Help ContentsFull Search

  1. Select the database(s) you want to search by clicking:

  2. Select the time period you want to search:
      This week's update - Searches the mostly recently loaded single week of data.
      All years - Searches the entire range of years that appears beside the names of the database(s) you have selected.
      Year selection - Searches only the years you have marked. See the year range beside the database name to see what years are available for each database.

  3. Select the type of search by clicking:
      General Search - Searches for articles by subject, author, journal, or author address. Returns a site-configured number of results.
      Cited Ref Search - Searches for articles that have cited (included in their reference list) a known work. Returns a site-configured number of results.
      Run Saved Query - Searches by selecting and running a query you have previously saved.
Help ContentsGeneral Search

To search the selected database(s) for articles based on what you know about their subject matter, author(s), publication, or author address(es):
  1. Click Clear to remove search parameters from previous searches.
  2. Enter information in one or more search fields.
  3. Select any of the following options:
  4. Click Search.

Examples

  • Enter MAD COW DISEASE in the Topic field to search for articles on this topic.
  • Enter FOUCAULT M in the Author field to search for articles written by this author.
  • Enter JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE in the Source Title field to search for articles in this journal.
  • Enter PENN STATE in the Address field to search for articles written by authors whose addresses include this university.

Search Fields

Topic
Enter a word or phrase that might appear in the article title, abstract, or keyword list. You may also enter a series of words or phrases joined by search operators such as AND or OR. See Search Field Rules for more information. Use the Title only checkbox to restrict the search to article titles.

For example:

    Enter HEPATITIS to search for records containing this word.
    Enter MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES to search for records containing this phrase.
    Enter HEPATITIS AND HEMODIALYSIS to search for records containing both these words.
    Enter HEPATITIS B OR HEPATITIS C to search for records containing either of these phrases.

You may use wildcard characters such as the question mark and asterisk to search for variants of words. The question mark can be used to represent any single character. The wildcard can be used to represent any group of characters (including no characters).

For example:

    Enter CHEM* to search for words starting with these letters and ending with any group of letters (e.g., CHEMISTRY, CHEMICAL, CHEMIST, CHEMISTS).

    Enter DERMATOS?S to search for words that consist of the specified letters with any single letter in the place of the question mark (e.g., DERMATOSIS or DERMATOSES).

Note that certain frequently used words (e.g., words such as A, AN, THE, OF, IN) are not searchable in the Topic field. These stopwords may be entered as part of a phrase, but they will not be explicitly searched for. Instead, they will act as word wildcards. For example, searching for DEATH IN VENICE returns you any article that contains the words DEATH and VENICE separated by any single word.

More search examples

Author
Enter an author/editor name with the last name first, followed by a space and up to 5 initials. Unless you know all initials in an author's name, put an asterisk after the initial(s) you have entered (e.g., HOFFMAN E*). You may also enter last names without initials. Join multiple names with the search operators AND or OR.

For example:

    Enter CHANDLER to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler.

    Enter CHANDLER ND to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler and whose only initials are ND.

    Enter CHANDLER N* to search for articles by any author whose last name is Chandler, whose first initial is N, and who may have other subsequent initials (the asterisk stands for possible subsequent initials).

    Enter CHANDLER ND OR WILLIAMS CD to search for articles by either author.

    Enter CHANDLER ND AND WILLIAMS CD to search for jointly authored articles.

    If an author's last name includes spaces (e.g., de Ville, de los Rios), enter this name both with and without the space(s). Join the two versions of the name with OR. For example, enter DEVILLE * OR DE VILLE * for de Ville, DELOSRIOS * OR DE LOS RIOS * for de los Rios.

    If an author's last name includes a nonalphanumeric character (e.g., O'Brian, Kroll-Smith), enter this name without the character. For example, enter OBRIAN for O'Brian, KROLLSMITH for Kroll-Smith.

Note that the ISI databases contain the names of all authors/editors associated with a document.

More search examples

Source title
Enter a full or partial journal title, copying titles from the journal list as necessary. If you enter a partial title, end it with an asterisk (e.g., JOURNAL OF MATERIALS *). You may also enter multiple titles joined by the search operator OR.

For example:

    Enter JOURNAL OF CELL TRANSPLANTATION to search for articles in this journal.
    Enter JOURNAL OF CELL * to search for articles in any journal whose name begins with these words.

