What are the search fields in the GeoRef database?

You can create a Quick search query by selecting the following individual fields from the dropdown menu:

• All Fields
• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• First author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• CODEN
• Conference information
• Collection title
• ISBN
• ISSN
• Publisher
• Source title
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Country of origin
• Category

Refer to the descriptions in the sections below for further information about these individual fields.

This field contains a brief summary of the entire document. To search for an exact phrase in this field, enclose it in braces or double quotation marks.

GeoRef contains 7-digit to 10-digit numeric accession numbers. These accession numbers will also contain a hyphen.

The ‘All’ field is a composite field that includes all other fields in this FAQ (except those listed in the bullets below). Therefore, using this field in a search query retrieves results from all the other fields listed in this FAQ except for the following:

• Document type
• Year

You may use the ‘All’ field in Expert search as shown in the examples below.

This field contains annotations regarding a document or part of a document. These notes are displayed in free-form text. The contents of this field appear in the ‘Notes’ field on the record page.

Author names are cited as they appear in the original document. Surnames appear first, usually followed by a comma and the remainder of the name as it appears in the original document.

Since author names may be cited in a variety of formats, Engineering Village recommends using the ‘Author Browse’ index for optimal author search results.

When an author's initials are not known, you can use an asterisk (*) as the truncation symbol to create your search query. However, be aware that this strategy may yield false positives because many authors share the same last name and first initial.

When records are displayed, author names are linked. Click an author link to retrieve records by that author from the entire date range of the database.

If a single word surname is entered as the author's last name, all the forms of that name will be retrieved.

Note that only authors whose names are presented in the format as the search query will be retrieved. The number of initials for an author's name may vary. For example, searching Smith, A. B. will not retrieve articles in which the author is cited as Smith, A.

If you perform an exact author search to further refine your search, only records that match the entire name will be returned.

Periods and commas are ignored by the search engine, but hyphens are significant in exact searches.

Exact search queries are the default search for implicit author links.

The Author field may contain schools, societies, and company names as well surnames.

In some names in older records, a suffix may be included, e.g., Jr. or III.

The formats and abbreviations used in author affiliations have changed over the years. Engineering Village recommends using the ‘Author affiliation Browse’ index. Author affiliations are displayed on the record page.

Other variations in affiliation names may occur for some of the following reasons:

• An organization's name may be given in different forms in different source documents.
• Variations may be due to language.
• An organization's name may change over the course of time. For example, "Mobil" is now named "ExxonMobil."

When conducting an exact search for this field, hyphens and spellings are significant, as only exact matches of the entire affiliation name will be contained in the search results.

This field may contain website and other contact information for the company that is mentioned in the Engineering Village document.

This field contains the subject categories in GeoRef records, and one or more of them is assigned to each record. This field may also display other terms that are included within this subject category on the record page. However, only the subject categories are indexed and searchable for this field. The additional included terms (usually enclosed in parentheses) are not searchable for this field.

The CODEN is a unique six-character alphanumeric identification code for the source title. CODENs can be used to limit results to a specific source. CODENs are administered by the International CODEN Service at CAS.org (Chemical Abstracts Service). You can see a source's CODEN on the record page.

This is the title of a non-serial collection.

Conference Information includes the conference name, date, and location (as available in the document).

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in GeoRef is available in the Engineering Village Thesaurus. The most recent edition of the Engineering Village Thesaurus contains thousands of terms. More than 10,000 are desriptors (preferred terms), and more than 9,000 are entry terms (non-preferred). New terms and descriptors can be identified using the Thesaurus search.

The controlled vocabulary is a list of subject terms used to describe a document's content in the most specific and consistent way possible. These terms can also be browsed in the ‘Controlled term Browse index’ in Engineering Village.

Search the Country of origin field to find documents from the author's affiliation country.

This field is only contained in thesis or dissertation records and refers to the type of degree for which the document was presented. The three options are the following:

• Bachelor's
• Master's
• Doctoral

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) contains a fixed string of numbers, letters, and symbols and is designed to uniquely identify and consistently access a document.

