BOOK REVIEWS
J. Chem. Inf. Model., Vol. 47, No. 2, 2007 703
BOOK REVIEWS The ACS Style Guide, Third Edition: Effective Communication of Scientific Information. Edited by Anne M. Coghill and Lorrin R. Garson. American Chemical Society and Oxford University Press: Washington, DC and Oxford, U.K. 2006. XIV + 430 pp. ISBN 0-8412-3999-1. Hardcover. $59.50. Beginning with the second edition of the ACS Handbook for Authors in 1978, the ACS has updated the series (it morphed into the ACS Style Guide in 1986) about every 10 years. This third edition is a timely update of the second edition of the Style Guide. In the intervening 9 years, there have been many changes in scientific communication, especially in all aspects of electronic publishing. However, many of the fundamentals remain the same (“Plus c¸ a change...”), especially the necessity of communication of accurate data and information, done clearly and unambiguously. I would also observe that the need for accuracy and clarity becomes even more important with the advent of less formal means of publication, e.g., blogs, Wikipedias, and less rigorously compiled databases. Topics new to the multiauthored third edition include ethics in scientific communication (for authors, reviewers, and readers), electronic manuscript submission, preparation of publisher-ready material, softwareaided formatting of references, and the use of markup languages. The extension of the section on citation of references to electronic resources is especially welcome. Extensively rewritten are chapters on peer review, copyright, editorial processes, and writing style/word choice. There are few if any changes in the chapters on grammar, punctuation, spelling, and chemistry conventions. Other features of publishing language are virtually the same as in the second edition including typefaces, super/subscripts, special letters and symbols, units of measure, and names and numbers of compounds used in manuscripts. Relevant appendixes are integrated into the chapters to which they correspond. Examples include electronic submission to publishers (research granting agencies as well as system features), the IUPAC InChI chemical identifier system, CAS Registry Numbers, and CASSI journal name abbreviations. There is also a chapter on chemical structures, how and when to use them, and on chemical structure software. The topic of oral presentations was unfortunately omitted in this edition, so do not discard the second edition if you have access to it. Even though this guide is aimed at authors submitting material to chemistry publications, the editors believe that much of the material is generally applicable to virtually any scientific publishing process. I have been publishing and presenting chemical and technical material for about 40 years, and I have copies of all of these ACS resources except the second edition of the Handbook. I have found them invaluable in all aspects of the publishing process as well as use of the technical literature. The third edition has now been welcomed to my bookshelf, and I hope that all authors of chemical material will also at least have ready access to a copy. Hopefully, this edition (also available in a soft cover edition) will continue to be relevant and useful until it is time for another update in the next decade.
Robert E. Buntrock Buntrock Associates CI600536F 10.1021/ci600536f
The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals, Fourteenth Edition. Edited by Maryadele J. O’Neil, Patricia E. Heckelman, Cherie B. Koch, and Kristin J. Roman. Merck & Co., Inc.: Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, 2006. xiv + 1756 pp. + tables and indexes; includes CD and Internet access. ISBN 978-0-911910-00-1. Hardcover. U.S. $125.00.
