection A-Z list,
click on ‘E’ - to locate the
Environmental Ecology journal

17. Click on Environmental
Entomology - to access the
specific journal issue (vol 37 no. 1)
In other cases, the publisher’s
offer may not include access to
the requested journal and the !
icon would be displayed
instead of the green icon

18. Open the specific
issue – to access
the full text article

19. While not accessible via
CAB Abstracts, the article
is available from the
AGORA Content page

20. Now opened is the
html version of
the article.

21. Using the Search Wizard
Searches can be
completed/limited by
using the Search Wizard
Click on the
Search Wizard link

22. Now opened is the
Search wizard option
Use the first drop down
Menu - to refine your
search using these
various limits

23. Also refine your search by
using these Boolean operators –
‘Optional’ is OR, ‘Required’ is AND
and ‘Prohibited’ is NOT
Choosing ‘Required’ in this
case means the article name
ought to have beans in it.

24. Enter deforestation soil
erosion in the Search wizard
boxes with the ‘Any’ limit.
Click on Search
To use more fields to
Combine and further refine
your search, click on Any

25. Results of the search
are 74 articles
The search box contains
the combination
of the terms

26. Enter maize production in
the Search wizard boxes
with the ‘Descriptors’ limit.
Click on Search

27. Results of the search
are 869 articles

28. Using the same search terms
and limits, add 2010 with the
‘Year of Publication’ limit

29. Results of the search
are 26 articles
The search box contains
the combination of the
terms – ‘Descriptors’ and
‘Year of Publication’

30. Enter rice production with the
‘Descriptors’ limit terms and add
Asia with the ‘Any’ limit

31. Results for this final
search are 39 articles

32. CAB Abstracts
Exercises
This is the end of the AGORA Basic
Course Module 4. Please complete the
exercises for this module.
Then, please continue with AGORA Basic
Course Module 5: Summon Searching
Updated February 2015
Questions? Contact agora@fao.org