....Search
These resources are intended to support you as you formulate and apply your search strategy. From basic searching to using Boolean operators.
1Basic searching
The default search option in The Knowledge Network is the Basic search.
To conduct a search, type your search keyword(s) into the search box and click the Search button.
Search techniques
You can apply the following techniques to make your search more precise:
Apply Boolean operators, AND, OR, NOT
cancer AND pain will retrieve any document containing BOTH of the terms cancer and pain. (Note that this also can be achieved by simply entering cancer pain.) ;
cancer OR pain will retrieve any document containing EITHER of the terms cancer or pain ;
cancer NOT pain will retrieve any document containing the term cancer but NOT the term pain
Note: if several words are entered together (for example, cancer diagnostic test) with no boolean operator, the system will search as though an AND operator is present.
Perform an exact phrase search by inserting your search terms in quotation marks
"cancer pain" will retrieve any document containing the exact phrase cancer pain
Apply the * wildcard
disease* matches all words starting with disease, including disease, diseases or diseased.
*man matches all words ending with man, including human or woman.
Apply the ? wildcard as a substitute for a single character in a search string, for example, wom?n matches women and woman
2Boolean operators
Boolean searches are based on Boolean Logic, which is a system for establishing relationships between terms and was devised by a 19th century mathematician named George Boole.
Boolean Logic makes use of three logical operators (or linking words) : AND, OR and NOT. The use of Boolean Operators assists researchers in eliminating unwanted information from their search results by allowing search terms to be specified more precisely than is possible in simple keyword-triggered searches. In order to do this, users link together two or more search terms, using any of the Boolean Operators which are then evaluated in order of their precedence.
The AND Operator
The Boolean term, AND, is used to link two search terms with the objective of narrowing a search. This result is the opposite to what happens, for example, in a restaurant, when soup AND salad are ordered. In the restaurant, you would expect to receive both items (more) rather than one item which is a mixture of the two (less). In Boolean searching, the 'mixture' is what is retrieved.This occurs because ANDing means that both the words MUST appear in any retrieved materials. A user searching for information on the use of antibiotics in tonsillitis, might use the search statement Antibiotics AND Tonsillitis.
This would mean that any information recovered must contain both words. This is illustrated by the circles above : only the darker area at the intersection of the circles, contains both Antibiotics AND Tonsilitis.
The OR Operator
The Boolean operator, OR, is used to link seach terms with the intention of broadening a search. The effect is to retrieve all materials containing either of the terms. In a database, searching for 'Antibiotics OR Tonsillitis' would result in the recovery of every item which mentions Antibiotics together with every item mentioning Tonsillitis (more information). An OR search can be useful in cases where the exact spelling of a search term is not known (see below).
A search for Aetiology OR Etiology will retrieve references whether the word is spelt in its American or non-American form. It is also useful to OR terms when the required concepts are synonyms or ideas which are related in some way.
It is also useful to 'OR' terms when the required concepts are synonyms or ideas which are related in some way.
The NOT Operator
The Boolean operator, NOT, is used to exclude information from a search. In some databases, it can be used to exclude dates from particular searches.For example, if a researcher wanted to find information about all types of respiratory disorders except asthma, the search statement would be 'Respiratory disorders NOT Asthma'.
The information recovered would include everything in the large circle below, excluding that within the smaller circle representing information relating to Asthma.
Precedence Rules for Evaluation
Boolean queries involving mixed operators are evaluated using standard Boolean precedence rules. In a query containing both OR and AND operators, all of the AND statements are evaluated before any of the OR statements are evaluated. Operators with higher precedence are evaluated before operators with lower precedence. If you mix operators with the same precedence (for example AND and NOT) they are evaluated left-to-right. You may use parenthesis to override this precedence and specify the order of evaluation. For example, in the query (police OR court) AND prison, the OR statement will be evaluated first.Table 1 : Boolean Operators - Precedence Rules
Operator Order of Evaluation ( ) 1st AND, NOT 2nd OR 3rd 3Advanced searching
The Knowledge Network also offers an Advanced search option. To use Advanced Search, click the Advanced Search link which appears below the Search button.
Advanced search enables you to filter your search results by searching up to two specific fields and joining your queries with Boolean operators.
Enter your search term in the search box as usual, then select a field from the drop-down list. Fields available are:
All
Title
Author
Journal Title
Subject/Keywords
Date (Year)
ISSN (this is the unique identifier allocated to a journal/serial title)
ISBN (this is the unique identifier allocated to a book title)
Use the join drop-down list to join your queries together using the Boolean operators, AND, OR, NOT.
4Evidence and Guidance
Selecting the Evidence and Guidance radio button on a search will give you a focused set of clinical guidelines, summaries and reviews, plus tools designed to help you apply that evidence to practice and improve patient care.
You have the option to filter your search results and Evidence and Guidance contains additional evidence based practice filters. You can also broaden the results of your search out to include the complete Knowledge Network resource set, including journal articles by clicking on The Knowledge Network button at the top of your results list.