This field contains the item type (e.g., book [bk], journal article [ja], report review [rr], in process [ip], conference article [ca], dissertation [di], etc.) of the document. You may also search the document type via the ‘Document type’ dropdown filter on the Document results page after conducting a Quick search query.

This field contains the first author listed in the document. First author names may be cited in a variety of formats. Surnames appear first, usually followed by a comma and the remainder of the name (e.g., first name, middle name, and/or initials) as it appears in the original document. The First author field (FIRSTAU) is built from the ‘Author’ field. Refer to the Author (AU) field description for specific search queries and display examples, as they are also applicable to the First author (FIRSTAU) field.

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a formerly 10-digit, and now a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies a specific title and edition of a book or book series. The number can be used to find chapters from the same book or papers from the same conference. The ISBN appears on the record page. An ISBN is searchable in ‘All Fields’ for Quick or Expert search or individually according to the specific search code in Expert search.

The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is a standardized international alphanumeric code that is a unique and precise identifier for a serial publication. The format of the ISSN is an 8-digit number, divided by a hyphen into two 4-digit numbers. The last digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. It can be used to limit search results to a specific journal or serial conference proceeding. The ISSN may be displayed with or without the hyphen, and can be searched with or without it. The ISSN is displayed on the record page. There may also be an E-ISSN displayed, which is assigned to the electronic version of a serial.

An issue is a single item within a volume. Search this field using an issue number as shown in the examples below.

Search for the language of the document via this field. You may also search the language of a document via the ‘Language’ dropdown filter on the Document results list after running a Quick search or the ‘Language Browse’ index on the Expert search form.

This field refers to the ratio between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground.

This field refers to the map type for fold-out maps, maps in pockets, and individually published maps.

Search this field to identify publishers or find the journals published by a particular publisher.

In Expert search, use the code PN to search this field:

The report numbers refer to unique identifiers in the GeoRef database.  These numbers are very important for identifying specific reports, such as those from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) or other government agencies.  These numbers indicate the publishing agency, a specific publication series, and the report's sequential number.  

This field contains additional free-form text relating to the source of the document.

Search this field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, or conference articles, from your area of study. Search the Source title by single words or phrases. When searching for a source title, Engineering Village recommends that you use the ‘Source title Browse’ index, as there can be several variations of a publisher's name. This index also includes books and conference titles.

To conduct an exact source title search, enclose the full title in braces or double quotation marks:

This combined field retrieves results from any of the following fields:

• Abstract
• Controlled term
• Title
• Uncontrolled term

Title searches for words that appear in the title (or English translation title) of the article. This is very useful if you are looking for articles on a very broad topic. Words in a title are often an indication of the importance of those terms to the article.

For example, "Chlorophyll" in the title likely yields articles where chlorophyll is an important aspect.

Uncontrolled terms, also known as free language terms, are additional entry, or non-preferred subject terms. These terms are not assigned from the Ei Thesaurus, but are derived from the abstract and author keywords. New terminology is displayed in this field. The uncontrolled terms allow for further specificity in indexing that is not available using controlled vocabulary. Uncontrolled terms are periodically reviewed as candidates for eventual incorporation into the Ei Thesaurus.

Contents of this field may be searched in Quick search via the ‘Uncontrolled term’ field as well as the ‘Subject/Title/Abstract’ field. Additionally, these terms are searchable in Expert search using the FL search code.

This term is usually used to identify a single book that is part of a collection and often contains multiple issues. Search this field using a volume number as shown in the examples below.

You can restrict your document search to a specific publication year. You can also restrict your publication year searches via the ‘Add year range’ dropdown filter on the Quick search page and the ‘Date’ dropdown filter on the Expert search page.

See also Expert search fields and field codes for brief descriptions of these searchable fields and ‘How can I limit searches by database’ for additional information about restricting your searches.