Search Tips





Simple Search
A simple search from the homepage will search all of the available collections,merge the results and rank them according to how relevant they are to your query. To conduct a Simple Search:

  • Type in your keyword(s), like "deep web technologies"; and select Search. You can search using Boolean operators (and, or and not) and exact phrase searching (text within quotes, "exact phrase.") See Search Tips for more information.
  • The retrieved results will be ranked by relevance. The more stars the result has, the more relevant the document is to your query.
  • Unlike searches performed by many other engines, your search will be conducted in real-time. Some results will be returned immediately, displaying as the search continues. This all ows you to read through the results that are returned the fastest while the search keeps working. As the search goes on, you may select Add Results to add new results to your current view. This doesn't delete any results from the current view, but can change the order in which you see results listed.

Search Results
Your search results will appear listed in order of relevance. The search will be done using "incremental searching," meaning the fastest results will be retrieved and displayed for you to read while the search keeps working to bring back results from the slower collections. Once all of the collections have been searched, you may see a following dialogue box.

You may choose Include these results to add more results to your current list. This will merge the new results into your current list and re-rank the entire list according to relevance, so what you see in your results list will change. If you don't want to change your original results list, click Do not include these results to return to that list. This is helpful if you've already spotted exactly what you want, or if you're still reading through the results on your original list. At any time, you can click "Add results" to include the additional results into your list.

Search Tools
Collection Status

The Collection Status link shows the responsiveness of each separate collection. The green check mark indicates the search at that particular collection completed successfully. The red x indicates that the collection didn't respond, didn't do so quickly enough to allow a full search to be completed. The number in the Results column shows how many relevant results were retrieved for your search. The Totals column shows how many results, including those not relevant to your search, were retrieved directly on the collection website.

We suggest you use the Collection Status link to discover new collections of information and learn where you can focus additional searching.

Limiting by Source

You can filter results by individual collections with the 'Limit to' drop-down box. Using this box allows you to display results from only one collection.

The default display is sorted by Rank with All Collections displayed.

Refine Search/Topics

The Topics section is a navigation tool which allows you to drill deeper into the results set for even more precise results. Under the Topics heading, at the right of your results page, results will be grouped into clusters related to your search term. The topics section can help guide you to the results you need by grouping your results by topic, collection, author, date, publication and publisher. In the Topics section, you can refine your results to display only those in the category you select.

Using Topics with the Limit to tool allows you to move through pages rapidly to find the results you need.

Selecting, Downloading and Printing Results

The navigation bar directly below the banner allows you to set up alerts and print or email the complete results list.

Your Selections (Articles)

You can check the box next to any result to add it to 'My Articles'. This creates a list where you can save as many results as you need, allowing you to gather information while you browse different results pages, perform multiple searches and refine your results sets.

Your My Articles list will be available to view until you either close your browser or deselect the selections in your list by clicking the check box again.

From the My Articles page, select the Back to Results button to return to your original result list. You can also email, print or download (through the Citations link if available) your selected results.

Citations Downloading

You may download your results using the Citations link, located on the My Articles page. If you use a bibliographic reader, such as EndNote, you may download the selected results into your citation manager via an RIS formatted download. If you use RefWorks, you can download your citations using Direct Connect. Your citation manager should automatically display the downloaded results.

Print Results

The Print Page option allows you to print directly from your main results or from My Articles.

Emailing Results

  • The Email Results link allows you to email a set of results to yourself, friends or colleagues.
  • Select Email Results and enter the required information (indicated by a red asterisk.)
  • You may select the number and format of the emailed results.
  • This function is also available from the My Articles page, where you can email specific selected results.
  • If you do not receive your email results in a few minutes, check your spam filter.

Search Tips

Searches can include:

  • Multiple keywords (AND is the default.)

    Example: A search on research development will return results on both research AND development
  • Expressions using the logical operators "and", "or" and"not"

    Example: A search on research AND development will return results that contain both 'research' and 'development;' research OR development will return results that contain either 'research' or 'development;' research NOT development will return results that contain 'research' but not 'development.'
  • Phrases search for terms contained in double quotation marks.

    Example: A search on "green technology" will return results containing the exact phrase 'green technology.'
  • Wildcards
    • Use * to search for the term with 0 or more additional characters.

      Example: invest* will return results that contain 'invest,' 'invests,' invested,' 'investor,' 'investment' and 'investing.'
    • Use ? to search for the term with only 1 additional character (characters include numbers, letters and punctuation.)

      Example: DO? will return results with the terms DOE, DOI, DOT, DOG, etc.

As a rule, full text and boolean searching are supported if the collection database supports it. If full text is returned, you may see a .PDF, .PPT or .TXT icon displayed.

Your search is not case sensitive (for example, RAIN, Rain and rain will produce the same results).