McGraw-Hill's AccessScience 2.0 is a complete redesign of the premiere online science platform, featuring fully searchable content from McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, 10th Edition.

• Brand-new fast, sophisticated search capability, including semantic-based searching of our enhanced search engine, making discovery of this wide range of information easier than ever.
• RSS feeds
• Flash® animations
• Image galleries (including images that can be saved to your personal space on the website)
• Videos
• Federated searching
• OpenURL

At the heart of the new website is a new semantic search engine. Semantic Search augments and improves traditional Research Searches by leveraging XML data in order to increase relevancy of results. Semantics is the study of the implied meaning of words. More on semantic search can be found below under "navigating the site."

The new generation of AccessScience gathers and synthesizes vast amounts of information and organizes it to give you fast, easy and accurate access to authoritative articles in all major areas of science and technology. It's easier than ever to find what you're looking for and put it to use quickly.

• Over 8,500 online articles from the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology 10^th edition
• Research Updates from the McGraw-Hill Yearbooks of Science & Technology
• 110,000+ definitions from the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms
• 13,000 illustrations and graphics, and bibliographies containing more than 28,000 literature citations
• Content contributed by more than 5,000 researchers, including 36 Nobel Prize winners
• Biographies of more than 2,000 well-known scientists from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography®
• The latest news in science and technology from Science News® and ScienCentral® videos
• Continuously updated, fully-searchable, media-rich content, terms, images and videos

To return to the Home Page from any page on this site, click on the AccessScience logo in the upper left corner.

Content can be browsed two ways - via topic or alphabetically - from the front page. To browse by topic, select from among the nineteen high-level topics on the front page, choose a sub-topic, and a list of all topics within that area of study will be presented. Selecting one of these topics will display a page with links to all the information on that topic available within the site's vast scientific archive, including encyclopedia articles, research updates, dictionary definitions, and so on.

The alphabetical (A-Z) browse functionality is available both on the front page as well as at the top of all internal pages. Click on any letter to see a list of all topics covered on the site. Click on a topic and you'll receive a page with links to all the information on that topic available on the site.

AccessScience Topic pages are organized by the kind of content available on a given topic, which can include the following:

	Encyclopedia article: Articles from McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.
	Research Update: New articles with the latest developments in science and technology from McGraw-Hill Yearbooks.
	Biography: Biographies from the Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
	News: Science News© articles on breaking news in science and technology.
	Dictionary: Definitions from the AccessScience online science dictionary.
	Image Galleries: Content taken from AccessScience Image Galleries containing pictures and explanation.
	Multimedia: Multimedia content (animations, news videos, and Images of the Week).

The AccessScience search engine was built to showcase the variety of information the site has to offer around a chosen topic.

In addition to the approximately 8,000 articles in The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, the site features research updates, news articles, biographies, dictionary definitions, multimedia, and other useful assets. The search features of AccessScience are built upon the semantic data associated with all of these articles and other assets.

Semantic data is information that has been categorized so that knowledge itself can be processed instead of text, thereby enabling more meaningful search results. For example, a search for "NH3" might not normally return results, but because we have semantically associated "NH3" with the synonym "ammonia", a search for "NH3" will return results for the topic "ammonia".

If a default search results in a semantic match, results will be displayed on a "topic page" showing relevant search results from all areas of the site. Simply clicking on any of those assets will show the full content.

If a search term does not match an existing topic or one of its synonyms, the site will automatically perform a full-text search for your entry and deliver the results for your review. A full-text search returns instances of words within all assets, rather than assembling only information with meaningful relations.

Titles of the encyclopedia and research articles are the backbone of the site; if your search request matches up to one of these "root" terms or one of its synonyms, you will be taken directly to a page that has assembled all content the site has to offer on that topic. If your search is a close match, you may be asked to confirm your selection before being taken to the topic page.

If a search matches multiple topics available on AccessScience, you will be asked to choose between those multiple possible matches, or you can choose to do a full-text search on your search term.

