The Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS) is an international cooperative network for the collection, organization and dissemination of information on current agricultural research. CARIS facilitates the exchange of such information among developing countries and between developing and developed countries.
Information on research activities is of vital importance for the planning of coherent research policies and for maximizing the productivity of agricultural research through international cooperation. The systematic collection and dissemination of information about research activities enables developing countries to identify easily such knowledge for the planning process as:
- subject areas already well-served by research activityThe CARIS network is complementary to AGRIS which disseminates bibliographic information on publications and documents concerning agricultural science and technology. Many of these documents result from the agricultural research projects recorded in the CARIS network. As far as possible, the AGRIS and CARIS information systems use the same rules for transcription and coding of data. The two systems use the same country codes, language codes, transliteration schemes, the same indexing using the AGRIS/CARIS Categorization Scheme and AGROVOC and the same rules for generating researcher/author names.
- requirements for additional research activity in line with national needs and priorities
- areas suitable for international cooperation in agricultural research
- present and future training needs for research personnel.
Following the CARIS Worldwide project undertaken in 1975-1978, CARIS now operates worldwide on a decentralized basis whereby individual designated National and Regional CARIS Centres process and disseminate information concerning agricultural research undertaken within their areas of responsibility. The development and coordination of this worldwide exchange of information on research in agriculture is undertaken by the CARIS Coordinating Centre in Rome.
CARIS has been developed to facilitate the processing and exchange of research information both by computerized means and by conventional means. By using a standardized method for data gathering and initial data recording based on the CARIS Input Sheet, a high degree of compatibility can be achieved between different CARIS Centres, and between computerized and manual methods of CARIS processing.
These guidelines present the rules for completing the CARIS Input Sheet.
The procedures for collecting data on research projects and manual methods for compiling and disseminating an inventory of agricultural research projects recorded on CARIS Input Sheets are described in the Handbook for CARIS Centres (Ref. 1) which is a complementary publication to these Guidelines.
Part One of these Guidelines provides background information on the concepts and basic structure adopted by CARIS for the recording and processing of data relating to research projects. This will enable CARIS Centres to understand the framework of the CARIS processing system, of which the correct representation of data is a vital component. This part also outlines how indexing of research projects in CARIS is carried out using the AGRIS/CARIS Categorization Scheme and AGROVOC and the coding conventions adopted by CARIS.
Part Two describes in detail the rules for the transcription of basic standard data onto the CARIS Input Sheet. Instructions are given in ascending order of the tag number assigned to each field on the Input Sheet.
Part Three provides reference material required to prepare CARIS Input Sheets correctly. It includes references to complementary handbooks, guidelines and standards, transliteration Cables and language codes used in CARIS, examples of completed CARIS Input Sheet, check matrices for elements required on CARIS Input Sheets as well as a concordance table between CARIS and the UNISIST Reference Manual for Machine Readable Descriptions of Research Projects and Institutions (Ref. 2).
Part Four describes additional optional data elements which may be used by individual CARIS Centres to record additional information about agricultural research but which is not required for international exchange purposes.
