The Reference Shelf print volumes, Current Issues: Reference Shelf Plus, and Current Issues: Health provide the best journalistic content on timely issues with a meticulous, thorough editorial approach. Here are some answers to questions that people often have about these products.

Who chooses the topics, and how?
The General Reference staff, with some input from our customers, chooses all the topics. These topics represent our best assessment of what students are writing papers about today. Both the databases and the books cover subjects that are current, relevant, and of interest to researchers of all ages.

How are the topics put together?
The books in The Reference Shelf print series and the topics in Current Issues are edited by members of the H.W. Wilson staff, who research each topic and choose and organize the articles included.

Why should I subscribe to the Current Issues electronic databases and The Reference Shelf print series?
All of these products help researchers manage information overload. Rather than give users access to 100, 200, or 300 articles about a very broad topic, such as U.S. Policy Towards the Middle East, Wilson provides the best articles published on each topic, selected from thousands of sources. Because topics and books are organized into subtopics and chapters, users are shown the complexity of the larger issue and are given suggestions for narrowing their own paper topics.

How are the articles chosen for each topic?
After extensive research, editors choose articles that are analytical rather than newsy, and that express a variety of viewpoints on an issue. These articles are judged to present a thoughtful perspective on events, and together they express an unbiased view of the subject without putting forth a specific agenda, thereby challenging readers to form their own conclusions.

Where does the content come from?
The articles for The Reference Shelf print series are drawn from magazines, newspapers, and peer-reviewed journals that are not necessarily found or indexed in WilsonWeb. Current Issues and Current Issues: Health, by contrast, contain only full-text articles found in WilsonWeb.

What other resources are provided to help the researcher?
Current Issues, Current Issues: Health, and The Reference Shelf contain a list of recommended Web sites and Internet resources that researchers can feel comfortable visiting for more extensive information on a particular subject. Web sites are chosen by the editor for their authority and reliability, while links to primary source material, such as the Kyoto Protocol, also available on the Web, are likewise provided.

Do all of the titles that appear in print also appear in Current Issues?
Each year, five of the six volumes in The Reference Shelf series are devoted to topical issues, including one that covers the U.S. National Debate topic (Health care in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2007). These five topics may also appear in Current Issues with completely different articles selected for the database. The sixth book in the print series, Representative American Speeches, appears only in print.

How many topics are in the databases?
Current Issues: Reference Shelf Plus presently has 90 topics. Current Issues: Health has 50 topics at release. Both databases expand at the rate of 20 new topics a year.

Are the topics in each product updated?
The Current Issues databases contain a built-in function for updating topics—two hyperlinks on the subtopic level to search for “More articles with full text” or “More article citations.” These targeted searches into WilsonWeb enable users to find records covering the latest news and developments on a given subject. The editorial staff also reviews the Current Issues databases periodically to ensure that new developments in world events are covered, such as a subtopic on Web 2.0 that was recently added to the topic The Internet in Everyday Life, one of the first topics produced in 2006. The Reference Shelf print volumes, by contrast, are static.

Can I see exact reproductions of articles with these products?
The full text articles in the Current Issues databases may appear in PDF format, giving users the ability to see charts, illustrations, and photographs. The Reference Shelf print series may also contain charts and illustrations, and sometimes photographs.