Which search fields do Engineering Village databases include?

You can search the following fields in the CBNB database:

All fields

Using the default 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Title
• ISSN
• Source title

Additional fields can be searched using the Expert search. These fields are provided at the end of this topic.

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the Abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in braces or double quotation marks.

Companies

All companies for which information is given in the abstract are indexed. The legal designations of the status of a company are not used in indexing, e.g., ICI is used rather than ICI PLC.

Subsidiaries of multinational companies are separately named. The parent company will be indexed if it is mentioned in the abstract, but there is no automatic linking of subsidiaries and parents.

Full names are not reversed, but initials in company names are reversed.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The ISSN 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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. 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.

Source title

Search the Source title to find articles from a specific journal.

Subject/Title/Abstract

'Subject/Title/Abstract' retrieves results from any of the following fields: 'Title,' 'Company Name,' 'CAS Registry Number,' 'Industrial Sector and Sector Code,' and 'Abstract.'

Title

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.

Additional fields searched

Searching 'All fields' in Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. The information appears when you view the record page.

• Accession number
• Availability
• CAS registry number
• Chemical acronyms
• Chemicals
• CODEN
• Controlled term/Subject area
• Country of origin
• Industrial sectors
• ISBN
• SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) codes

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the CBNB search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

You can search the following fields in the Chimica database:

All fields

Using the default of 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from any of the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu when doing a search:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• Author Affiliation
• Title
• ISSN
• Source title
• Funding number
• Funding acronym
• Funding sponsor
• Funding information

Also, all Example below using "wn" followed by a field code (e.g., gold wn AB) are Expert search Example.

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the Abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in braces or double quotation marks.

Author

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, we recommend 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 lead to false hits because there are many authors with 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.

Author search tips

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.

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

Author affiliation

The formats and abbreviations used in author affiliations have changed over the years. We recommend using the 'Author affiliation Browse' index. Author affiliations are displayed on record page.

Conference code

A Conference code is a number assigned to a conference proceedings record. This allows you to locate every paper from a conference once you have found one paper. The conference code can be found on the record page.

Funding acronym

This is the acronym of the grant funding sponsor.

Funding information

Contains content from the Funding text, as well as from the Funding acronym, Funding number, and Funding sponsor fields.

Funding number

This is the number of the grant or award supporting the work.

Funding sponsor

This is the sponsor or agency that is providing the grant or the funding for the work.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The ISSN 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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. 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.

Source title

Search the Source title by single words or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in braces or double quotation marks. When searching for a source title, it is recommended that you use the 'Source title Browse' index. Search by ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for a specific journal.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Subject/Title/Abstract retrieves results from any of the following fields:

• Abstract
• CAS registry number
• Controlled term
• Title
• Uncontrolled term

Title

To search for specific terms within a title, search the Title field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. The information appears when you view the record page.

• CAS registry number
• CODEN
• Controlled term/Subject Area

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the Chimica search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Language

Additional fields in Expert search only

Use Expert search to search these additional fields in the Chimica database.

• Country of origin
• DOI
• Issue
• Publisher
• Volume

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields along with examples and tips.

You can search the following fields in the Compendex and Engineering Index Backfile databases:

All fields

Using the default 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can create your search query by selecting these individual fields from the dropdown menu:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• First author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• Standard ID
• ICS classification code
• (Ei) Classification code
• CODEN
• Conference information
• Conference code
• ISSN
• (Ei) Main heading
• Publisher
• Source title
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Country of origin
• Funding number
• Funding acronym
• Funding sponsor
• Funding information

Additionally, the Accession number is available via 'All fields' on the Quick search form, but is not displayed as an individual field in the search field dropdown menu list.

Although the 'Standard ID' field is available via the Quick search dropdown menu, Standard IDs are not searchable via 'All fields.'

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the abstract field.

Accession number

The Accession number is displayed on record page, and it is directly searchable in an Expert search.

For the current Compendex file, the accession number is a unique 14-digit number assigned to each record. The first four digits of the accession number are the production year and the fifth and sixth digits of the number represent the week (e.g., 01 - 52) that the record was produced. The remaining digits of the number are the identification number for the record. Thus in the example below, the record was produced in Week 18 of 2010.

