EV2 has two search modes, Quick Search (the default) and Expert Search.
The expert search allows for precision searching, and is more suitable for literature searches for a project or report.
The quick search is intended to retrieve a broad set of documents related to the topic, and may be a starting point for an indication of what is available.

Using quick search

The default search is from All Fields, so the search words can be found anywhere in the record.
The default period is 1990 TO 2001, to search the whole database, under LIMIT BY, pull down to select 1970.

The AND operator is assumed between words within the search bar, eg. automatic control will find records where both words appear but not necessarily together, equivalent to automatic AND control. If you want the words to be searched as a phrase, enclose them in curly brackets, eg. {automatic control}

Autostemming, a form of truncation, is applied to words from some fields, such as title and abstract. Autostemming automatically checks an inbuilt thesaurus to find other words with the same stem and meaning as the search word, eg control will automatically find control, controlled, controlling, controls, but not controller or controllable or controllability.
Controller will also find controllers, but controllable and controllability are not linked.
Autostemming is not applied to words from the Ei Index Term fields, that is from Ei Subject Terms, Serial Title, Author, Author Affiliation, Publisher .

If you want to find the occurence of all words from a given stem, use an asterisk * after the stem, eg. control* will find control, controllable, controllability, controlled, controller, controllers, controlling, controls.

If you want to find the occurence of a specific word, eg. controlled you should use the expert search mode.

Displaying records

The default order of the records is Relevance, designed to display first those records where the search words are closest together.
To display details of the most recent papers first, under SORT RESULTS BY click on the Publication Date button.

The default display is the brief format or Citation, including article title (in bold), authors: Author Affiliation: Source: (in italics), and language of article, for the first 25 records.

From the brief format, click on Abstract to get more details including the Abstract: and the Ei Subject Terms for an individual record.
The Abstract display format also provides for Full Text Options with a link to the suppliers when the Library has a subscription to the Source: journal.

Alternatively scan your results and Select records by clicking on the small box to the left of the title for each useful article. Go to the top of the results list and from the Selected Results: box click on Abstract, then click on View to create a set of the marked records with all the available details.

Output

• select useful records by marking them individually, or clicking Select all on page or entering a range in Select range
• choose the format e.g. Abstract if you want the abstract included
• click E-mail then enter your email address or
  click Print then the print button or
  click Download then Plain text format or RIS format then Download; use the RIS format if you are storing the references in an EndNote database.

Finding Related Information

In the Citation or Abstract display format click on an author's name to find other records by that author.

In the Abstract display format click on an Ei Subject Term to find other records which have been assigned that Subject Term.
Under Search for related information, click on Related Compendex records to find each record which shares any one or more Ei Subject Terms with your record.

Modifying a search strategy in quick search

Add more search terms in the next two search bars.

If you have alternative words for a concept, put these in the first two bars and change the operator to OR. eg.

reuse OR recyling AND waste will find reuse AND waste as well as recycling AND waste.

waste AND reuse OR recycling will give a completely different result!

Restrict a search to a single field.

Specifying the title field to be searched can be useful when you need to find a known article.

Specifying Abstract/Title/Subject Terms restricts the search to words from the abstract, article title, or Ei subject terms; the occurence of your search words in these fields is likely to better reflect the content of the article.

For better results when searching for an author, author affiliation, a journal title, or a publisher, Browse Ei Indexes

Under Add Ei Index Terms, click on the radio button to select from Ei Subject Terms, or Serial Title, or Author, or Author Affiliation, or Publisher, then click on Lookup, to bring up a new window providing a search bar; an alphabet to allow you to go to a part of the alphabet, and a list of the first 25 names, titles or subject headings. Some examples,

finding an author's papers

In the Search for: author bar type the surname, then click on Find to go the appropriate part of the list for that surname, with initials. Click in the box to the left of the name to transfer the selected form of the name to the SEARCH FOR: bars in Quick Search. The field box under SEARCH IN: will change to show Author.

Two more forms of the name can be added to the next search bars. Remember to change the operator between the search bars to OR where you find more than one form of an author's name.
If you select more than three forms of a name, the fourth and any subsequent selections will replace that presented in the last search bar.

