Research & Development Treesearch

Search fields are case insensitive. Search phrases can be enclosed in quotes. If quotes are not used, matches will be sought regardless of the order or proximity of the search terms in the field. For example, searching for the term "land use" without quotations will match "agricultural use and forest land" but with quotations will only find "land use".

Authors are usually entered as last name followed by first name separated by a comma, as in "Doe, John I." First names may be abbreviated to the first letter. Searching only for the author's last name is the most reliable way to include the desired publication in the results.

Fill in any one of the fields, or restrict your search further by filling in multiple fields. Clicking the Search button initiates the search using the criteria you've specified. At least one item must be selected for the search to proceed.

Use the first drop-down box to select a particular series, and the second box to select the publishing Station. Keys to these abbreviations are found further down this page. If you wish to search more than one station or series at a time, you'll need to either choose "Any" to search them all or run separate searches for each.

If you know the issue number, this can be entered in the third box. Treesearch looks for the number you enter anywhere within the issue number. For example, searching for the digit "5" will locate issues 5, 15, and 257, among others. To find only issue 5, enter "005" in the search box.

When you finish setting one or more search criteria, click the Search button to initiate the search. You must select at least one item for the search to proceed

Advanced Searching

If a simple search does not find the right publication, click the Refine Search button at the bottom of any search results page to begin an Advanced Search. This page gives more options for refining a search, including specifying criteria to include and exclude authors or terms, and limiting searches to publications originating in particular Stations. Any of the options on the page can be selected individually or acting together, providing great flexibility in focusing a search.

Choosing "Does not contain" in the Comparison column excludes publications that match that criterion. This allows searches that, for example, list all publications with an author named "Alig" but excludes those with the term "land use" in the title.

By changing the Search field item in a given row you can specify multiple criteria for the same field, allowing you, for example, to search for all publications by "Pye" but excluding those coauthored with "Prestemon." The Add new search field button allows addition of more criteria, the Remove button to the right allows removal of that criterion.

By default, result pages display 10 results per page, this can be changed with the Results to show per page drop-down list, allowing up to 200 results to be shown on a page.

Searches look for character strings anywhere in the field, meaning that searches for a particular author will match publications regardless of where that name appears in the list of authors. More flexible choices for the various fields are available by choosing the Regular expressions radio button, which directs the search to recognize this complex but powerful syntax, commonly used in Unix and Perl.

Note that simply choosing a particular Publication type, Date range, or Publication origin will not restrict your search unless you also select the box that represents the desired filter.

Selecting any Search button begins the search with the specified criteria. Selecting any Reset button returns the form to its original settings.

Abbreviations

US Forest Service - Research & Development
Last Modified:  May 13, 2008