How do I refine Quick, Expert, and Thesaurus search results?

1. After running a search, click the name of the facet (e.g., ‘Database,’‘Year,’‘Open Access,’ ‘Author’).

   Notes:

   • You may need to click the up or down arrows to open or close facets.
   • Facets that you open or close remain in that state during your current session. Thus, if you end your session and sign back in, the facets appear as they did before you opened or closed them.
   • The facets display the first five results that are most relevant to your search.
   • The number to the right of each facet reflects the total number of instances of the item. For example, the ‘Author affiliation’ facet presents the most prominent institutions that have published literature on the searched subject. Next to each name, in parentheses, are the number of documents associated with each institution.
   • If a facet contains only one item, (meaning all documents in the results are included in a particular category), then the display will only show the name and total records for that facet. The checkbox option will be grayed out as your search cannot be further refined from that facet.

2. From one or more facets, click the checkbox(es) of items you want to use to refine your search.

   • Multiple search terms can be added to the same search. For example, you can combine keywords, year, and database, or any other combination that is most appropriate to the search. If you select terms from different facets, these are treated as the Boolean operator AND.
3. Click the Chart icon to see a bar chart of the results available for that facet.
4. Click the Download icon to download and export the data available for that facet.
5. Click ‘View more’ to see up to 60 items display in a pop-up window for the facet.

   • Click ‘Max’ in the window to display a maximum of 160 items.
   • Click ‘10’ in the window to decrease the number of entries to 10 results.
   • Click the ‘X’ at the top right side of the window to close the ‘View more’ items display.
   • Type search term(s) into the Filter results text box to focus on specific results for that facet.
6. Click ‘Limit to’ so your search results include only the items you selected, or you may click ‘Exclude’ so the selected items are excluded from your results.

Your search is rerun, and the items you selected now appear in the query string at the top of the results page.

Near the top of the Refine results panel is the ‘Add a term’ feature. Use it in any of the following ways:

1. Enter a term and click ‘Limit to’ to search your current results for just that term.
2. Enter a term and click ‘Exclude’ to exclude the term from your current results.
3. Enter a term, select one or more item from the facets, and click ‘Limit to’ or ‘Exclude.’

If you are using command language in Expert search, you can use the ‘Add a term’ box to add or exclude terms within a certain field. For example, you can enter the phrase electronic wn TI into this box.

The ‘New search with facets’ box is located at the bottom of the Refine results panel. When you use this feature, your previous search query terms are deleted, and only the new terms you enter or facet items you select appear in the search query string at the top of the Results page.

Run a new search in any of the following ways:

• Enter a term and click the magnifying glass icon to run a new search. The search query string at the top of the page now contains only the term(s) you entered.
• Select one or more items from within any of the facets. Then enter a term (if desired) and click the magnifying glass icon to run the search. The search query string now contains only your search term and your selected facet items.
• Select one or more items from within any of the facets, and click the magnifying glass icon to run the search. Only the selected facet items appear in the search query string.

You can arrange the order of the facets by clicking in them and dragging them to the desired location. This allows you to place the facets you use most often at the top of the Refine results pane. Your facets remain in the new order as long as you are signed in to Engineering Village.

You may set the default for the Top 3 facets that will display in your results set by updating your selections on the Results tab of the My preferences page.

You may see IPC (International Patent Classification) and CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification) facets if you include patent databases along with non-patent database(s) in your refined search.

For further information about how to work with facets, refer to How can I work with patent search results?, How do I view and filter additional facet results?, How do I view facets in a chart?, and How do I download facets?.