Extra Benefits of Full-Text Searching
Searching the full text of an article can reveal much more information than a simple abstract search. More information than just the results and discussion is indexed; this information can be used to identify articles that are related in ways separate from the subject of the research. The following table illustrates how full-text searches can identify a valuable range of articles.
- Articles from a particular institution
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Since authors' addresses and affiliations are indexed, they can be searched. For example, a full-text search for
Purdue
will return articles by an author claiming a Purdue affiliation (as well as any articles written by someone named "Purdue"). This technique can also be used to help narrow down an author search, especially in cases where the author's name is fairly common. In this case, enter the author's name in the "Author" field, and the institution (or better yet, just a single word to identify it) in the "Word(s) Anywhere in Article" field. - Articles that cite a paper written by a certain author
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It is often desirable to find articles that have referenced an important author or paper. This can be achieved by searching for the author's last name in the "Word(s) Anywhere in Article" field. Such a search will return all articles written by the author, as well as any articles that cite an article written by the author. To find articles that cite a specific known article, enter the citation information in the "Word(s) Anywhere in Article" field in the following format:
journal AND volume AND starting page
For example, if the query
science AND 278 AND 1632
were entered in the "Word(s) Anywhere in Article" field, all articles that cited this article will be returned. - Articles using a special reagent or technique
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Articles using a particular technique can be easily identified by entering a keyword for the technique in the "Word(s) Anywhere in Article" field. For example, to retrieve articles that used Adobe Photoshop in the preparation and analysis of data, a search for
photoshop
in the appropriate field will return articles with that in common.
