School of Information, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. hearst@ischool.berkeley.edu
The BioText Search Engine is a freely available Web-based application that provides biologists with new ways to access the scientific literature. One novel feature is the ability to search and browse article figures and their captions. A grid view juxtaposes many different figures associated with the same keywords, providing new insight into the literature. An abstract/title search and list view shows at a glance many of the figures associated with each article. The interface is carefully designed according to usability principles and techniques. The search engine is a work in progress, and more functionality will be added over time. Availability: http://biosearch.berkeley.edu.