This system includes a powerful search capability designed for ease of use. You can quickly identify articles of interest using a number of different search options. Search results are automatically ranked based on their relevance to your query.

You can search from the journal tables of contents pages by using the search box and pull down menu located at the top of the pages.

The search box and pull-down selections on the main journal index page allows you to search in All Fields, the Author Name, Article Title, or the Abstract field. If you prefer to use a search form, click on the Search link located on the Journal Index page to initiate a query.

The search box and pull-down selections located at the top of the Journal Categories pages allow you to search the named fields and to select just the category you are browsing or All Electronic Journals in your collection.

The search box and pull-down selections on the journal issues, article, and abstract pages allow you to search the named fields and to select just the journal you are browsing or All Electronic Journals in your collection.

Click on the Submit button to initiate a query.

If you prefer to use a search form or place other limitations on your queries, use the Search button in the navigation bar located at the top or bottom of each page to initiate a query using a search form. You can also reach the search forms by using the links available on many ScienceServer pages.

You can also search using Simple, Advanced, or Expert Search form. The Simple Search Form enables you to search the entire collection based on a combination of the text of the title, the authors' names, the article abstract and/or the full text of the article. The Advanced search offers these same options but gives you the ability to specify more detail and limit a search to a given category of information. The Advanced Form provides the capability to perform a search using Boolean expressions.

It's easy to conduct a basic search in ScienceServer:

1. Click on Search to go to the Simple Search form.
2. Enter your search terms into the text box.   Word order is not important in this mode and searches are not case sensitive.
3. Click on the Submit Query button.

ScienceServer returns all articles that match the query terms.  By default, titles are ranked in
decreasing order of calculated relevance. Each entry has a hypertext link to the corresponding article
bibliographic page. Each article has a link to the Bibliographic Page, and to the Article Full Text HTML and Article Full Text PDF where available.  Select one of the links to see the bibliographic page and read the article. 

If the number of results exceed your Documents per Page setting (the default setting is10), links to the remaining results pages display above your results.

Use the similar documents icon located next to each search result to find articles similar to the corresponding title.

Concepts

It's important to know some basic search concepts, and the types of queries that you can perform using this system.

Fielded searches
A journal article in ScienceServer is organized into a number of different areas called fields. In many circumstances, you can increase the likelihood of locating relevant articles by limiting your query to particular fields in an article. For example, query terms entered in the field labeled "Search in title only:" return a match only if the query terms are located in the title of an article.

These are the fields available from the Simple Search form.   Click on the down arrow next to the text box to select from the available fields:

• Any field searches all parts of an article for query terms entered in this field. This includes the text of the article, the abstract, the title and the author names. Use this field whenever you are unsure where a term might occur within an article.
• Article Title searches for terms located in the title of an article.
• Abstract matches query terms against terms located in the article abstract.
• Journal Title  Use the journal title field to search for specific journal titles. Terms in this field are matched against journal titles only.
• Author Key Words matches query terms against words in the title and abstract specified by the author as key words.
• ISSN matches against the journal ISSN number
• PII matches against Publisher Item Identifier.  The Publisher Item Identifier (PII) is a 17 character identifier which starts with either an ISSN number and year of publication (preceded by the letter S) or an ISBN number (preceded by the letter B).
• Author name  searches through the author name field for a specific name. Enter the last name of the author(s) of the article as the search criteria. The author name field has special search capabilities to allow you to find an author name quickly and to specify first name and/or initials for common surnames.   Use the author's last name, then first name or initial to find an author name.   For example, smith m as a query in this field returns the last name of smith and all possible combinations with the letter m as a the first initial or the beginning letter of the first name. 

Here are some example results from this author search:
'smith_m' occurs 2 times in 2 documents
'smith_m_a' occurs once in one document
'smith_m_d' occurs once in one document
'smith_m_g' occurs once in one document
'smith_m_j_a' occurs once in one document
'smith_m_l' occurs once in one document

All punctuation (other than a hypen or apostrophe) is treated as a space separating different terms.  So, for author name searching, it makes no difference whether you use punctuation or spaces to separate the last name and first name or initials. 