The Engineering Index Backfile is a static database which includes digitized records of printed volumes from the Engineering Index dated from 1884 to 1969. For this backfile, the accession number is a unique 11-digit number assigned to each backfile record. The first four digits of the accession number represent the year in which the corresponding printed volume for the record was published. The remaining numbers represent the identification number in sequential order. Thus in the example below, the record was produced in 1934 and is the 200th record for that publication year.

Author

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, we recommend using the 'Author Browse' index for optimal author search results.

If the author is cited by initials and a surname, but a full name is indicated somewhere in the original publication, such as in the 'Table of Contents,' then all the known information is provided. Titles such as 'Sir' and 'Mr.' and educational degrees are not included in the current Compendex database. They may appear in the Salutation field in the Engineering Index Backfile.

Since 1976, if no personal author name appears on the document, then the institutional author is added to the Author Affiliation field and Anon appears in the author field.

Author search tips

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.

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.

When an author's initials are not known, you can enter an asterisk (*) to use the truncation search feature to create your search query. However, be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial.

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.

Editors and compilers are also listed in the author field. They are distinguished from authors by the notations (ed.) or (compiler) in parentheses following the names.

To search for the name of a person who could be an author, an editor, or a compiler of a document, truncate your search term after the known part of the name. This allows for retrieval of the notations (ed.) or (compiler).

Author affiliation

In the past, the official Compendex policy was to provide the institutional affiliation of the first author or editor, if it could be determined from the source document. Later, the affiliation of the corresponding author, who is often the first author, was displayed. Now affiliations are displayed for all authors. Email addresses are also provided, when available, for the corresponding author.

In addition to this policy change, in some given affiliations (if it can be determined from the source document) more than one level of the organization is cited.

The formats and abbreviations used in author affiliations have varied over the years.

Some commonly used abbreviations are the following:

• Academy - Acad
• Association - Assoc
• Bureau - Bur
• Center/re - Cent
• College - Coll
• Company - Co
• Corporation - Corp
• Department - Dep
• Division - Div
• Incorporated - Inc
• Institute - Inst
• Institution - Inst
• International - Int
• Laboratory - Lab
• Limited - Ltd
• National - Natl
• Published - Pub
• Publisher - Pub
• School - Sch
• Society - Soc
• University - Univ

Corresponding non-English terms (e.g., "Akademy") may also be abbreviated.

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 "Exxon Mobil."

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.

(Ei) Classification code

The Compendex classification scheme is a numerical hierarchy of general subject categories. The numerical hierarchy begins with the 100 series and ends with the 1500 series.

These subject categories are used to place a term into context when the meaning can vary depending on its usage. As an example, windows can refer to building materials or software. The classification codes for ‘Buildings and Towers’ (402 Series) and ‘COMPUTER SCIENCE AND DATA ENGINEERING’ (1100 Series) will limit your search to the proper subject area. Classification codes can be found on the record page and also by running a Thesaurus search.

Searching by classification code can retrieve a large, relevant set of results without using synonyms. The Classification code field is not searchable in the Engineering Index Backfile.

New and updated classification codes and their corresponding descriptions were added to this field in early 2025. However, documents published before 2008 have retained the same classification codes and descriptions.

CODEN

CODEN are 6-character representations of source titles. They can be used to limit results to a specific journal. CODEN can be found in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and CASSI: Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. You can also find a journal's CODEN on the record page.

Conference code

A Conference code is a number assigned to a conference proceedings record and every paper from that conference covered by Compendex. This allows you to locate every paper from a conference once you have found one paper. The conference code can be found on the record page.

The conference code was first used in 1982. Conferences covered in Compendex prior to 1982 do not contain conference codes.

Conference information

Conference Information includes the name, date, location, and sponsor of a conference as well as the conference code number.

(Ei) Controlled term

Ei's controlled vocabulary is a list of subject terms used to describe the content of a document in the most specific and consistent way possible. 

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in Compendex can be found in the Ei Thesaurus. The 6th edition of the Ei Thesaurus contains thousands of terms; more than 10,256 are descriptors (preferred terms), and more than 9,420 are entry terms (non-preferred). New terms and descriptors that have been added can now be identified by using the Thesaurus search.

These controlled terms can also be browsed in the 'Ei Controlled term Browse' index in Engineering Village.

These terms are also linked on the record page. Clicking any of these terms retrieves records spanning the default time period of the database. In 1993, Ei updated the format of its controlled vocabulary. Pre-1993 records retained their former format.