5Filter results
The purpose of filters is to narrow a search so that the number of results returned is more manageable and relevant to the researcher's interests. The types of filters available will vary according to the information resource or search tool used.
Generally, the use of filters can increase the speed at which search results are returned by reducing the number of irrelevant items retrieved. But, their application is cumulative and, the application of too many filters can reduce the number of retrieved items to zero.
The Knowledge Network allows you to filter your retrieved results by :
- Evidence and Guidance (guidelines, evidence summaries, clinical questions and answers, systematic reviews, etc) ;
- Resource Categories (articles, books, evidence and guidelines, etc) ;
- Stages of Care (aetiology, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy) ;
- Leaflets and Resources for Patients/Service Users (support groups and centres, helplines, locations of care, etc) ;
- Information Sources (databases, websites, etc) ;
- Year of Publication
You may apply one or more of the available filters on the search results page (extreme right column), by clicking the appropriate heading, to focus the results more closely on your interests.
Each filter has a number beside it indicating the number of items retrieved in that category.
Filters work cumulatively, that is, each consecutive filter applied further narrows the results.
A "breadcrumb" pathway is displayed above the search results indicating the search term and any filters applied, for example :
Results for: pain: OVID Medline 2011
You can unfilter the results by clicking the little symbol beside each individual filter value in the breadcrumb pathway.
You can clear all filters applied in one step by clicking the Clear all filters link above the filters to the right of your results.
6More about filters
Many information resources incorporate optional filters - or limits - which can be selected and implemented at the beginning of a search, or, applied to a collection of search results.
Some commonly used filters are :
Boolean operators - use the powerful AND, OR and NOT operators to shed articles which are not relevant to your search topic(s) ;
focus - many databases have a focus option for Subject Heading terms, the application of which will restrict the search to identifying articles which use your search-term as a main subject ;
free-text searching - an alternative for terms that are too new or are not sufficiently widely used ;
language - may be used to restrict results to a particular language, e.g. English ;
lateral searching - investigate subjects tagged to a relevant article. Use those terms to tailor the scope of your search ;
limit - specify the parameters of your search by selecting publication year, age group, language, publication type, etc. A full range of limits may be available within a particular database ;
spelling - be aware of alternative spellings during textword/keyword searches - e.g. paediatrics/pediatrics ; immunisation/immunization ;
synonyms - most database content is international. If search-terms do not map to Subject Headings within a particular database, try to generate a series equivalent terms ;
type of material - results are filtered according to document type. This is applied when a particular type of item is needed, e.g. articles, books, multimedia documents, etc ;
year of publication - this is used when updated information or information regarding a specific time-period is required.
7Record display
A summarised record is displayed for each item in the results set. Features of this record summary are as follows :
Clicking on the title of a record will usually take you to the external website for that record.
Full Record
Links to the detailed record which contains in-depth information about the item. To view the full records details you will need to be logged in.Save Citation to Refworks
This links enables the export of a citation to the Refworks reference management program. Please note that you can only export one citation at a time in to Refworks. To export multiple references from a search of The Knowledge Network you can use the Save All as a text file option in the Save and Share box. See Save and ShareAdd to Save & Share
Clicking Add to Save & Share exports the record to the Save and Share panel, and from there you can perform various actions upon it. See Save and SharePadlock icon
The padlock icon, where visible, indicates that there is an access restriction to view the full detail of the record or to access the external resource.8Search results
Save searches
You can save searches from The Knowldge Network to be rerun at a later date. Your saved searches will be stored in My Resource Space.Filters
To the left of the search results a number of filters are available which allow you to narrow/filter your results further.
Additional Links
To the right of the search results, is the Save and Share box.9Save and share search results
The Save and Share widget allows you to select a resource from a list of search results and either save it or share it.
To transfer a resource to Save and Share, click Add to Save & Share. This option will be present from any resource list including lists of retrieved information from a Library search.
By clicking Add to Save & Share, the resource will appear in the Save and Share widget.
Save options
Providing you are logged in, you can now save the item to My Resource Space. You can also save it as a text file on your computer, email it to yourself or print it.
By adding it to My Resource Space, you can add tags so that you can find it again more easily in future. This also allows you to group resources together based on tags you choose.
It is also possible, when you have saved the item to My Resource Space, to add it to the Quick Links widget by selecting the Add to Quick Links option below the item.
Share options
When you add an item to My Resource Space and tag it with keywords, it will also become visible to other users in the public tag clouds.
This is a good way of sharing important resources and contributing to the overall organisation of The Knowledge Network.
You can also email a selected resource to a colleague.
Tagging
You can tag a selected resource from Save and Share. You can either do this for individual records or you can apply the same tags to a batch of selected records.
10Save your search
Select Save this search which is found below the search box on the search results page.
Enter a name for the search and click Save.
Go to My Resource Space to rerun your saved searches.