If multiple terms are entered, ScienceServer looks for the occurrence of those terms only within the specified field of an article. AND is the default operator for terms entered within a field, meaning that all of the query terms in a field must be present for a match to occur.  Your institution has the capability to configure the default search operator within fields.

Keep this basic query information in mind when entering queries:

• Word order is not important for a natural language query and searches are not case sensitive.
• If more than one query term is typed into a single field, results must contain all of the terms.

For example, coral reef in the ‘Abstract’ field returns articles that contain the word coral and the word reef in the abstract.

The example above finds both terms, coral AND reef, in any order located within the abstract field.

You can find articles that have both coral and reef in the order entered by using quotes around the terms, "coral reef".

The example above finds both terms, coral AND reef, located together in order within the abstract field

• If you use the Advanced or Expert forms, terms entered into more than one field means that articles must match the query terms in each specified field.   You can select the query operator between fields. 

 

In the example above, coral reef in the ‘Title’ field and damage in the ‘Abstract’ field returns articles that contain the terms coral AND reef, in any order, in the article title AND the term damage in the article's Abstract.

If more than one field is selected, articles that match contain the query terms in all of the specified fields.  

Use fielded searches as a convenient tool to refine your search technique. It is especially suited to goal-oriented searching where users are familiar with the subject matter.

top /contents

Query format
This ScienceServer system supports query formats designed to help new users as well as experienced researchers familiar with information retrieval systems. The query format is how you enter query terms into a query field.

Natural language input
The most common and easiest way to enter search terms is simply to type them in one after another.  This is called natural language input. It allows you to phrase your query in normal conversational syntax as though you were making a spoken request. There are no syntax rules or conventions for you to learn.

Choose terms that you think will occur in the document. As you enter more query terms, the search becomes more precise and you’re more likely to find articles of interest. As in most information retrieval systems, upper or lower case letters may be used as queries are case insensitive. All punctuation is treated as a space separating different terms.

The system automatically expands your query to include variants of the terms based on the different plural endings for words. For example, if you enter the term gene, matches include articles containing the terms "gene" or "genes".  This is known as word stemming.   Your institution may configure the system to include porter stemming so that variants include gene, genes, genetic, and genome.

Words like "the" and "of" typically occur so many times within articles that they are not relevant.  Commonly known as stop words, they are not used in the search. You can tell if you've entered a stop word by checking the Search Results page after you've performed a query.  The query report is accessed from a link at the bottom of the results page (depending upon the site setup, the query report may appear at the bottom of the results page).  For example, if you type "coral reefs in the pacific" into the search box, then select Any field, this is the interpretation of your query.

Your search:
( abstract=(coral reefs in the pacific) )

Is equivalent to:
((abstract=coral AND abstract=reefs AND abstract=in AND abstract=the AND abstract=pacific))

Search for 'coral' restricted to '=' in 'abstract' field
Search for 'coral', stemmed to 'coral'
has 11 occurrences

Search for 'reefs' restricted to '=' in 'abstract' field
Search for 'reefs', stemmed to 'reef'
has 16  occurrences

Search for 'in' restricted to '=' in 'abstract' field
Search for 'in', stemmed to 'in'
'in' is a stop word and is not indexed

Search for 'the' restricted to '=' in 'abstract' field
Search for 'the', stemmed to 'the'
'the' is a stop word and is not indexed

Search for 'pacific' restricted to '=' in 'abstract' field
Search for 'pacific', stemmed to 'pacific'
has 63 occurrences
...

You can see from this summary that both "in" and "the" are not used when conducting the search. You can use this summary to help focus your queries.

Boolean queries

By default, the system looks for the occurrence of all of the terms entered in a specified field. Using Boolean queries, you can specify that any of the terms entered into a field can occur in that field in order for an article to match. Type the operator "OR" between each of your query terms to match any of the terms that you enter into a field. You may also use "NOT" to specify that a term not occur in the article. "OR" and "NOT " are referred to as operators.

You can also use these search options in the fields and in the search box on the expert form:

Use double quotes (" ")to enclose terms that you want to treat as a phrase. "Coral reef" searches for both "coral" and "reef" in only that order.