The former heading-subheading organization was abandoned. Each index term now stands alone. Old heading-subheading controlled terms have been updated in several different ways.

The aspect of Electromagnetic waves called 'Absorption' is now part of the main heading.

The main heading subheading structure is converted to natural language.

The two aspects represented in this main heading, subheading are separated as individual terms.

When a subheading modifies, or adds additional explanation to the main heading, the order is now reversed and presented as a single term.

In Expert search, use the search code CV to search for controlled terms.

If you search the 'Controlled term' field for material published before 1993, you will find it helpful to use both the 'Ei Controlled term Browse' index and the online thesaurus as aids in determining all the appropriate terms.

Country of origin

This is the country where the publication or the patent originated.

First author

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) field is built from the 'Author' field in Compendex. Refer to the 'Author' field description for specific search queries and display Example as they are also applicable for the First author (FIRSTAU) field.

Funding acronym

This is the acronym of the grant funding sponsor.

Funding information

Contains content from the Funding text, as well as from the Funding acronym, Funding number, and Funding sponsor fields.

Funding number

This is the number of the grant or award supporting the work.

Funding sponsor

This is the sponsor or agency that is providing the grant or the funding for the work.

ICS (International Classification for Standards) code

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) developed the ICS classification code to classify Standards. The ICS is a hierarchical classification that consists of three levels. The highest level of the hierarchy contains 2-digits (e.g., '23,''45.'). Refer to International Classification for Standards for detailed information about these codes.

The 'ICS codes' field displays in the 'Indexing' section of the record page. The 'ICS codes' field can be searched via the 'ICS classification code' field in the Quick search field dropdown menu list and via the 'ICS' code in Expert search.

ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

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.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The ISSN 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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. 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.

(Ei) Main heading

Most Compendex records are assigned a main descriptor, which is a subject classification that serves to represent the main topic of the document, aka the Main heading. Descriptors are referred to as controlled vocabulary terms, and all Main headings are also controlled vocabulary terms. The controlled vocabulary terms that follow the Main heading represent additional concepts found in the article.

Open Access type

Search this field to find documents that are available via Open Access. Open Access documents are only available from the Compendex database. There are four types of Open Access, and it is possible for a document to contain more than one Open Access status because it can be available in different Open Access versions. Refer to the Open Access FAQ for further information about the various Open Access types and how to specifically search them.

In Expert search, use ACT to search this field:

Publisher

Search the Publisher field to identify publishers or find the journals published by a particular publisher. Be sure to look for all versions of a publisher's name. To do so, it is helpful to refer to the 'Publisher Browse' Index. For example,

In Expert search, use PN to search this field:

Source title

Search the Source title field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, or conference proceedings, from your area of study.

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

As variations of source title names sometimes occur, it is a good idea to use the 'Source title Browse' index. The look-up index also includes books and conference titles.

Standard ID

The specific identification number for a Standard. This field only applies to Standards documents.

Since Standard IDs may have various types of punctuation in them, enclose your Quick and Expert search queries with double quotation marks or braces.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search 'Subject/Title/Abstract' to retrieve results from any of the following fields: 'Abstract,' 'Title,' 'Translated title,' 'Ei controlled terms,' 'Ei main heading,' and 'Uncontrolled terms.'

This is an effective way to maximize the relevance of your search results.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose terms within braces or quotation marks.

Title

To search for specific terms within the title, search the Title field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article. For example, "radio frequency" in the title will likely find articles where radio frequency is an important aspect of the article.

For English language documents, the original title is displayed word for word.

If the document is written in a language other than English but uses the western alphabet, an English language translation is often provided, as well as the title in the original language. The current policy is to provide title translations only for the following languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

For languages not using the Roman alphabet, a translated or transliterated title may appear.

Uncontrolled term

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 reviewed periodically as candidate terms that may eventually be incorporated 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.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in a Quick search also automatically retrieves results from these additional fields. The information appears when you view the record page.

• Accession number (directly searchable in Expert search)
• Translated source title (not directly searchable)
• Patent assignee (directly searchable in Expert search)
• Patent issue date (directly searchable in Expert search)
• Patent application date (directly searchable in Expert search)
• Patent number (directly searchable in Expert search but in the Engineering Index backfile only)

The following fields are available on the Documents results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the Compendex search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Treatment
• Language

Fields available in Expert search only

Use Expert search to search these additional fields in the Compendex database.

