Help Table of Contents
Basic Search
 
Advanced Search 		Search Tips Search Results Technical Requirements

Basic Search

Enter your search term (s) in the search box and your search will be conducted on all available indexed fields; included are Title, Keyword, and Abstract. Boolean logic (AND and OR operators) may be used to combine the results of multiple search term searches into a single query.
Enclose phrase in "double quotes."
For example: "atmospheric radiation"

Advanced Search

Term Searching

  1. Enter your search criteria into as few or as many fields as desired. Field choices are:
    1. Search Term(s), which searches all the fields in the record; including project title and text fields.
    2. Register Number
    3. Title
    4. Abstract
    5. Principal Investigator
    6. Institution
    7. City
    8. State
    9. Congressional District
    10. BER Division
    11. DOE Program Manager
    12. Research Area
    13. Fiscal Year
    14. Project Term (From) Term Start Date
    15. Project Term (To) Term End Date

Principal Investigator (PI) Lookup

  1. Click on PI Lookup link.
  2. When new window opens, enter part of last name or select by first letter.
  3. Check boxes for desired entries and click ok.
  4. Values appear in Investigator search box.

Institution Lookup

  1. Click on Institution Lookup link.
  2. When new window opens, enter part of Institution name or select by first letter.
  3. Check boxes for desired entries and click ok.
  4. Values appear in Institution search box.

Research Area (Code) Lookup

  1. Click on Research Area Lookup link.
  2. When new window opens, enter part of Research Area name or select by first letter.
  3. Check boxes for desired entries and click ok.
  4. Values appear in Research Area search box.
  5. List of Research Area Codes and Descriptions.

Project Term Searching

  1. The Project Term is comprised of two sets of 3 text boxes (MM/DD/YYYY), titled “From Term Start Date” and “To Term End Date”, which performs a search where all retrieved project records have both their Project Term dates between the “From” date and the “To” date. Enter the beginning year (From) and ending year (To) of your selected range in the spaces provided.
  2. If data is only entered in the “From” textboxes, a search is performed where all project records with a Project Term START date greater than or equal to the “From” date are returned. If data is only entered into the YYYY text box, 1/1/YYYY is assumed, if data is only entered into the YYYY and MM text boxes, MM/1/YYYY is assumed.
  3. If data is only entered in the “To” textboxes, a search is performed where all project records with a Project Term END date less than or equal to the “To” date are returned. If data is only entered into the YYYY text box, 12/31/YYYY is assumed, if data is only entered into the YYYY and MM text boxes, MM/({last day of month)/YYYY is assumed.

Top

Search Tips

General

  1. Searching for individual terms does not require a special syntax. For example, a search for DOG will return all results that contain the term DOG.
  2. Multiple words entered as search terms must all be contained in the field(s) searched in order to be returned in the search results. For example, a search on DOG CAT will find results that contain both DOG and CAT.

Case Sensitivity

Search terms in the BER Abstracts Database are case insensitive. A term entered in either upper case, lower case, or mixed case will find/match terms that are in the project record in upper case, lower case, and/or mixed case.

Drop-down Menus

  1. To assist you in formulating search strategies, Drop-down Menus have been created for City, State, Congressional District and BER Division.
  2. Drop-down menus list standardized values that are valid choices. You can select one or more value from the Drop-Down Menu.
  3. To select a standardized value, click on the value(s) you want to include in your strategy.
  4. To select multiple values, click again on the same drop-down arrow and make an additional selection. Repeat until all desired values are selected.

Wildcard Operators

  1. The asterisk ( * ) is used as a multi-character wildcard for term expansion.
    1. A search for NUCLE* will return results that contain terms such as NUCLEAR, NUCLEUS, NUCLEOPROTEIN. Term expansion using the multi-character wildcard is limited, and will result in a search error if the term is too vague (an expansion error). Vagueness depends on the density of the known portion of the word ( NUCLE in this example). If a search results in an expansion error, more characters will be required in order to more uniquely identify the desired terms. For example, a search on N* will likely result in a term expansion error.
    2. An asterisk may be used inside a string of characters. For example, a search for H*GENOUS will return results that contain terms such as HOMOGENOUS and HETEROGENEOUS.
    3. Asterisks may not be used as the beginning of a term. For example, a search for *ETERGENOUS will result in an error.
  2. The question mark (?) is used as a single-character wildcard for term expansion.
    1. A search for DO? will return results that contain terms such as DO, DOG, DOT, DOE, DOI.
    2. If a search results in an expansion error, more characters will be required in order to more uniquely identify the desired terms. For example, a search for T? will likely result in a term expansion error because a large number of terms or words start with the letter T.
    3. A question mark may be used inside a string of characters. For example, a search for C?T will return results that contain terms such as CAT, COT, CPT.
    4. More than one single-character wildcard may be used in the same search. However, this may cause a slower return of the results than searching with only one single-character wildcard.
    5. Question marks may not be used as the beginning of a term. For example, a search for ?ETERGENOUS will result in an error.

