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Nutritional Science Database User Guide

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Starting a search

Each time you log into your collection, you will see the total number of records it contains. This number will rise as new research is published and the collection grows.

To conduct a search in your collection, you need to sort the content down to what is relevant to your information needs. You can do this with search terms and with tick box filters. Both approaches can be combined in any way that works best for you.

How can I search with search terms?

You will see a search box at the top left of the screen. You can type one or more search terms into this box.

You can search your term(s) in all fields. This is the default option.

Or you can use the pulldown menu labelled Filter directly beneath the search box to search for your term(s) in the title, author, author affiliations, abstract, keyword, DOI, ISBN, ISSN, EISSN, issue, volume, patent assignee, or corporate author field.

Most of the time you will get the best results by using the default all fields.

Note that patent assignee is the person or entity who holds the patent.  To filter for patents on a topic, use the filter tickbox for patent under content type

Can I type more than one term in a single search box?

Yes. If you do this without using quotation marks, your terms will be searched as though they have an implicit Boolean operator AND between them. This means that each term typed must appear somewhere in the results records. If you were to type flavor taste in a search box, each result would have both words in it. Consequently, you would get fewer results than had you searched either one of the terms on its own. 

Learn about using Boolean operators in IFIS Collections in the section Additional searching techniques

Can I use natural language (a sentence or part of a sentence) to search?

No. Because the search would search every single word you typed, this kind of searching will not work. Instead, think of the most important concepts that you need to find information about and use just those words as search terms.

Can I search different fields with one search?

Yes. If you want to limit different terms to different fields, you must use separate boxes for each, up to a limit of six.

Adding multiple search boxes allows you to build a targeted search using fields. For example, you could build a search with unilever: patent assignee in one search box and frozen foods: all in a second search box to view all the patents Unilever has filed around frozen food technologies.

Do I need to search for both plural and singular versions of a term?

If you type a singular noun such as tomato, you will get results that contain both the singular and plural versions of the word - tomato and tomatoes. Typing tomatoes, the plural, will do the same. In other words, whether you search tomato or tomatoes, you will get the same results.

What other word endings will be searched for automatically?

If you type a term that can have other common endings, these endings might also be included in your search results. For example, if you type brown, you will get results that contain brown, browns and browning.

Occasionally you will also get results that include a shorter version of your term. Typing toxicity will return results with toxic, and vice versa.

If you sort your results by relevancy (the default setting) exact matches to what you typed will appear at the top of your results list.

Will spelling variations be searched for automatically?

IFIS Collections recognizes and adjusts for common spelling variations. For instance, searching for either organisation or for organization returns the same results; in each case, the results will include records with both spellings plus their plurals. Searching for flavor or for flavour would do the same.

Can I truncate the beginning of a search term?

Yes, you can truncate the beginning of a search term. Typing *toxin will return results containing anatoxin, neurotoxinginkotoxin, aflatoxin, mycotoxin, biotoxin, podophyllotoxin, etc., as well as toxin. This search also returns the plural of all these terms.

How can I rank my results?

You have three options for displaying your search results:

  • Relevancy ranked will prioritize those results where your search term(s) appears in the title of the records.  After those, the rank will be determined by frequency of the term(s) appearance within the record.
  • Ordering by date, newest to oldest
  • Ordering by date, oldest to newest