Use parens ( ) to indicate the order in which you want to evaluate search terms.  For example, blood AND brain OR barrier in a single field, returns results that contain both terms, "blood" and "brain", or the term "barrier".  If you want to get the results for the single term "blood" and then the terms "brain" OR "barrier", you can use parens like this -- blood AND (brain OR barrier).   

Term completion is supported by placing an asterisk (*) at the end of a word. This is also known as a wild card search.  For example, using compu* as a search term results in matches with compute, computer, computing, compulsory, compound or any other word that begins with the base term.

Use NEAR to perform a proximity search, to find terms that are located near each other within a document. The default value for the near term proximity search is 10.  You can refine the number of words if you wish. When you use NEAR, the order of results is based on how closely together the keywords are located in the returned matches. For example, "coral" NEAR "reef" finds the terms located near each other, in any order within a document.

top /contents

Relevance Ranking

Relevance ranking helps you find more relevant information with less effort. Documents returned as matches from queries are automatically placed into an order based on an intelligent measurement of the similarity between your request and the content of each document. The objective of that ordering is that, at any point, the next document on the list should be the document you are most likely to find useful.

Documents are ranked according to certain relevant factors, including number of occurrences for search terms. The ranking analysis within the search engine takes a number of factors into consideration including word density (how words are clustered within a document), the frequency of a term within a document, and the frequency of that term within the collection as a whole. The highest ranked document always carries the value of 100. Values for other documents are relative to this first one.

Using the Simple Search Form

Click on Search from the Navigation Bar to get to the Simple Search form. The Simple Search form consists of a text box and a drop-down list of search fields.  If your institution loads more than one database, the database list also shows on this form.  You may select any or all of the databases for your query.   The search interface has been designed for ease of use while providing access to the most frequently used search functions.

Query terms entered on this form are restricted to the named part of the journal. Use Any Field to search anywhere in the document. Experienced users often focus on searches using the title or abstract to gain maximum precision since these fields generally have a more controlled vocabulary.

This is how to perform a search using the simple search form:

1. Enter your search terms into the box, then click on the arrow next to Any Field to select from available fields.
2. Click on the Submit Query button.

You can clear the search box by clicking on the Reset button.

If you want to further refine your search, use the Advanced or Expert Search form.

top /contents

Using the Advanced Search Form

Click on the link located on the tab for the advanced search form. The Advanced Search form works just like the Simple Search form, but gives you an additional entry box for fielded data and selections for filtering and sorting results.   AND is the default search operator within a field.  Select the search operator for use between fields.   

The Advanced Search form allows you to restrict your search to selected journal categories via a scrolling text box.  Use Ctrl-Click to select multiple categories.  These categories are set up by your institution, so it's important to check which journals are included in each category. As an example, a medical researcher can limit searches to relevant categories to reduce the possibility that a search for "AIDS" returns hits from articles discussing training aids.

All of the options on the Advanced Search form are set by default. It isn't necessary to make changes, but you can further limit and define your search by doing so.

You can narrow your search to specific types of articles or language by using these
options:

• Article type: Click on the down arrow next to the text box to the right of Article type: to select the type of articles you want to search. You can choose to limit the search to All Types, Article, Contents, or Miscellaneous.  All Types are searched by default.
• Language: If you want to look for documents in a specific language, click on the down arrow next to the text box beside "Article language:" . Select a language from the list to limit the search to only that language.  All languages are searched by default.

The Advanced Search form allows you to limit a search by publication date using these options:

• Select the radio button for Since to select a year from which to start your search.
• Select the radio button for In the past to select a specific period of time within the past year.
• Select the radio button for Range to specify a range of years.  Use From to select the start year and To for the ending year. 

If you don't set any of these options, the software searches without date restrictions, searching all data in the collections.

You may select the number of Documents per page for the results pages.  This option allows you to set how many documents display for each results page.  It does not affect the total number of results, as all search results are returned for each query.

Use Sort documents by to select your preference for displaying search results. Results may be listed by relevance, by date, with newest publications at the top of the list, or with the oldest publications at the top of the list, or by author, sorted alphabetically by author name. By default, results are sorted
according to date, newest first.