Phrase/adjacent term searching

  1. Phrases (adjacent terms) can be searched for by using double quotes. For example, a search for "BIG EXPLOSION" will return results that contain the term BIG immediately followed by the term EXPLOSION.
  2. When the Boolean operator NEAR is within a phrase search (using double quotes), it will be treated as a search for the term NEAR and will not act as a Boolean operator. For example, a search for "DOG NEAR CAT" will find results that contain the phrase "DOG NEAR CAT".
  3. Wildcard operators inside a phrase will operate as wildcards. For example, a search on "CIRCUS TRAIN*" will return results that contain phrases such as "circus train", "circus training", "circus trainers".
  4. Phrases can be joined together using Boolean Operators. For example, a search for "DOG HOUSE" OR "DOG RESIDENCE" will return results that contain either the phrase "DOG HOUSE" or the phrase "DOG RESIDENCE".

Boolean

  1. If you receive an error message related to Boolean searching, please check your use of operators, parenthesis and/or quotation marks.
  2. Operators ( AND, OR, NOT, NEAR )
    1. Searches for DOG AND CAT will return results that contain both DOG and CAT. Searches using the Boolean operator AND must have two conditions on which to operate. Therefore a search for AND CAT will return results that contain only CAT (the word AND is not indexed).
    2. Multiple words entered as search terms without a Boolean Operator must all be contained in the field(s) searched in order to be returned in the search results. In other words, an implicit AND is added between each term. For example, a search on the 'Title' for DOG CAT will return results that contain both DOG and CAT in the title. It is not necessary for the terms to be adjacent.
    3. Searches for DOG OR CAT will return results containing either DOG or CAT. Searches using the Boolean operator OR must have two conditions on which to operate. Therefore a search for OR CAT will return results that contain only CAT (the word OR is not indexed).
    4. Searches for DOG NOT CAT will return results that contain DOG and do not contain CAT. Searches using the Boolean operator NOT must have two conditions on which to operate. Therefore a search for NOT CAT will return results that contain only CAT (the word NOT is not indexed).
    5. Searches for DOG NEAR CAT will return results that contain both DOG and CAT. However, the relevance is increased for results where the two terms are closer together. Searches using the Boolean operator NEAR must have two conditions on which to operate. A search for NEAR CAT will return results that contain only CAT because the word NEAR is a Boolean Operator.
  3. Order of Operation
    1. The default order of operations (precedence) for all supported Boolean Operators is NEAR, NOT, AND, OR.
    2. Unless overridden by use of parenthesis, the default order of operations will be used. Expressions are evaluated in order from left to right according to the precedence of their operators (or order of operation). Operators with higher precedence are applied first. Operators of equal precedence, i.e. the same operator used more than once, are applied in order of their appearance in the expression from left to right.
    3. A search for DOG NOT CAT OR MOUSE will return results that either
      1. contain the term DOG and do not contain the term CAT or
      2. that contain the term MOUSE.
      This can be demonstrated by adding parentheses in the example (DOG NOT CAT) OR MOUSE to show the order of precedence. Since NOT has a higher order (precedence), its expression is evaluated first.
    4. A search for DOG NOT (CAT OR MOUSE) will return results that contain DOG and do not contain either CAT nor MOUSE. This is an example of overriding the default order of operations by using parenthesis.

Top

Search Results

Results

  1. The Search Results page provides you with information about your search, including your search strategy, sorting choice, number of results, and the number of results pages.
  2. From your Search Results page you can:
    1. Re-sort the search results
    2. Refine your search
    3. Print the results in a printer friendly format
    4. Navigate from your current Search Results page to other Search Results pages
    5. Select results of interest by checking the box in front of each result and clicking on 'Show only (/) Items' (see Using the Check Box ).
  3. The default number of results per page is 25.
  4. Each title displayed is hyperlinked to the project record.
  5. Each principal investigator is hyperlinked so that, when selected, a search is conducted for the selected investigator. The search is the same as if you had conducted a search on Investigator from Advanced Search. For example, if you select the 'Smith, John' hyperlink, it will provide you with the same search results as when you conduct an Advanced Search on Investigator for "Smith, John".

Sorting

Your search results will be sorted by Relevance in ascending order by default. Click on Register Number, Title, Principal Investigator, Institution, or Project Term to sort by that column.

Using the Check Box

  1. Items selected via the selectable check box will be retained during your browser session. These checked items will persist until you choose to clear all previously selected items. This will allow you to perform multiple searches using different criteria and have all selected items retained in a single list.
  2. You may choose to clear all previously selected items.
  3. You may choose to remove single items from your list by deselecting the Check Box.
  4. You may choose to view your list of selected results on the Search Results by clicking on 'Show only (/) Items'.

Project Records

  1. Project Records are available via the 'Title' hyperlink on the Search Results.
  2. You may search for other projects authored by a specific individual by selecting the appropriate Investigator hyperlink.

Download Search Results

  1. Click on Download Search Results on the Results screen.
  2. Select the desired fields to download. Click Download Results.
  3. Open or Save the output file with a .xls extension.
  4. File can be opened in Excel as a spreadsheet.

Printing

Search Results and individual records will automatically print in a "printer friendly" format that minimizes graphics.

Technical Requirements

  1. For complete functionality, you must have a recent version of a major Web browser (e.g. Netscape, FireFox, Microsoft Internet Explorer) and related software.
  2. In order to function correctly on your computer, required browser configurations include:
    1. JavaScript must be enabled
    2. Style sheets must be supported. The application is optimized for W3C's CSS Level 2.
    3. Cookies must be accepted (uses session cookies).

Top