Using Search
There are two principal ways of finding content within this repository searching and browsing.
The simple search box appears in the top left hand corner of each page of the site with the exception of the submission form. Enter your search term and you're away.
You will find that there is an additional search box on each community, sub-community and collection home page. This search box will allow you to carry out a simple search at that level of hierarchy or any level below it using a drop down menu.
Here are a few tips on searching:
-
The site search box
Search terms entered in the site search box will be searched against all indexed metadata fields ; as well as the full text for PDFs, Microsoft Word documents and RTF files.
-
-
What is not searched - stop words
The search engine ignores certain words that occur frequently in English, but do not add value to the search. These are:
a, and , are , as , at , be , but , by , for , if , "in" , "into", is , it , no , not , of , on , or , such, the , to , was -
Truncation
Use an asterisk (*) after a word stem to get all hits having words starting with that root, for example:
cell*
=> will retrieve: cell, cells, cellular, cell-cell communication...
-
Stemming
The search engine automatically expands words with common endings to include plurals, past tenses ...
-
-
-
Phrase searching
To search using multiple words as a phrase, put quotation marks (") around the phrase, for example:
"antiviral compounds"
-
-
-
Exact word match
Put a minus (-) sign before a word if it should not appear in the search results. Alternatively, you can use NOT. This can limit your search to eliminate unwanted hits. For instance, in the search:
antiviral -drug or antiviral NOT drug*
=> you will get items containing the word "antiviral", except those that also contain the word "drug"
-
-
-
Eliminate items with unwanted words
Put a plus (+) sign before a word if it MUST appear in the search result. For instance, if the word "antiviral" is optional, but the word "agents" must be in the result you would use:
antiviral +agents
-
-
-
Boolean searching
The following Boolean operators can be used to combine terms. Note that they must be CAPITALIZED
AND: to limit searches to find items containing all words or phrases combined with this operator, e.g.
antimicrobial AND compounds
=> will retrieve all items that contain BOTH the words "antimicrobial" and "compounds".
OR: to enlarge searches to find items containing any of the words or phrases surrounding this operator
"human β-Defensin" OR "extracellular molecules"
=> will retrieve all items that contain EITHER the words "human β-Defensin" or "extracellular molecules".NOT: to exclude items containing the word following this operator, e.g.
antiviral NOT drugs
=> will retrieve all items that contain the word "antiviral" EXCEPT those also containing the word stemming "drugs".
Parentheses can be used in the search query to group search terms into sets, and operators can then be applied to the whole set, e.g.("human β-Defensin" OR "extracellular molecules") AND ("extracellular molecules" OR "extracellular accumulation")
-
-
Browse
In the left menu you can search within the following categories;
Community & Collections/ Bereiche & Sammlungen
Publication date/ Erscheinungsdatum
Subject (MeSH -Medical Subject Headings which are normed keywords)
You can also specify the metadata fields you wish to search, and to combine these searches with the Boolean "and", "or" or "not". You can search cross all of HZI, or restrict your search to a community or collection using the top drop-down menu. Select the field to search in the left hand column and enter the word or phrase you are searching for in the right hand column. You can select the Boolean operator to combine searches by clicking on the arrow to the right of the "AND" box.
Note: You must use the input boxes in order. If you leave the first one blank your search will not work.