NARIC created the Disability & Rehab Literature Database (formerly REHABDATA) in 1977. This database contains more than 300,000 research and consumer products, in print and nonprint format, published since 1956. Each document in the database is represented by a 150-to-250-word abstract (a plain language summary of the document's contents written by NARIC) and eleven fields about who published it and when and helpful information such as the funding government agency (where applicable) and five or more keywords called "descriptors" that define the document's main topics.
Below you will find the description of each field in the database to help you with your search and understanding of the results.
Abstract: A 250-word overview of the key points discussed in the document. Searchable by keywords or short phrases.
Accession Number: Record identification number used by NARIC to catalog and retrieve the item. Accession numbers begin with J for journal articles, R for reference volumes, I for international research, and O for original, federally funded research papers. R documents are usually restricted due to copyright and may not be available for document delivery. I documents may have been added from the CIRRIE International Research Collection and may not be available for document delivery.
Author(s): Author names, with last name listed first and initials for first name, and middle name when available. In records added prior to December 2002, first names are NOT included and are therefore may not show up. This field is searchable. You can also sort and filter results by author names.
Availability: This field indicates if this document is available online or, for records older than 1996, on microfiche with related numbers. This field may also indicate journal format. If available, it also may display a sponsoring agency code, grant, or contract number. You can filter search results to those available to download from NARIC.
Can this document be ordered through NARIC's document delivery service? Make note of the information in this field. It will indicate whether the document is available and copyable. Some documents are not available due to copyright restrictions or because the document was removed during routine collection maintenance. You can filter for only material available for document delivery.
Descriptor(s): Five or more subject terms chosen from the controlled vocabulary of the REHABDATA Thesaurus.
Document Type: NARIC's collection is indexed by three document types: Journal articles, reference volumes, and original, federally-funded research papers. You can filter your results by these document types after running your search. You can filter your results by document type.
Institutional Author/Source: In most cases, the name of the institution that received funding for the research/publication; sometimes lists the institution who provided funding for the research/publication. Often includes state code or country name. Older records may include publisher information and number of pages.
ISBN: The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is an eight-digit number which identifies commercially published books. Use this number to find them at your local or university library.
ISSN: The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is an eight-digit number which identifies periodical publications as such, including electronic serials. Use this number to find them at your local or university library.
Journal Title: Approximately half the records in the database were published in journals. Searchable by keywords or partial title. Some journal names change over time. REHABDATA does not offer cover-to-cover indexing. You can search journal titles by keyword.
NIDILRR Project Number: Only NIDILRR grant project or contract numbers are recorded in this field. Most projects funded by NIDILRR begin with H133, H224, ED, 90, HN, or RW. See the NIDILRR Program Database Contents for more information about project numbers. Codes from projects not funded by NIDILRR might be found in the Availability field. You can search for a specific project number or limit your results to only documents indexed under a project number. You can also filter your results by the type of project that produced these documents after running your search.
Title: Title of the document or journal article; includes the journal citation in some records. Searchable by keywords or short phrases. You can search titles by keyword.
Year of Publication: Shows the year a publication was produced or copyrighted. $ indicates an approximate year of publication.
Where Available: Where possible, a URL will be included to the online version of the document, such as the original publisher, PubMed, or a Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
International records include the following fields:
Language (for international items only): If the original publication was produced in a language other than English, those languages are indicated here.
Geographic location (for international items only): The country of origin of the research or publication.