This is how to perform a search using the Advanced Search form:

1. Enter your search terms into the search boxes and select the desired fields. Use the information available in fielded searches and the information above to help you define your terms.
2. Select the query operator to use between the fields.
3. Select categories by scrolling and using ctrl-click to for appropriate category names.
4. Select options that you want to use to limit your search by publication date. You can skip this step by accepting the default configuration.
5. Select options to limit the search by article type and language. You can skip this step by accepting the default configuration.
6. Select options that you want to use to present your search results. You can skip this step by accepting the ScienceServer default configuration.
7. Click on the Submit Query button located at either the top or bottom of the form.

Clear the search fields by using the Reset button.

top /contents

Using the Expert Search Form

Click on the link located on the tab for the Expert Search form. The Expert Search form works just like the Advanced Search form, but allows free text entry using Boolean operators. Users can construct their own queries using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT, NEAR, ADJ). After constructing a query, select the appropriate search field.  Category selection and standard filtering and sorting options are available for results pages.

This is how to perform a search using the Expert Search form:

1. Enter your search terms into the search boxes and select the desired field. Use the information available in fielded searches and the information above to help you define your terms. Always use upper case letter for Boolean expressions.
2. Select categories by scrolling and using ctrl-click to for appropriate category names.
3. Select options that you want to use to limit your search by publication date. You can skip this step by accepting the default configuration.
4. Select options to limit the search by article type and language. You can skip this step by accepting the default configuration.
5. Select options that you want to use to present your search results. You can skip this step by accepting the ScienceServer default configuration.
6. Click on the Submit Query button located at either the top or bottom of the form.

Clear the search fields by using the Reset button.

Click on the find similar documents icon next to each article name to search for documents that are similar to that article.

Use the check boxes located beside each article title to compile your search results into a list of those you're interested in viewing. Simply click on the box next to articles you're interested in, then click on the Save Checked button located above the search results.  This option operates on a per page basis.

At the end of the Search Results page, you'll find a link to detailed information about your query.  
View search engine query report
This is a good place to look if you want to know more about how your search gets interpreted. Good search results are usually the outcome of experimentation with search terms and phrases. You can use this information to help formulate queries.

top /contents

Settings

Note: The system must be able to identify individual users to enable this feature. If your institution uses IP addressing for database access, rather than per user authentication, this feature is not available.

You can customize the system by setting personal preferences that the software remembers and uses whenever you access the system. Click on the Settings link from either of the search forms or the search results pages to get to the Settings page.

User Information:
If this feature is available, you have registered for this system with a unique user name.  Enter your User Information in the text box indicated. Type your name exactly as you use it to access the system. Remember that your user name is case-sensitive.

Searching Preferences:
Use this section to set your display options on the Search history page and to choose the Search form that you want displayed to you when you click search from the Journal Index page.

• Set the number of searches that you want to save for the search history. This is the number of articles that are displayed on the Search history page. Click on the down arrow next to the text box to select 5, 10, 15, or 20. The default setting is 10.
• Next, select the search form you want to display when you click on Search from ScienceServer pages. Click on the down arrow next to the text box to choose Simple, Advanced, or Expert Search form. The Simple Search form is set as the default.

Saved Searches Defaults:
Complete this section if you want to use the Alerting capabilities of the system to get automatic search results sent to you in email.

• Type your email address in the appropriate text box. You must provide a valid email address for the alerting service to deliver automatic search results.
• Next, select your default automatic search frequency by clicking on the down arrow next to the text box. Choose from daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Now select your default automatic search delivery method. You can choose from email(standard) or email(html enabled).  You should always choose html enabled email where available, as this option allows you to link directly to your search results.

When you have completed the form, click on the Save the Settings button.

top /contents

Search History and Saved Queries

Note: This system must be able to identify individual users in order to enable this feature. If your institution uses IP addressing for database access, rather than per user authentication, this feature is not available.

Researchers accustomed to electronic archives frequently develop a standard set of queries that they use to periodically search a collection. To maximize efficiency, you can store queries for later use.  The queries are identified through a query name which recalls the search terms and options so that you can just click on a hypertext link to rerun the query.

