Selecting a Search mode

Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search option to search commonly-used fields, combine search terms or search statements using Boolean operators and/or to use Ovid command-line syntax. The default search field is Keyword (.mp).

When searching a single database and the mapping feature is available and selected, mapping will find or suggest subject headings from the controlled vocabulary of the current database. Other commonly-used fields include Author, Title, and Journal.

The Advanced Search mode offers the following search types:

To execute a search:

OvidSP will post the results to your search history.

Keyword

Keyword searching is the default search type of the Advanced Search mode. Select or tick the Keyword radio button and type a term or phrase in the command line. Click the Search button to begin Keyword searching. OvidSP posts results to your search history.

In addition, Keyword option on the Advanced Search mode lets you take advantage of legacy Ovid search syntax, dot-dot commands, and Boolean operators. With these quick search techniques, you do not have to type long statements.

Author

Author searching lets you find records written by a specific person.

Select the Author radio button and type the author's last name in the command line to begin a search.

Include a space and initial of the author's first name, if known. There is no need to for you to know the complete or the entire name (First Name and Last Name). Author searching is not case sensitive.

If you do not know an author's first name or initials, try truncating the name, as in the keyword command singh$.au. This command retrieves all authors in the database with the specified surname.

Click the Search button to display an alphabetically arranged index of authors starting from the name you entered.

Browse through the author index in any of these three (3) ways:

	Page by page navigation starting from your entry.
	By tabbed letter/number.
	Search for names elsewhere in the index by entering a new name in the search box provided.

Select the check box and click the Search for Selected Terms button when you find the name of the author(s) whose records you want to retrieve. OvidSP will post the results to your search history.

Title

Title searching lets you search only by titles of records using specific words or phrases.

Select the Title radio button and type a term or phrase in everyday language in the text box to begin a search. Click the Search button to post the results.

Journal

Journal searching lets you search for words and phrases in all journal titles of the Journals@Ovid database.

Select the Journal radio button and type the first few letters of a journal name in the command line to begin a search.

You do not need to know the full name of the journal to use this search type.

Click the Search button to open the journal index display starting from the term you entered.

	Page by page from the lettered index starting from the text you entered.
	By tabbed letter/number.
	Search for title words elsewhere in the index by entering a new word or phrase in the search box provided.

Select the check box and click the Search for Selected Terms button once you found the name of the journal(s) you want to retrieve. OvidSP will post the results to your search history.

Advanced Searching Techniques

Enter special commands with OvidSP's advanced searching techniques:

• Command line syntax and dot-dot commands
• Truncation and wild cards
• Boolean query and set operators
• Post qualification of search sets

Click Advanced Searching Techniques to learn and understand more on advanced search techniques.

Vocabulary Mapping

In resources with controlled vocabulary, you can map search terms to subject headings from the keyword command line. The Map Term to Subject Heading check box option is displayed below the command line.

OvidSP's mapping process automatically matches search term(s) with the controlled vocabulary of the resource. When your term maps to subject heading, OvidSP opens the Mapping Display page.

Refer to Vocabulary Mapping to learn more about mapping, exploding, and focusing terms from OvidSP's Mapping Display.

Stopwords and Reserve Words

OvidSP Stop Word Processing

Stop words are frequently occurring words (e.g. and, the) that are removed from the query statement to improve processing time.

OvidSP employs two types of stop word processing, depending on the selected database.

• OvidSP’s philosophy is to apply a small number of stop words that will improve performance without impacting search quality
• Run time stop word processing is used when processing queries for databases like MEDLINE and EMBASE
• OvidSP’s performance testing illustrates a marked performance improvement when stop words are removed from the query

For example, searching for: the cat in the hat.ti

System will drop stop words (the, in), and find the following matches in the title field:

• [Cat] followed by [hat]
• [Cat] followed by [any word] followed by [hat]
• [Cat] followed by [any word] followed by [any word] followed by [hat]

Load-time stop word processing

Stop words are removed prior to loading database content to the OvidSP platform. Load time stop word processing is used for databases like Journals@Ovid, Biosis, and Current Contents.

• Stop words are removed from all word-indexed fields when the content is loaded in the database
• Stop words are retained for all phrase-indexed fields. Exact phrase matching is only supported for phrase-indexed fields

Refer to the Database Field Guide for information as to how stop words are applied in each database.

Reserve Word Processing

Reserve words (and, or, not, use, adj, add, sub, scope) are processed as operators when entered as part of a query. When enclosed in quotes, the system treats the reserved word as a literal term.

For example, the word scope is an advanced search syntax command that automatically opens scope notes from the command line. To use it as part of a search in OvidSP, and not have it interpreted as the syntax command, you must enclose it in quotes. To search for scope of nursing practice, you must type “scope of nursing practice” in the command line.

Reserve words apply across all database.