If you copy or enter a title from the journal list whose name contains the word AND, OR, or SAME, enclose these words in quotation marks before clicking Save Query or Search.

More search examples

Address
Enter an institution and/or place name from an author's address to search for records based on address. Note that institution and place names are frequently abbreviated in the ISI databases.

For example:

    Enter TUFTS to search for articles in which at least one author has an address that includes TUFTS UNIVERSITY.

    Enter CDC to search for articles in which at least one author has an address that includes CDC.

Since the address field in the database includes the institution/corporation name, department name, street address, city, province, state, country, and postal code of every author of a given article, use the SAME operator to search for two or more words that appear within the same address.

For example:

    Enter IBM SAME NY to search for articles in which IBM and NY appear in the same address (to find an author whose address is one of IBM's New York facilities).

    Enter HARVARD SAME MED to search for articles in which HARVARD and MED appear in the same address (to search for an author whose address is Harvard Medical School).

Note that many address elements such as the institution/corporation name are abbreviated in the ISI database.

Note also that searching for some very common words/abbreviations (e.g., UNIV for University) is disallowed in the address field, as such searches would return too many results. These disallowed words may, however, be used in conjunction with other words that narrow the search (e.g., UNIV PENN).

More search examples

Search Field Rules

  • Use either upper, lower, or mixed case.
    For example, enter AIDS, Aids, or aids.

  • Enter words and phrases without quotation marks.
    For example, enter GENETIC TESTING to search for articles containing this phrase. Words entered as a series with no punctuation separating them are assumed to be a phrase.

  • Separate two or more terms by logical operators such as AND or OR.
    The OR operator instructs the search engine to find records containing any one of the search terms in a given field. The AND operator instructs the search engine to find records containing all of the search terms specified in a given field. Other search operators are available.

    For example, enter MAD COW DISEASE OR BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY to search for articles containing either one of these phrases.

    Enter BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY AND SCRAPIE to search for articles containing both of these terms.

  • Use quotation marks around the words AND, OR, NOT, SAME, or SENT in any field when you do not intend these words to serve as search operators.
    For example, to search for works authored by William Or, enter "OR", W. To search for works authored by O. R. Koechli, enter KOECHLI, "OR". To search for the journal title ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM, enter ARCHITECTURE "AND" URBANISM.

  • Use the asterisk and question mark as wildcards to search for variants of words.
    For example, enter ENZYM* to search for words that start with these letters but end with any group of letters (e.g., ENZYME, ENZYMATIC, ENZYMOLOGY).

  • Search for hyphenated words/phrases by entering the terms both without the hyphen and with the hyphen replaced by a space. Join the two versions of the term with OR.
    For example, to search for works containing the word PRE-RAPHAELITE, enter PRE RAPHAELITE OR PRERAPHAELITE. To search for works containing the word X-RAY, enter X RAY OR XRAY.

  • Search for words/phrases containing apostrophes or other internal punctuation by entering the terms both without the punctuation mark and with the punctuation mark replaced with a space. Join the two versions of the term with OR.
    For example, to search for works containing the word PAGET'S DISEASE, enter PAGET S DISEASE OR PAGETS DISEASE.

Options

Limits

Two optional restriction lists enable you to limit your search to articles written in a specific language or articles of a specific document type. You may select one or more options from each list. Note that these restrictions stay in effect until they are cleared by clicking Clear. Note also that the restrictions do not apply unless you have entered data in at least one search field.

Sorting

Sort options include:
  • Relevance - (The default sort option) Sorts retrieved records based on a ranking system that considers how many of the search terms are found in each record, how frequently the search terms appear, and how close together the occurrences are. Records with the highest ranking appear at the top of the list.

  • Latest date - Sorts retrieved records based on the date the publication was processed at ISI, with the most recently processed records listed first.

  • First author - Sorts retrieved records in alphabetical order, based on the name of the first listed author.

  • Source title - Sorts retrieved records in alphabetical order, based on the source (e.g., journal) title.
Help ContentsSearch Results

The Search Results Summary screen displays a list of records retrieved by a search, with articles identified by the first three authors (et al. is appended to indicate more than three authors), title, and source journal information. At the top of the screen, the search fields and their contents are displayed. You can also see how many records satisfied your search criteria.

  • To print this list - Use the print option of your Web browser.