In the Search for: Ei Subject Terms bar type a subject heading, then click on Find to go to the appropriate part of the alphabetical list of subject terms. Click in the box to the left of a subject term to transfer the selected heading to the SEARCH FOR: bars in Quick Search. The field box under SEARCH IN: will change to show Ei Subject Term.
There are often a number of sequences within the sub-headings for each subject, separated by , - or . You will need to check for all possible versions to be sure of finding relevant references, eg.

ACCELERATOR, MAGNETS
ACCELERATORS, CONTROL
ACCELERATORS, CYCLOTRON
ACCELERATORS, MAGNETS
ACCELERATORS, POWER SUPPLY
ACCELERATORS, TARGETS
ACCELERATORS-CYCLOTRONS
ACCELERATORS. MAGNETS

If you select two or three Ei Subject Terms, remember to set the appropriate AND, OR, NOT operators between the search bars to reflect your search intention.

Use the options under LIMIT BY to restrict a search strategy to a particular type of publication or to a specific language or a particular year.

LIMIT BY DOCUMENT type - the default is All Document Types, pull down to select from Journal Articles, Conference Articles, or Conference Proceedings

LIMIT BY LANGUAGE - the default is All Languages, pull down to select from English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian. If you need to limit a search to a language not listed here, see the expert search mode.

DATE - the default is 1990-2001, click on the arrow for the left hand box to select the first year of the range to be searched, select from the right hand box for the last year of the range. If you want to search a single year only, select the same starting and end year, eg. 2001 TO 2001

Using Expert Search

Searching

The system will interpret the search terms exactly as presented in the search bar, SO

• use truncation to allow for plurals and alternative word endings, type an asterisk * at the end of a word stem, eg.
robot* will find each record where any of the words robot, robots, robotic, robotics, occurs.
• use Boolean operators [AND, OR, NOT] to link search words and phrases, eg.
mobile OR wheeled will find records which include one or both of the search words. Use the OR operator to collect alternative words or phrases used for a concept.
mobile AND robot* will find only those records which contain both search words, anywhere in the record.
robot* NOT manipulator* will find and remove those records which contain the second search word. Use the NOT operator with care, or better, structure your search to avoid using this operator.
If you have MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF OPERATOR IN A SEARCH STRATEGY, YOU NEED BRACKETS!

• use the proximity operator [NEAR] to link search terms more broadly than a phrase, eg.
wind NEAR wave* to find records with those words within 100 words of each other.
Leave the Display setting on Relevance so the sort operation will display first those records where the search words are closest to each other.

• use the within [WN] operator to specify a single field to be searched.

Select an appropriate code from the GLOSSARY OF SEARCHABLE FIELDS/CODES: to restrict the search to Keyword/Title/Abstract, Title, Author, Author Affiliation, Serial Title, Abstract, Publisher Name, Ei Subject Terms, Identifiers, CODEN, ISSN, Document Type, Language, eg.
polymer* WN ST will find records where any of the words polymer, polymers, polymerisation, polymerization, occur in the title of a journal.

• use {curly brackets} around search words to instruct the system to find that exact pattern of characters,
to find phrases which include stopwords, eg. {signal-to-noise}
to find phrases which include an operator, eg. {block and tackle}
to find special characters which are otherwise replaced by a blank, eg. {III-V } {CSMA/CD}

Use (brackets) to specify the order of the search operations
e.g. cells and (photovoltaic or fuel) ensures that the alternative ORed search terms photovoltaic/fuel are processed first and both relate to cells.
Nesting describes a series of bracketted terms within brackets, which allows control of multiple steps in a search strategy. The system searches the innermost set of brackets first, moving outwards through each pair, before defaulting to the order of the operators, eg.

design AND (((mouse OR mice OR joystick) AND keyboard*) OR trackball*) AND (computer OR workstation) AND (ergonomic* OR human factor*)

Other ways of searching

Finding related information

See the notes under quick search.

Using previously created sets

Session History, presented between the search screen and the results list, keeps a list of the searches done in the current session. The Search strategy, Results, Year(s) searched and Database are shown for the last three searches. Click on expand to see all searches done in the session.