Search history
This system automatically keeps track of the most recently performed searches. Click on the Search History link from any page after you've conducted a search to see the Search history. The queries are listed in hypertext format so that they can be re-executed quickly. The number of queries displayed on this page is determined by searching preferences that you set on the My Settings page. By default, the ten most recent queries are stored.

Saving a Search
When you have refined a search to find exactly the results you want to explore, you can permanently store the query for later use. After executing a query, click on the Save Search link located at the top right of the results list. Your search term(s) display at the top of the page.

Here’s how to keep a query in permanent storage:

1. Type the name you want to use for the query in the box. You must enter a name in this field to save a search.
2. Click on the Save this Search button at the bottom of the page.

A message confirms when the search is successfully saved. If you want to automatically reuse a query name, you must check the box beside the option that allows you to do so. Otherwise, a message warns you about overwriting the name.

You can schedule saved searches to run automatically and to deliver the results to you through email (these are called Alerts). This is accomplished on the same page that you use to save your search. To schedule a search to execute automatically and send you the results:

1. Click in the designated checkbox to indicate that you want to run the search on a regular basis.
2. Select the search frequency by clicking on the down arrow next to the appropriate text box. Choose from daily, weekly, or monthly.
3. Select standard email or HTML-enabled email delivery. Check your email help file to find out if you have HTML-enabled email.
4. You can limit results for each alert by selecting from options offered in the drop down boxes next to "Limit results to articles published:." Select "Since" to set a year limitation on the results.
5. Click on the Save this Search button to save the information.

 This information, along with the information provided in My Settings, gives the system the information it needs to deliver query results to you automatically.

A message confirms that the search was successfully saved. If you want to automatically reuse a query name, you must check the box beside the option that allows you to do so. Otherwise, a warning message appears when you try to reuse a query name.

top /contents

Alerts and Saved Searches
Note: This system must be able to identify individual users in order to enable this feature. If your institution uses IP addressing for database access, rather than per user authentication, this feature is not available.

View your Alerts and saved searches by clicking on the Alerts button on the navigation bar.  The queries listed on this page are the result of a user request to save a search. Each saved search is identified by a name and description of the search, both specified by the user (on the form above), along with the search terms and the creation date.

Name - indicates the name specified when you saved the search
Description - the text that you entered into the search description text box at the time you saved the search
Search for - the query terms used in the search
Created - the date that the search was first saved
Alert Status - the current status for this alert
Last run - indicates the last time that the search was executed
Commands - these commands allow you to run, edit or delete any saved search from this page  

Remember that actions on this page affect the alerts that you receive through email.

There are no limits on the the number of Alerts that you can create.  If you want to be notified when a new issue for a particular journal is available, just browse to the Volume/Issue page for that title and  click on the link, New Issue Alerts: Add this Journal.

Citation Alerts
Citation Alerts provide a means for users to automatically receive information as new publisher data is loaded into the digital library system. A Citation Alert allows you to select a specific article, then receive email notification when a newer article gets loaded that cites the selected article. This can be a useful research tool if you have a particularly relevant article on a topic and want notification when more recent articles cite the relevant article.

On any article page, click on the Save as Citation Alert link to save the article as an alert. Clicking on the link on either of the article pages displays the page that allows the user to save the citation as an Alert. The software automatically adds the selected citation to this page. The user must specify a Search Name, select the Search Frequency and the delivery method. Click on the Save Alert button to save the citation as an alert. A message verifies the action.

Saved Citation Alerts are stored with other alerts on the Alerts and Saved Searches page. Click on Alerts from the navigation Bar to view all Alerts. Run, edit, suspend, or delete alerts using the links provided with each.

My Articles

While examining search results , you can select and collect articles of interest into a subset for later review.   Select an article by clicking in the box next to the title.  After making selections, click on the Save Selected link above the results listing to save the articles.  A dialog box lets you know that the articles have been saved.

If you do not log into this system with a user name and password, all of the features of My Articles are available for your use, but the list is not saved permanently.   You should consider that all articles that remain on the list when you finish your session are viewable to the next person to use the system.  For this reason, you should always clear your list when finished.  Clear the list by selecting the Remove All link while in My Articles. 

ScienceServer Online Help:    help contents   |  overview |  quick start  |  quick reference  |  read and print  |  search  |  glossary

Version 5.4