  • To see more information about an article on the list - Click the article title to see the full record for this article in the ISI database.

  • To print or export information about an article
    1. Click the checkbox to the left of the author name to select an article.
    2. Submit your selection(s) by clicking either Submit, Next 10, or Previous 10.
    3. Click Marked List to display the Marked Records screen.
    4. Follow the instructions on this screen to print or export one or more records.

  • To order the full text of an article
    1. Click the checkbox to the left of the author name to select an article.
    2. Submit your selection(s) by clicking either Submit, Next 10, or Previous 10.
    3. Click Marked List to display the Marked Records screen.
    4. Follow the instructions on this screen to order the text of an article.

  • To move forward through the list - Click Next 10.

  • To move backward through the list - Click Previous 10.

  • To mark or unmark all 10 items on the page - Click Mark All.

  • To add marked records to your marked list - Click Submit, Next 10, or Previous 10.
The Articles # - # indicator allows you to keep track of which screen you are on.
Help ContentsMore Search Examples

Topic Examples
Word/phrase examples
Some simple examples of topic searches are single words or phrases that describe, as precisely as possible, the subject matter of the article you are looking for. For example:

  • Searching for ROBOTICS returns records containing this word in the title, abstract, or keyword list.

  • Searching for MEDICAL ROBOTICS returns records containing this phrase in the title, abstract, or keyword list.

Search operator examples
Search operators can be used to refine topic searches. For example, the most common operators -- AND and OR -- join search terms so as to narrow or broaden your search. The NOT operator can be used to exclude records containing certain words or phrases from your search.

AND - Use AND to find records containing simultaneous occurrences of specified words or phrases. For example:

  • Searching for SEROTONIN AND SCHIZOPHRENIA returns records containing both words.

  • Searching for SEROTONIN AND SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DOPAMINE will return records containing all three words.

OR - Use the OR operator to find records containing occurrences of any one of a specified series of words or phrases. For example:
  • Searching for CELL OR CELLS returns records containing either the singular or plural form of the word.

  • Searching for AIDS OR HIV OR ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME OR HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS returns records containing any one of these terms.

  • Searching for SAMUEL L CLEMENS OR MARK TWAIN in the Topic field will return records containing either of these names.

NOT - Use the NOT operator to exclude records containing certain words from your search. For example:
  • Searching for SUICIDE NOT PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED returns records containing the word SUICIDE but without the phrase PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED.

  • Searching for SUICIDE NOT (PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED OR DOCTOR-ASSISTED) will further limit your search to records containing the word SUICIDE but without either the phrase PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED or DOCTOR-ASSISTED. The parentheses are used in this example to indicate that the OR operator should be evaluated before the NOT operator.

Wildcard examples
Wildcards are useful in topic searches to retrieve variants of words. The asterisk wildcard represents any group of characters, including no character. The question mark wildcard represents any single character. You can use these wildcards within and at the ends of terms.

For example:

  • Searching for SUPERCONDUCT* returns records containing words like SUPERCONDUCTOR, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, SUPERCONDUCTORS, SUPERCONDUCTIVE.

  • Searching for SUL*UR returns records containing SULPHUR or SULFUR.

  • Searching for EPINEPHRIN* returns records containing both EPINEPHRIN and EPINEPHRINE.

  • Searching for EN?OBLAST returns records containing both ENDOBLAST and ENTOBLAST.

  • Searching for EPISTAS?S returns records containing both EPISTASIS and EPISTASES.

Person/Author Examples

Simple examples
Some simple examples of person/author searches are those in which you know the exact spelling of the person's name and can enter that, along with the exact initials. For example:

  • Searching for STEVENS AW as an author returns records for works authored by A.W. Stevens.

  • Searching for STEVENS AW as a cited author returns records referring to any work by A.W. Stevens.

Search operator examples
Search operators are useful in person/author searches when you want to search for more than one person or more than one spelling of a name. For example:

  • Searching for STEVENS OR STEPHENS as an author returns records for works authored by anyone whose last name is Stevens or Stephens.

  • Searching for LE CORBUSIER C* OR LECORBUSIER C* as a subject returns records about Charles Le Corbusier.

Wildcard examples
Wildcards are useful in person/author searches to retrieve records when you do not know the exact spelling of a person's name or an author's exact initials. The asterisk wildcard represents any group of characters, including no character. The question mark wildcard represents any single character. You can use these wildcards within and at the ends of terms.