• click on the Search strategy to look at the results of an earlier set
• use the Set number as part of your search strategy instead of re-typing a search, eg. type
#3 and (automaton* or robot*)

Field searching

GLOSSARY OF SEARCHABLE FIELDS/CODES: in the left hand column provides a list of the individual fields and the codes which can be used in a search strategy to restrict the search word to one field, eg.

coastal WN ST will find this word in the name of a journal or conference
neural network* WN TI will find this phrase in the title of a paper or article
hydrogen fuel WN KY will find these words from the article title, abstract, Ei subject terms or identifiers. Do not use operators with the Keywords field.

Boolean operators can be used in field searches, enclose the search terms and code in brackets, eg.

(ANN or ANNs WN FL) will find these words from the Identifiers field.
Free language terms or identifiers are added by Ei indexers to reflect the content of the article or paper. Identifiers are likely to reflect new terminology before an Ei Subject Term is created.

More than one field code can be used in a search strategy, eg.

(adelaide and engineering WN AF) and (engineer* education WN KY) will find both words adelaide and engineering from the Author Affiliation field, together with the other two words from the Keywords field. Keywords finds words from the article title, abstract, Ei subject terms fields or identifiers.

Searchable Indexes of Terms

In addition to providing a list of fields and codes, some fields under GLOSSARY OF SEARCHABLE FIELDS/CODES: have links to enable you to search the list of terms in that field, Author, Author Affiliation, Serial Title, Publisher Name, Ei Subject Terms, Document Type, Language. These lists are derived from the full database, so the existence of a name or word in a list does not guarantee that it will occur in the period you are searching.

For browsing Author, Author Affiliation, Serial Title, Publisher Name, Ei Subject Terms follow the same procedures as for Browse Ei Indexes in Quick Search, EXCEPT where you select more than one term.
In Expert Search the system automatically puts brackets around the selected term, adds the appropriate field code and another set of brackets, then puts the AND operator before the next selected term.
It is essential to check the strategy created by expert search

• where you have selected alternative versions of a name or subject, your search strategy will be presented as
(({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) AND (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU result=0
to find articles with either form of the name, delete AND and replace with OR eg.
(({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) OR (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU result=6
• where you combine selected terms from more than one index, expert search continues to put AND between each term, eg.
(({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) AND (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU AND (({HEAT TRANSFER}) WN CV) AND (({HEAT TRANSFER,}) WN CV result=0

changing the operator to allow for the alternative forms of each term only goes part of the way, eg.

(({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) OR (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU AND (({HEAT TRANSFER}) WN CV) OR (({HEAT TRANSFER,}) WN CV result=34574
[the system does the AND operation first then finds each of the terms separated by OR]


to find articles by Stoecker where Heat Transfer is an Ei Index Term, enclose each 'part' in brackets, eg.
((({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) OR (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU) AND ((({HEAT TRANSFER}) WN CV) OR (({HEAT TRANSFER,}) WN CV) result=2
• alternatively, do two separate searches, and change the operators to OR, eg.
#1 (({STOECKER, W.F.}) WN AU) OR (({STOECKER, WILBERT F.}) WN AU
#2 (({HEAT TRANSFER}) WN CV) OR (({HEAT TRANSFER,}) WN CV
then the combine the set numbers, eg.
#1 AND #2 result=2

For Language you need to copy the form of the name from the list of languages, paste into the expert search bar, then type WN LA to indicate the field to be searched, eg.

(arabic WN LA)

There are three Document Type fields, for Journal Article, Conference Proceedings and Conference Article. Type the field code, followed by WN DT to restrict a search to these types, eg.

• (earthquake* AND building*) AND JA WN DT to restrict the search to journal articles only
• (ieee WN PN) AND CP WN DT to restrict the search to records for conference proceedings published by the IEEE
• life cycle cost* AND CA WN DT to restrict the search to individual papers from conferences

Display and Output

See under quick search for notes on Display and Output.

Click on Help for online assistance at any stage of your search.

For earlier material see

Engineering index. 1884-1988.
Microfilm and Reference collection 620.005 E5
An international coverage of journal articles, conference papers, research reports, arranged alphabetically by broad subject headings, with author and subject indexes.

It is important to read the cross-references under subject headings to other headings and sub-headings where material may be found. If you can't find what you need please check with the Engineerng Librarian before giving up!e

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