For decades, in fact for more than a century, The Merck Index (TMI; http://www.merckindex.com) has been the “bible” of chemists, laboratory scientists, and others with “a need to know”snot only for the identity of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and biologicals but for physicochemical and biochemical data as well. Apparently now being updated every 5 years, the 14th edition of this legendary reference work has just been published. As with all the other Merck handbooks, Merck & Co. publishes them as a not-for-profit service. An added bonus: this new multimedia edition of The Merck Index is priced considerably lower than previous editions. Although competition for this reference work continues to grow, The Merck Index remains probably the best source for one-stop shopping for the data and information that it contains. The editorial process is ongoing, and the data and information continues to be evaluated, expanded, and corrected where needed. The quality of the contents in one concise volume makes TMI the premier work of its kind. In addition to the expanded print copy, the 14th edition of TMI (TMI 14) comes with a companion CD that contains all of the print contents plus additional features, including searchable monographs and tables. In addition, the purchase of TMI 14 includes a 1-year subscription to The Merck Index - Internet Edition. Both the CD and this Web version, which duplicates the CD and is updated several times a year, are produced by CambridgeSoft (http://www.cambridgesoft.com). According to the publisher, the tables in TMI 14 have been extensively revised. New tables include vaccine preparations and acronyms in bio/med/pharmaceutical research. Compared to TMI 13, more than 5000 monographs were revised and more than 500 deleted or combined with others to allow room for new entries. The good news is that 450 of those deleted monographs as well as 540 deleted from TMI 12 have been added to the TMI 14 CD. A typical monograph includes, if applicable and available, the name (usually a simple chemical name or a drug generic), CAS Registry Number(s), CAS Index Name(s), alternate name(s), molecular formula, molecular weight, percent composition, literature references, chemical structure, physical data, toxicity data, caution or note statements, derivatives (with data), uses, and therapeutic categories, both medical and veterinary. The print version of TMI 14 also includes four indices: Name, Formula, CAS Registry Number, and Therapeutic Category. More than 60 000 synonyms are in the Name Index, and 7500 items are in the Formula Index. The CAS Registry Number Index contains more than 12 000 entries in numerical order. In the Organic Name Reaction section are 450 reactions with schemes, history, references, and an index. Since I previously had available only the 12th print and CD editions of TMI plus an electronic version of the 13th, I often needed more current information on emerging drugs described in the current media. The advent of Web resources like PubChem from NCI (http:// pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) often helped fill this gap in current information. However, TMI 14 is quite current even for emerging commercial names. For example, the cancer drug Rituxan (from Genentech/Biogen-Idec) was found in TMI 14 (and in TMI 13) but could not be found under that name or two other names (Mabthera and rituximab) in PubChem. On the other hand, the antibiotic Factive (from Oscient Pharmaceuticals) could not be found as such in TMI 14, but it was found in PubChem. Fortunately, a news article describing a new use of Factive also gave the generic name, gemifloxacin, which could be found in TMI 14. Also, the smoking cessation aid Chantix has been getting a lot of press lately. It does not appear per se in TMI 14 but does in PubChem. An additional name, varenicline tartrate, appears there. Both varenicline and the tartrate are listed in TMI 14. Therefore, TMI 14 and PubChem are complementary, and both are needed. Use of the CD, and the Web version, greatly expands searching capabilities. To look for compounds, searchable elements include compound names (Merck Index monograph name, CAS name, additional names, trademarks, manufacturers codes, and type of derivative), literature references and notes (keywords, type of reference, and
704 J. Chem. Inf. Model., Vol. 47, No. 2, 2007
BOOK REVIEWS
caution statements), manufacturer, nonmedicinal uses, human therapeutic use, and veterinary therapeutic use. Properties can be searched in general by keyword, and 12 specific properties can be range-searched. The search may be confined to monographs current in TMI 14 or expanded to cover monographs retired from the 12th and 13th editions. On the CD and online Web version, organic name reactions can be searched by keywords. An alphabetical list is provided for browsing. A total of 27 supplemental tables from the printed index are also included. Recent news articles have described several new drugs for the treatment of diabetes. Searching for one of them, Actos, yielded 24 hits on the TMI 14 CD. On both the CD and the Web version, these results could be narrowed to the primary monograph (for pioglitazone) by limiting (“refining”) the search results to Takeda, the manufacturer named in the news. As mentioned above, purchase of the TMI 14 package includes a 1-year subscription to the online version on the CambridgeSoft Web site. Registration must be made to access this current version of the database, which duplicates the CD version and is updated several times a year. This Web site subscription includes use of the CambridgeSoft structure searching program, ChemDraw. This structure searching program may be purchased as an upgrade for the CD version. Both exact structure and substructure searches can be performed. As an example, some people develop allergic reactions to analgesics such as ibuprofen and may wonder what other drugs they might be allergic to. Searching β-arylpropionates as a substructure (a substructure common to many nonsteroidal analgesics) in TMI 14 on the Web yields 37 hits, including ibuprofen of course. By refining the search results with Human Therapeutic Use terms, it can be determined that 22 are indexed to anti-inflammatory, 13 to analgesic, and 4 to antipyretic (ibuprofen is indexed to all three uses). I highly recommend this latest edition of The Merck Index, especially since it is an expanded package at a reduced price from previous editions. This resource should be available as part of the arms-reach searching armamentarium of laboratory scientists of many stripes, including chemists and biomedical scientists. Many vendor and product names cited in this review are legally registered trademarks.