DOI

Search for a record via the digital object identifier of the record.

Volume and Issue

It is most useful and effective to searching the Volume and Issue fields when you have a specific ISSN to search. The search would be for the ISSN (which is a unique identifier of a source) and then for the volume or volume/issue. It is less effective (due to the return of too many results) if you only search for volume or issue, as many different sources may have the same volume or issue numbers, such as vol. 5, issue 6.

Using the above example, you could also search only on the ISSN and volume, or ISSN and issue, but the latter would be less useful because issue 52 could be from volume 110, 112, or 113, etc.

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of all above-referenced fields.

Numeric search index

Refer to the following topics to learn about the Numeric search index and Numeric filter search features:

• Numeric index search queries
• Numeric index search fields
• Numeric filter
• Numeric optional fields

The following fields are available only for subscribers of the Engineering Index Backfile since patents have not been covered in Compendex since 1970.

These are searchable in 'All Fields' for Quick or Expert search or individually according to the specific search code in Expert search.

Assignee

The person or organization that has been assigned a patent.

Country of Application

The country or countries for where a patent was applied.

Filing Date

The date the patent was submitted to the patent office.

Patent Issue Date

The date the patent was issued.

Patent Number

The identification number assigned to a patent.

All Fields

Using the default of 'All Fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu to search specific field(s).

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• First author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• Geographic terms
• Classification code
• ISSN
• Source title
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Country of origin
• Funding number
• Funding acronym
• Funding sponsor
• Funding information

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose term within braces or double quotation marks.

Author

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, we recommend using the 'Author Browse' index for optimal author search results.

Author search tips

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.

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.

When an author's initials are not known, you can enter an asterisk (*) to use the truncation search feature to create your search query. However, be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial.

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.

Author affiliation

Affiliations are displayed for all authors. Email addresses are also provided, when available, for the corresponding author.

In addition to this policy change, in some given affiliations (if it can be determined from the source document) more than one level of the organization is cited.

The formats and abbreviations used in author affiliations have varied over the years.

Some commonly used abbreviations are the following:

• Academy - Acad
• Association - Assoc
• Bureau - Bur
• Center/re - Cent
• College - Coll
• Company - Co
• Corporation - Corp
• Department - Dep
• Division - Div
• Incorporated - Inc
• Institute - Inst
• Institution - Inst
• International - Int
• Laboratory - Lab
• Limited - Ltd
• National - Natl
• Published - Pub
• Publisher - Pub
• School - Sch
• Society - Soc
• University - Univ

Corresponding non-English terms (e.g., "Akademy") may also be abbreviated.

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 "Exxon Mobil."

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.

Classification code

The GEOBASE classification scheme is a numerical hierarchy of general subject categories. These subject categories represent the top level of these indexes and sections within these indexes. Each 2-digit code number represents the top level of the index.

Searching by classification code can retrieve a large, relevant set of results without using synonyms. Use the truncation symbol (*) in your search query to find the documents indexed at the level for that classification code number and its narrower terms.

Classification codes display on the record page.

Click the hyperlink for the classification code(s) on the record pages to search all Engineering Village records with this specific classification code.

Conference code

A Conference code is a number assigned to a conference proceedings record. This allows you to locate every paper from a conference once you have found one paper. The conference code can be found on the record page.

Controlled term

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in GEOBASE can be found in the Ei Thesaurus. The 6th edition of the Ei Thesaurus contains thousands of terms; more than 10,256 are descriptors (preferred terms), and more than 9,420 are entry terms (non-preferred). New terms and descriptors that have been added can now be identified by using the Thesaurus search.

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

These terms are also linked in on the record page. Clicking any of these links retrieves records spanning the default time period of the database. In 1993, Ei updated the format of its controlled vocabulary. Pre-1993 records retained their former format.

The former heading-subheading organization was abandoned. Each index term now stands alone. Old heading-subheading controlled terms have been updated in several different ways.

The aspect of Electromagnetic waves called Absorption is now part of the main heading.

The main heading subheading structure is converted to natural language.

The two aspects represented in this main heading, subheading are separated as individual terms.

When a subheading modifies, or adds additional explanation to the main heading, the order is now reversed and presented as a single term.

In Expert search, use CV to search for controlled terms.