For example:

  • Searching for YAO?ANG returns records for people whose last name consists of the specified letters with any letter in the place of the question mark (e.g., YAOBANG or YAOPANG).

  • Searching for TUT?NKHAM?N returns records for people whose name consists of the specified letters with any letter in the place of the question mark (e.g., TUTANKHAMEN or TUTENKHAMON).

  • Searching for BART* returns records for people whose last names start with BART and end with any group of letters, including no letters (e.g., BART, BARTE, BARTH, BARTHE, BARTHES). This use of the asterisk is helpful when you don't know the exact spelling of a person's name.

  • Searching for HOFFMAN E* returns records for authors whose last name is HOFFMAN, whose first initial is E, and who may have other initials after E (including no other initials). Unless you are sure that you know all the initials associated with an author's name, you should get in the habit of placing an asterisk after the initial(s) you enter. Keep in mind that searching for HOFFMAN, E will retrieve only records for authors with that single initial. It will not retrieve articles by authors such as E.T. HOFFMAN or E.T.A. HOFFMAN.

Source Title Examples

Wildcards are useful in Source Title searches to retrieve records when you do not know the entire or exact title of a journal. The asterisk wildcard represents any group of characters, including no character. The question mark wildcard represents any single character. You can use these wildcards within and at the ends of terms. Note that the wildcarded terms must always be the first terms in the journal title, not terms that appear in the middle or end of the title.

For example:

  • Searching for ARCHITECT* returns records for journals whose titles begin with words that start with ARCHITECT and end with any group of letters, including no letters, such as ARCHITECTURE, ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, ARCHITECTURA, and ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM.

  • Searching for CH?MI* returns records for journals whose titles begin with words such as CHEMIST, CHEMISTRY, CHEMICAL, CHIMIA, CHIMICA, and CHEMIE.

Place/Address Examples

Simple examples
Some simple examples of place searches are those in which you want to find articles whose authors are associated with a single company, research lab, or university. In this case, you can enter an institution name or abbreviation. For example:

  • Searching for SANDIA returns records for works authored by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories.

  • Searching for IBM returns records for works authored by researchers at IBM.

  • Searching for SANDOZ returns records authored by researchers at Sandoz.

  • Searching for DREXEL returns records authored by researchers at Drexel University.

  • Searching for UCLA returns records authored by researchers at UCLA.

Search operator examples
Search operators are useful in place/address searches to search for single addresses. If an article has multiple authors, all author addresses are included in the address field, with each address ending with a period. In order to search most effectively for a single address within the field, you can use the search operator SAME to limit your search to records containing the specified search terms within the same sentence, where a sentence is assumed to be a period-delimited string. SAME is more useful than AND in this case, because AND operates across the entire field (thus, in some cases, across multiple addresses).

For example:

  • Searching for THOMAS AND WATSON returns records that contain these two words anywhere in the address field, even if the words appear in different authors' addresses.

  • Searching for THOMAS SAME WATSON returns records that contain these two words within the same address (e.g., authors whose address is IBM's THOMAS J WATSON RESEARCH CENTER).

Wildcard examples
Wildcards are useful in place/address searches to retrieve records when you do not know the exact spelling of a corporate/institution name or the way in which it may have been abbreviated in the database. The asterisk wildcard represents any group of characters, including no character. The question mark wildcard represents any single character. You can use these wildcards within and at the ends of terms.

For example:

  • Searching for HARVARD SAME MED* returns records where HARVARD and any word starting with the letters MED are in the same address. This search will find records for authors associated with HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL regardless of whether MEDICAL is abbreviated as MED.

  • Searching for UCLA SAME PED* returns records where UCLA and any word starting with the letters PED are in the same address. This search will find records for authors associated with UCLA DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS regardless of how the department name is abbreviated.

Help Contents Stopwords

Stopwords are frequently used words such as articles (e.g., a, an, the), prepositions (e.g., of, in, for, through), and pronouns (e.g., it, their, his) that may be included in topic search phrases but are not explicitly searchable. For example, entering THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS in the Topic field will return records that include the phrase LOOKING GLASS preceeded by any two words. The stopwords THROUGH and THE are treated as wildcards that match any two words.