In addition to the default search functionality, searches can be customized in a number of ways by clicking on the "Advanced Search" link next to the search box on every page of the site. Under the advanced search, you can choose to do a full-text search, bypassing the semantically-driven topic search. You can also search within only specific asset types, content areas (encyclopedia only, for instance), or any of the 19 high-level topics (Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, etc.) available on the site.

Technical Support
For Technical support for Access Science please use the Contact us form ("Technical Support" option), or by telephone toll-free at 800-217-0059 (U.S.) 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday, eastern standard time.

Order Information
For help regarding the status of your subscription order or renewal, please use the Contact Us form ("Ask a subscription question" option) to reach our Help Support Desk by e-mail, telephone us toll-free at 1-888-307-5984 (U.S.) or 1-614-501-3389 (from outside the U.S.) and ask for the AccessScience order department, available between 8 AM and 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. You can also reach the Help Support Desk by faxing us at 1-614-759-3823; please mark your fax: "Attention: AccessScience Team."

Subscriptions

How do I get help with my subscription?

For help regarding the status of your subscription order or renewal, call U.S. toll-free telephone, 1-888-307-5984; from outside the U.S., 1-614-501-3389 and ask for the AccessScience order department; all calls between 8 AM and 5 PM Eastern Time. You may also contact Customer Service through the Contact Us form ("Ask a subscription question" option) or by fax at 1-614-759-3823.

What if I forget my user name and/or password?

Contact the Help Support Desk through the Contact Us form ("Technical Support" option). We will ask for your name and address, and will access your account online. We will then email the user name for your account to the email address supplied upon registration. Since passwords are encrypted, we cannot determine your original password. We will change your password to a generic password, email that to your specified email address, and then you have the option to change your password.

We will ask for your name and address, and will access your account online. We will then email the user name for your account to the email address supplied upon registration. Since passwords are encrypted, we cannot determine your original password. We will change your password to a generic password, email that to your specified email address, and then you have the option to change your password.

When does my subscription start?

Your subscription starts as soon as your payment clears. For subscriptions ordered online with a credit card, this will be as soon as the credit card transaction is complete. For orders mailed or faxed to our Order Department, this will be when your payment is recorded; you will receive e-mail notification when the subscription begins.

How will I renew my subscription?

You will be contacted via e-mail before your subscription expires and you will be able to renew your subscription for another year. Renewals can be entered online or by mailing or faxing them to our Order Department.

How private is the information that I supply in my registration form?

The information that you supply is covered by McGraw-Hill's Privacy Policy and is used to provide you with the best possible service for AccessScience. For more details on McGraw-Hill's Privacy Policy, please click on the "Privacy Policy" link at the bottom of any screen in AccessScience.

How do I change information in my personal profile, for example, a new address or telephone number?

E-mail the new information to our Customer Service department at OnlineCustomer_Service@mcgraw-hill.com. Please include your username in the e-mail.

Can AccessScience accommodate multi-user licenses by IP address or User Name/Password configurations?

Yes. For more information, please contact the Online Customer Service department at OnlineCustomer_Service@mcgraw-hill.com.

Printing

How do I print an article?

To print an article, click on the "Print View" link at the top of each article page. This will take you to a version of the article formatted for printing. The print versions of the articles are formatted to fit on 8.5" x 11" paper, including illustrations and/or tables. The exact layout of the larger tables and illustrations depends to some extent on your printer set up, so some of them may not print exactly as you see them on the screen. Please note that the print version will open in a new browser window. Once your browser has loaded the article, you can print as you normally would any document. When you are done printing, just close the window with the print version to return to the online version of the article.

Contacting Us

There is a Contact Us page always accessible in the top right corner of the site. On that page, you will be asked to provide some information about the type of question you have so that we may provide an answer or response in the most efficient way possible. You can comment on an article, suggest a new article, suggest a question for our Q&A section, or ask a subscription question.

For Technical support for Access Science please use the Contact us form ("Technical Support" option), or by telephone toll-free at 800-217-0059 (U.S.) 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday, eastern standard time.

