How do I perform an Author search?
Last updated on September 17, 2024
Author search provides the ability for the user to search for Compendex records via a listing of authors' profiles. These profiles contain the authors' preferred names as well as the variant names they have used for their published documents. You can search for authors via an author's last name, first name and/or initials, and/or associated affiliation. Additionally, you can search for an author via an ORCID.
The Author search feature provides a precise method for locating specific authors by using all the authors' names, their affiliation cities and countries/regions, and the subject areas from their documents to locate individual author profiles. Authors can also request corrections to details stored in their author profiles in Scopus.
Author searches are performed against the preferred names as well as the variant names for the author. The Author results display the author's preferred name as well as the first three most frequently used variant names for which the author has published documents. Thus, the four displayed author names in the results for some records may be different than the names contained in your search query. In these cases, the name in your search query is one of the author's variant names that is not displayed in the results list, but it is a variant name that is contained in the author's profile.
Author searches are not added to your Search history.
Note: Your institution must be subscribed to the Compendex database and Author search must be enabled for your institution to access this feature.
How
Follow these steps to perform an Author search using names:
- Click ‘Search’ at the top of any Engineering Village page.
- Scroll down and click ‘Author.’ The Author search form opens.
- From the ‘Author last name’ search box, enter an author's last name.
- From the ‘Author first name’ search box, enter an author's first name and/or initials.
- From the ‘Affiliation name’ search box, enter an author's affiliation name, city, or country/region.
- Select ‘Show exact matches only’ if desired. Refer to the ‘Author exact match search’ section of this FAQ for an explanation of author exact names.
- Click ‘Reset form’ if you want to change all your selections and reset the form.
- After you have completed all your selections for your search query, click the magnifying glass icon located to the right of the ‘Affiliation name’ search box to run your search.
The ‘Loading’ message displays, and the Author results list appears below the Author search form.
Note: It is not necessary to complete the author’s last name, first name/initials, and affiliation to conduct an Author search. Only one of these items is needed to conduct an Author search. Refer to the ‘Wildcards’ section of this FAQ to learn how to use them in a search for records using an author's last name, first name, and/or initials. Refer to ‘How do I perform an Affiliation search?’ for detailed instructions regarding Affiliation searches.
Follow these steps to perform an Author search using ORCID:
- Click ‘Search’ at the top of any Engineering Village page.
- Scroll down and click ‘Author.’ The Author search form opens.
- From the ‘ORCID’ search box, enter the 16-character ID.
- Click the magnifying glass icon located to the right of the ‘ORCID’ search box to run your search.
The ‘Loading’ message displays, and the Author results list appears below the Author search form.
Entering the author's last name, first name, middle name, and/or middle initials as shown in the table below will yield the following example search results.
Last name examples | For example, entering Smith into the ‘Last’ name field yields many variations of this name:
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Hyphenated or compound names | If the author has a hyphenated or compound last name, enter the names in the order for which you want see results to find the proper author record. Entering Chandler-Smith or Chandler Smith into the ‘Last’ name field finds an author record containing this last name. However, this author record is not found if entering Smith-Chandler or Smith Chandler into the ‘Last’ name field.
Note: The proximity search feature is not supported for Author searches. If the author has a compound last name (e.g., Van Scoy), enter the name as Van Scoy into the ‘Last’ name field.
Note: It is possible that a compound last name (e.g., Van Scoy) may also have variant name(s) that are indexed as one word with no space ( e.g., Vanscoy). In these cases, author records with this variant name may also be returned in the results along with the compound names with a space in them. Additionally, it is possible that names that are not compound names (e.g., Vanscoy) may have variant names that are indexed as compound names with a space (e.g., Van Scoy). |
First name examples | Entering Angelique into the ‘First’ name field yields results with this first name, middle initials, middle names, maiden names, etc.
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First name examples | Entering Shaun Thomas into the ‘First’ name field yields results with these two first names in this order. Entering Thomas Shaun into the ‘First’ name field will yield different results than the previous query as these names are in a different order. Note: The proximity search feature is not supported for Author searches. |
Author exact match search provides a precise method of searching author names by returning results that are exact matches of the name in your search query. For exact match, the author's last name for ‘Last name’ search, as well as first name, middle name, and/or initials for ‘First name’ search are indexed as one token. Refer to examples below.
Identically to regular author searches, exact match author searches are run against the preferred names as well as against variant names for the author.
Select the ‘Show matches only’ checkbox to enable this feature.
Author exact match last name example | Entering Smith into the ‘Last’ name field yields no variations of this name. All results contain the exact match Smith. It is possible that the last name (e.g., Smith) exact match may be contained in one of the variant names, but not in the preferred name. |
Author exact match last name example | Entering Ashley-Smith into the ‘Last’ name field yields no variations of this name. All results contain the exact match Ashley-Smith. These two names are returned in this order. It is possible that the last name exact match Ashley-Smith may be contained in one of the variant names, but not in the preferred name.
Note: The proximity search feature is not supported for Author searches. |
Author exact match first name example | Entering Melissa into the ‘First’ name field yields no variations of this name. All results contain the exact match Melissa. It is possible that the first name exact match Melissa may be contained in one of the variant names, but not in the preferred name. |
Author exact match first name example | Entering Ed into the ‘First’ name field yields no variations of this name. All results contain the exact match Ed. The results do not contain variations of this name such as Edwin or Edward.
It is possible that the first name exact match Ed may be contained in one of the variant names, but not in the preferred name. |
Author exact match first name example | Entering James Patrick into the ‘First’ name field yields no variations of this name. All results contain the exact match James Patrick. Additionally, these two names are returned in this order.
It is possible that the first name exact match James Patrick may be contained in one of the variant names, but not in the preferred name.
Note: The proximity search feature is not supported for Author searches. |
Wildcards can be used in conjunction with exact matches for names. The results from a wildcard search using exact match will contain only names indexed as a single word or token.
Use a question mark (?) to replace a single character anywhere in the name.
Use an asterisk (*) to replace 0 to x number of characters anywhere in the name.
You can use the question mark and asterisk wildcards in the same name. Refer to the examples below.
Author wildcard last name search examples | Last name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is not selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering S?itha into the ‘Author last name’ field yields the following names:
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Author wildcard last name search examples | Last name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is not selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering Jon* into the ‘Author last name’ field yields the following names:
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Author wildcard last name search examples | Last name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is not selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering Sm?th* into the ‘Author last name’ field yields the following names:
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Author wildcard first name search examples | First name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is not selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering Mar?us* into the ‘Author First name’ field yields the following names:
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Author wildcard last name exact search examples | Last name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering Tu*r into the ‘Author last name’ field yields the following names:
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Author wildcard first name exact search examples | First name for ‘Author search’ in which exact match is selected displays results as shown in the following examples. Entering T??r into the ‘Author first name’ field yields the following names:
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