full-search help

This page gives information on using the search facilities of Crystallography Journals Online. To go back to the advanced search page click here.

Search features

• Basic searching
• Phrase searching
• Boolean searching
• Word variations (wild cards and stemming)
• Exclusion of common words
• Search by journal
• Search by author(s)

Customizing your results

• Sorting your results
• Highlighting
• Number of results
• Format of results

If you have any queries about the search system, please contact support@iucr.org.

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Search features

Basic searching

To enter a query, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key (or click on the Search button) for a list of relevant articles. As only articles that contain all the words in your query are returned, refining your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered.

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Phrase searching

Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes ("like this") will appear together in all results exactly as you have entered them. For example, to find articles containing the phrase protein crystallization, your search should be as follows:

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Boolean searching

Searching with the logical "AND", "OR" and "NOT" operators is supported. In addition, search terms can be clustered using brackets (). For example, to find articles about protein crystallization and lysozyme that do not include the words microgravity or space, you could use the following query:

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Word variations (wild cards and stemming)

Searches using wild cards and stemming are supported:

• Wild cards. The wild card "*" may be added to search terms. For example, searching for "crystal*" will return results for articles on "crystallography", "crystallization", "crystals" etc.
• Stemming. This option can be selected by checking the "Use stemming" box. The stemming algorithm takes the search term and removes common suffixes, such as plurals and "ing" endings, as well as some other English language structures such as "tional" (as in "rotational", where the root is "rotation").

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Exclusion of common words

Common words and characters such as "a" and "now", as well as some single digits and single letters, are excluded from searches as they tend to slow down searches without improving the results.

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Search by journal

As a default, all searches are carried out against all journals available from Crystallography Journals Online. You may also select single journals or combinations of journals for your search. If you are using a PC, journals can be selected by holding down the <Control> key; on a MAC hold down the <Option> key.

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Search by author(s)

A number of formats are supported by the author search:

Helliwell
Helliwell, John
Helliwell, J.
Helliwell, John Richard
Helliwell, John R.
Helliwell, J. R.

A search for "Helliwell, J." will match "Helliwell, John" or "Helliwell, James" but not "Helliwell, Norman". A search for "Helliwell, John" may or may not match "Helliwell, J.". A search for "Helliwell, J. R." will match "Helliwell, J. R." not "Helliwell, J." or "Helliwell, J. H." etc.

For multiple authors, please use "and", "or" and "not" as follows:

Helliwell, J and Raftery, J.
Helliwell, J. R. or Raftery, J.
Helliwell, J. R. not Raftery, J.

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Customizing your results

Sorting your results

There are a number of options for sorting your results:

• Sort by relevance. Articles are sorted by a relevance index, which takes a number of factors into account including the prominence of the search term in an article and the type of article.
• Sort by year. Articles are sorted by year of publication and then by relevance.
• Sort by journal. Articles are sorted by journal and then by relevance.

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Highlighting

When this feature is selected, search terms that occur in the title, author list and abstract are highlighted.

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Number of results

You can view 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100 records per page. If your search returns more than 1000 hits, you will be offered the opportunity of either continuing or modifying your search.

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Format of results

Your results can be displayed in the following formats:

• Detailed format. The bibliographic information is displayed for each hit together with abstracts and onward links to similar papers, crystallographic data and supplementary material. The bibliographic records may be selected and downloaded in a number of formats.
• Concise format. Basic bibliographic information is displayed; bibliographic records can be selected and downloaded.

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