For help regarding the status of your institutional subscription order or renewal, please use the Contact Us form ("Ask a subscription question" option) to reach our Help Support Desk by email, telephone us toll-free at 1-888-307-5984 (U.S.) or 1-614-501-3389 (from outside the U.S.) and ask for the AccessScience order department, available between 8 AM and 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. You can also reach the Help Support Desk by faxing us at 1-614-759-3823; please mark your fax: "Attention: AccessScience Team."

AccessScience offers a full suite of access options for institutions, including:

IP Authentication. Institutional subscribers submit their network IP ranges to McGraw-Hill during subscription setup. These ranges are verified and loaded into the system and all users coming from inside the range are automatically provided seamless access under the institution's account.

Referring URL/Domain. Institutional subscribers can place registered links to AccessScience behind their secure login (for example, a library site that has already validated a student). The institution must register the domain and URLs where the links are placed with McGraw-Hill during subscription setup. These links will then automatically and seamlessly log the user into AccessScience every time they are clicked.

Bar Code. Institutions can register bar codes with AccessScience. Institutions must provide the bar code prefix, length of the codes, and link to the bar code validation from a registered referring URL/domain (see previous item). The site will verify the bar codes conform with the rules and provide access to the users that provide valid bar codes.

Global UN/PW. A global username and password can be used to access the site from all locations under the institution's account.

AccessScience provides a ContentShare API for libraries that wish to incorporate AccessScience content directly into their local search results. The ContentShare API is a search-engine-friendly data set placed in a secured location. The specifications for crawling, incorporating results, and linking directly to AccessScience assets from results will be provided to active subscribers on request. If your institution wishes to incorporate AccessScience in its federated search engine, please use the Contact Us form ("Ask a subscription question" option).

All McGraw-Hill "Access" sites are OpenURL-enabled now, including AccessScience.

Q: Where is this functional?

A: It's functional on AccessMedicine, AccessPharmacy, AccessSurgery and AccessEmergency Medicine and now AccessScience.

Q: What's the big deal?

A: Now, thousands of links to journal articles and books from inside AccessScience can steer users to full-text institutional collections. Instead of seeing only the abstract in the databases or journals in PubMed, the user can go to the full text or shelf location of journals or books their institution owns. 

The institution's OpenURL resolver will find any version of the specified article in archive databases, aggregators, or other active services.

Q: What technical jargon should I know?

A: AccessScience creates an extra link named "Full-text" next to each article reference or suggested reading on AccessScience that has a PubMed ID (PMID). Only institutions that have registered an OpenURL link resolver base URL with AccessScience will see these new links. Below is an example; the new link is in red:

Eisenberg DM et al: Perceptions about complementary therapies relative to conventional therapies among adults who use both: results from a national survey. Ann Intern Med 2001;135:344. [PMID: 11529698] [Full-text]

The new links will be OpenURL 1.0-compliant and will consist of two parts:

• baseURL -- supplied by institution. Normally in a format similar to "http://openurl.institution.orb/resolve"
• OpenURL parameter string -- consists of one global identifier. Generally resembles "?rft_id=info:pmid/11529698"

How do I set up my institution for this?

Institutions with OpenURL link resolvers simply need to contact McGraw-Hill with their link resolver's base URL and the AccessScience team will handle setup and activation.

1. Institution tells you their OpenURL resolver Base URL.
2. You use the Contact Us form ("Ask a subscription question" option) to contact our Customer Service department, and include two additional items in the comments box: who the account is, and what the base URL is.

We will confirm when it's set up.

Statistics are available for each institution at:

http://www.accessscience.com/statistics/

Institutional administrators must use their administrative username and password to access their statistics. All standard data points are covered in monthly and yearly views, including:

• Sessions
• Searches
• Secure content retrievals (broken down by resource)
• Turnaways

Stats can be viewed online or exported to CSV format directly from the interface.

Please note that the new AccessScience statistics will cover activity from August 16th, 2007 into the future. All previous stats will remain available until October 31 at the prior statistics site, http://ironcity.prov.ingenta.com/stats/stats_gate.html. It is highly recommended that administrators gather the historical stats they need from that site before October 31, if they have not done already.