Because stopwords are not explicitly searchable, you should not enter search phrases composed entirely of stopwords. Such searches will return no results.

The following words are considered stopwords. Note that this list is subject to change.

    A
    ABOUT
    ABOVE
    ACCORDING
    ACROSS
    ACTUAL
    ADDED
    AFTER
    AGAINST
    AHEAD
    ALL
    ALMOST
    ALONE
    ALONG
    ALSO
    AMONG
    AMONGST
    AN
    AND
    AND-OR
    AND/OR
    ANON
    ANOTHER
    ANY
    ARE
    ARISING
    AROUND
    AS
    AT
    AWARD
    AWAY
    BE
    BECAUSE
    BECOME
    BECOMES
    BEEN
    BEFORE
    BEHIND
    BEING
    BELOW
    BEST
    BETTER
    BETWEEN
    BEYOND
    BIRTHDAY
    BOTH
    BUT
    BY
    CAN
    CERTAIN
    COME
    COMES
    COMING
    COMPLETELY
    CONCERNING
    CONSIDER
    CONSIDERED
    CONSIDERING
    CONSISTING
    DE
    DEPARTMENT
    DER
    DESPITE
    DISCUSSION
    DO
    DOES
    DOESNT
    DOING
    DOWN
    DR
    DU
    DUE
    DURING
    EACH
    EITHER
    ESPECIALLY
    ET
    FEW
    FOR
    FORWARD
    FROM
    FURTHER
    GET
    GIVE
    GIVEN
    GIVING
    HAS
    HAVE
    HAVING
    HIS
    HONOR
    HOW
    IN
    INSIDE
    INSTEAD
    INTO
    IS
    IT
    ITEMS
    ITS
    JUST
    LET
    LETS
    LITTLE
    LOOK
    LOOKS
    MADE
    MAKE
    MAKES
    MAKING
    MANY
    MEET
    MEETS
    MORE
    MOST
    MUCH
    MUST
    MY
    NEAR
    NEARLY
    NEXT
    NOT
    NOW
    OF
    OFF
    ON
    ONLY
    ONTO
    OR
    OTHER
    OUR
    OUT
    OUTSIDE
    OVER
    OVERALL
    PER
    POSSIBLY
    PT
    PUT
    REALLY
    REGARDING
    REPRINTED
    SAME
    SEEN
    SEVERAL
    SHOULD
    SHOWN
    SINCE
    SO-CALLED
    SOME
    SPP
    STUDIES
    STUDY
    SUCH
    TAKE
    TAKEN
    TAKES
    TAKING
    THAN
    THAT
    THE
    THEIR
    THEM
    THEN
    THERE
    THEREFROM
    THESE
    THEY
    THIS
    THOSE
    THROUGH
    THROUGHOUT
    TO
    TOGETHER
    TOWARD
    TOWARDS
    UNDER
    UNDERGOING
    UP
    UPON
    UPWARD
    VARIOUS
    VERSUS
    VERY
    VIA
    VOL
    VOLS
    VS
    WAS
    WAY
    WAYS
    WE
    WERE
    WHAT
    WHATS
    WHEN
    WHERE
    WHICH
    WHILE
    WHITHER
    WHO
    WHOM
    WHOS
    WHOSE
    WHY
    WITH
    WITHIN
    WITHOUT
    YET
    YOU
    YOUR
Help Contents Disallowed Words in Address Field

Some words and abbreviations occur so frequently in addresses that searching on these words by themselves is disallowed. For example, entering UNIV by itself in the Address field, would search for every record in which at least one author had a university address containing the UNIV abbreviation. The number of results returned would be so large as to be useless.

For this reason, using any of these words or abbreviations by themselves in the Address field will generate an error that will alert you to re-specify your search terms. Joining disallowed words with the OR operator also generates an error, unless the words are used in conjunction with an allowed word. For example, you may not search for UNIV OR PENN, but you may search for UNIV PENN OR UNIV PA.

The following words are, by default, disallowed in the Address field. Note that the list is configurable and therefore may be different at your site.

    CHEM
    COLL
    CTR
    D
    DEPT
    DIV
    ENGN
    HOSP
    INST
    LAB
    MED
    PHYS
    RES
    SCH
    SCI
    ST
    UNIV

Documentation version 3.7

Copyright ©1997 Institute for Scientific Information