How do I conduct a search?
You can use the different fields on the search page to find the information you are after.
Keyword or phrase
Type in the desired keyword or phrase. You can use a word from the topic you are interested in or a phrase, an author’s name or a word from a title or abstract. For example,
- Cancer (as a single word)
- “Cancer pain” (as a phrase) – use quotes round a phrase
- Maddocks (author surname) – select Author field
- Ian Maddocks (full author name) – select Author field
At this stage you can simply press the ‘search’ button. However you may wish to be more selective in your search, by choosing to modify any of the following search preferences.
Search fields
If you don’t select a field, it will search in ALL of the possible fields. Or, you can search just in the Title, Author or Abstract fields. For example, if you know the author name you are searching for, then select ‘Author’ from the dropdown list. If you are interested in a particular topic, then a search within the abstract or title fields will be more appropriate.
Type of literature
If you do not select a literature type, then all types will be included in your search. However, you can choose to search for one type only, for example: conference abstract, journal articles or thesis.
Publication year
You can specify a year or range of years for your search by entering the four digit year into the From or To box (or both). If you do not choose a year all the years covered in the databases will be searched.
Order of results
You can order your search results by:
- Date (newest to oldest)
- Author (alphabetical order by first author)
- Abstract ID (numerical order, smallest to biggest)
- Title (alphabetical order by abstract title. Titles starting with quote marks come first).
How do I view my results?
The results of each search will automatically be listed. The most recent record will appear first. You can choose how many results you wish to see per page by using the Show records per page dropdown at the top of the results. If you have more than one page of results you can move from page to page using the numbers at the bottom.
You can select individual records to print by clicking on the select box at the top right hand corner of each record. Then press the “Print Selected” button.
The Back button at the bottom takes you back to the search page for a new search.
You may wish to view the results from an earlier search. To do this, click on “Display” next to the result count in the Search History record box at the bottom of the Search page. You can also delete an earlier search if you wish.
How do I combine searches?
Use the Search History box if you wish to combine searches within the results. For example, if your first search was ‘pain’, then search results for pain would appear in the Search history box as Set No 1. If your second search was ‘cancer’, then results for cancer would appear as Set No 2. To combine these searches, click on #1 and then #2 in the Search History box.
You can combine these with AND, OR or Not, using the dropdown next to the search boxes. Pain AND Cancer will give you all records relating to both pain and cancer.
You can combine more than 2 results of your searches. If you have performed 4 searches as follows:
1 Pain
2 Cancer
3 Bone disease
4 Heart
To combine, Pain, Cancer and Heart together, you would need to add ‘1 and 2 and 4’ to the search box.
Last updated 19 January 2017