Robert E. Buntrock Buntrock Associates, Orono, Maine,
[email protected] CI700022N 10.1021/ci700022n
Understanding Adobe Photoshop: Digital Imaging Concepts and Techniques. By Richard M. Harrington. Adobe (Peachpit) Press: Berkeley, CA. 2006. 400 pages and DVD. ISBN 0-321-36898-3. Softcover. US$ 44.99. For those who use Adobe Photoshop or wish to learn how to use it for digital imaging, this is a very useful book to have. Richard Harrington has written an excellent book which teaches the fundamental digital imaging techniques available both in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. This 18-chapter book comes with 4 h of training materials on the DVD included with the book. Besides teaching the usual basics of these software packages, this book also describes and
shows a number of useful ways to maximize their use in various multimedia projects. The author goes over all the fundamental aspects of digital imaging while also providing a number of useful and informative exercises and projects to practice how to use the software. Examples include digital painting; information and brochure covers; and creating Web sites and Web animations. The book starts out with a dozen or so pages on the basic terminology and concepts used in the world of digital imaging, which covers pixels, resolution, image mode, and bit depth. What I found most useful in this book are the detailed, but useful, exercises for exploring the program features, the insightful tip which related to the current chapter material, and the handy little icon indicating a related training video on the DVD which comes with the book. These practice files are found on the DVD, as are the 40 training videos, the interactive quizzes for all chapters, and several exercises.
Stephen R. Heller NIST, Gaithersburg, MD CI700064G 10.1021/ci700064g
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Training from the Source. By Khristine Annwyn Page. Macromedia Press: Berkeley, CA. 2006. 608 pages and CD-ROM. ISBN 0-321-33626-7. Softcover. US$ 44.99. This 17-chapter/lesson book with an accompanying CD-ROM is written by Khristine Annwyn Page, who wrote a previous book on Dreamweaver back in 2004. Dreamweaver is a program that runs both on the PC and the Mac. This book is listed as the “official” Macromedia guide book for the Dreamweaver product and covers in depth the topics of general Web site management and maintenance, site development for broad useraccess, and page editing with both a visual and code interface. Several features of the new Dreamweaver 8 release are presented: visual authoring with XML data, advanced CSS support, and integration with the latest Web technologies and standards. The book is designed for mainly for the beginner but has some value as well for the intermediate usersnot, however, for any experienced Dreamweaver user. With Dreamweaver taking over from Microsoft FrontPage as a leading Web site software developing package, Dreamweaver is both a bit more powerful as well as a bit more complex. I found that the step-by-step development of the “Yoga Sangha” (“sangha” means community) project Web site was an excellent way to learn how to use the software. The program features are well explained by the author. The CD-ROM which comes with the book is very helpful in finding problems and understanding how things are done, as one can see the actual HTML code which generates the Web pages. I find this helpful in that I can experiment and see what my HTML code actually does to a Web page and go back and find my mistakes. It is a good hands-on book for a newcomer to Web site development.
Stephen R. Heller NIST, Gaithersburg, MD CI700065K 10.1021/ci700065k
