Start up the system

Basic commands and help functions

Search the databases

• The system retrieves the search terms literally, as they are typed, but does not distinguish between lower and upper case.

• Don't use diacritics in your search, as these will not be interpreted correctly. Use the corresponding standard characters instead: "e" instead of "è", "é", "ë" or "ê"; "a" instead of "à", "â", "å" or ä; etc.

• Truncation: WebSPIRS does not feature automatic truncation. Use the symbol "*" if you wish to apply truncation. E.g. "schistosom*" finds "schistosoma", "schistosoma-haematobium", "schistosoma-japonica", "schistosoma-mansoni", "schistosomiases", "schistosomiasis", "schistosomose", etc.
  Take care: using truncation with short strings or popular stems can lengthen retrieval times substantially, as a great number of words need then to be combined. The more specific a search formulation, the faster results are found.

• Masking: question marks ("?") can be used to replace one or zero characters within a word. In this way "h?ematology" retrieves both "hematology" and "haematology".

• Remember that in all our databases only English keywords are used. E.g. "tuberculosis" instead of "tuberculose". The same goes for all software elements: commands, prepositions and operators. Currently no other language versions of WebSPIRS are available.

<Search>: default retrieval option

However, retrieval can also be limited to specific fields, using the preposition "IN" plus the field code.

• E.g. "hepatitis IN TI" restricts the occurences of the word "hepatitis" to the title field only.
• E.g. "malaria IN KW" restricts the occurences of the word "malaria" to the keywords field only.

Searching for authors

• The easiest way to search for specific author names is to type them in the data entry box and to select <in Author>" by way of the radio button on the right-hand side of the screen (<Search> & <Advanced>).

• In command mode the same can be done as follows: Add the preposition "IN" and the field code "AU" (Author) to the search term. E.g. "finegold IN AU".
  Generally author names consist of last name and one or more initials, both groups separated by a hyphen ("-"). E.g. "Harrison-TWA". Author names with more elements have more than one hyphen. E.g. "Van-der-Stuyft-P" or "Garcia-Lopez-C".

• Use the alphabetic "(Browsable) Author" <Index>. This may draw your attention to unexpected initials variations. No matter how certain you may be of an author's name, many are not true to one format. Chances are that "Robert A. Smith" has published the paper you are looking for as "Smith-R" or "Smith-RAT". Don't forget to use the hyphens.

• During (full record) display, author names will be in blue color and underlined. As such, they are hyperlinked and can automatically be added to the searches by simply clicking on them.

Searching for journals names or abbreviations

• Add the preposition "IN" and the field codes "JN", "JA" or "SO" (Source) to the search term. Don't forget to use the hyphens. E.g. "N-Engl-J-Med IN SO".

  Take care: different databases may use different codes and field names for journal names and abbreviations. One of the following should give satisfying results:

  • JN: Journal name.
  • JA: Journal abbreviation (Index Medicus style).
  • SO: Source = Journal abbreviation + Year of publication + Volume + Issue + Pages cited.

• Use the alphabetic "Journal name" or "Journal abbreviation" <Index>. Again, this may draw your attention to unexpected formats.

• During (full record) display, journal names will be in blue color and underlined. As such, they are hyperlinked and can automatically be added to the searches by simply clicking on them.

When a specific journal is available in the local library, this is indicated explicitly in the bibliographic record. The SilverPlatter logo in front of the bibliographic reference serves as a preliminary indication. Clicking on "check full text availability" provides more detailed information and will allow you to compare "Source" details, e.g. publication year or volume with the ITG library collection specifics.

Searching for keywords

• The easiest way to search for words defining a subject is to type them in the data entry box and to select <in Subject> by way of the radio button on the right-hand side of the screen (<Search> & <Advanced>).

• In command mode keywords can be searched as follows: add the preposition "IN" and the database-specific subject field code to the search term:
  • ITG Library databases: use KW (Keywords). E.g. "tuberculosis IN KW".
  • CABI: use SU (subject headings), DE (descriptors), OD (organism descriptors) or GE (geographic names). E.g. "schistosomiasis IN DE", "mali IN GE".

• During (full record) display, keywords will be in blue color and underlined. As such, they are hyperlinked and can automatically be added to the searches by simply clicking on them.

Attention:

• After typing a term in the data entry box and clicking on the <Go To Term> button, the system first displays an alphabetical list of related permuted <Subject Headings>, starting with the thesaurus item closest to the term you entered. At this stage automatic truncation and mapping are active.

• From this list one can switch to the hierarchical keyword structure by clicking on a chosen hyperlinked, therefore blue color, underlined term. The resulting frame displays more information about the selected subject heading, e.g. a definition, synonyms, related terms. If available, more specific (narrower) as well as less specific (broader) terms are displayed below. One can navigate to higher or lower levels by just clicking on them.

• When subjects feature one or more narrower "subdivisions" one can choose to retrieve only an individual subject (<Search Marked>) or to retrieve both the subject term and all hierarchically lower level items (<Explode Marked>). E.g. "explode africa, western" = "africa, western + benin + burkina faso + cote d'ivoire + gambia + ghana + guinea + guinea-bissau + liberia + ... ", etc.

• In the last step an opportunity is provided to select subheadings: e.g. "epidemiology", "drug therapy". Subheadings make the keywords far more specific, but using them increases the risk of missing articles which may also be relevant. Therefore it may be better to respect the <ALL SUBHEADINGS> default and afterwards limit the results while viewing the whole set (using the check boxes to select individual records) or by adding and combining with additional search terms.

Attention:

• Individual thesaurus terms may have been recently adopted. Using them with older database sections may therefore fail to yield results.

• The ITG Library databases do not feature a thesaurus.

• When different databases are selected simultaneously, the <Thesaurus> button may become inactivated, even if several of the databases do have a thesaurus module.

Simply clicking on a term from this list is the easiest way to select it and start the actual searching. Select several terms at once by ticking off the checkboxes in front of the terms and clicking on "Search Marked".

Using the <Index> module has the advantage that your attention is automatically drawn to different ways of spelling or alphabetically closely related alternatives.

With the radio button alternative field-specific indexes can be accessed (e.g. "Language", "Publication year", "Journal name", etc.

Take care: different databases may feature different selections of field-specific indexes.

Use the <Index> module for a database specific list of fields and their letter codes. Use these letter codes to specify fields, or select index terms directly.