If you search the Controlled term field for material published before 1993, you will find it helpful to use both the 'Ei Controlled term Browse' index and the online thesaurus as aids in determining all the appropriate terms.

Country of origin

This is the country where the publication or patent originated.

First author

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) field is built from the 'Author' field in GEOBASE. Refer to the 'Author' field description for specific search queries and display Example as they are also applicable for the First author (FIRSTAU) field.

Funding acronym

This is the acronym of the grant funding sponsor.

Funding information

Contains content from the Funding text, as well as from the Funding acronym, Funding number, and Funding sponsor fields.

Funding number

This is the number of the grant or award supporting the work.

Funding sponsor

This is the sponsor or agency that is providing the grant or the funding for the work.

Geographic terms

The Geographic terms field contains general location information for the document content. For example, a document about the Grand Canyon contains geographical terms for Arizona, Grand Canyon National Park, Little Colorado River, and USA.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The ISSN 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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. 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.

Source title

Search the Source title field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, or conference proceedings, from your area of study.

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

As variations of source title names sometimes occur, it is a good idea to use the 'Source title Browse' index. The look-up index also includes books and conference titles.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search the Subject/Title/Abstract field to retrieve results from any of the following four fields:

• Abstract
• Controlled term
• Title
• Translated title

This is an effective way to maximize the relevance of your search results.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose terms within braces or double quotation marks.

Title

To search for specific terms within the title, search the Title field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article. For example, "radio frequency" in the title will likely find articles where radio frequency is an important aspect of the article.

For English language documents, the original title is displayed word for word.

If the document is written in a language other than English but uses the western alphabet, an English language translation is often provided, as well as the title in the original language. The current policy is to provide title translations only for the following languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

For languages not using the Roman alphabet, a translated or transliterated title may appear.

Uncontrolled term

Uncontrolled terms are indexing terms that do not come from the controlled vocabulary lists. They are assigned by indexers when there is no appropriate term available in the controlled vocabulary. They often describe new technology and terminology.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. The information appears on the record page.

• Accession number
• ISBN
• Issue
• Publisher
• Uncontrolled term
• Volume

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the GEOBASE search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language

Additional field in Expert search only

Use Expert search to search this additional field in the GEOBASE database.

• DOI

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

You can search the following fields in the GeoRef database:

All Fields

Using the default of 'All Fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu to search specific field(s).

• 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

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose term within braces or double quotation marks.

Author

Since author names may be cited in a variety of formats, (e.g., Rigby, Alan A. or Rigby, A.A), Engineering Village recommends using the 'Author Browse' index. 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.

If no personal author name appears on the document, then the institutional author is added to the author affiliation field and Anon then appears in the author field.

Author names can be truncated by using an asterisk (*) as the truncation symbol.

Author search tips

• Be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial.
• Note that only authors whose names are presented in the format given will be retrieved.

  • Searching Smith, A. B. will not retrieve articles with the author cited as Smith, A.
• If a single word surname is entered as the author's last name, all forms of that name will be retrieved.

To further refine this search, add the asterisk (*) truncation operator after the first initial.

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.

Editors and compilers are also listed in the author field. They are distinguished from authors by the notations (ed.) or (compiler) in parentheses following the names.

To search for the name of a person who could be an author, an editor, or a compiler of a document, truncate your search term after the known part of the name. This allows for retrieval of the notations (ed.) or (compiler).

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

Author Affiliation

Affiliations are displayed for all authors. Email addresses are also provided, when available, for the corresponding author.

In addition to this policy change, in some given affiliations (if it can be determined from the source document) more than one level of the organization is cited.

The formats and abbreviations used in author affiliations have varied over the years.

Some commonly used abbreviations are the following:

• Academy - Acad
• Association - Assoc
• Bureau - Bur
• Center/re - Cent
• College - Coll
• Company - Co
• Corporation - Corp
• Department - Dep
• Division - Div
• Incorporated - Inc
• Institute - Inst
• Institution - Inst
• International - Int
• Laboratory - Lab
• Limited - Ltd
• National - Natl
• Published - Pub
• Publisher - Pub
• School - Sch
• Society - Soc
• University - Univ

Corresponding non-English terms (e.g., "Akademy") may also be abbreviated.

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 "Exxon Mobil."

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.

Category

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 are not searchable for this field.

CODEN

CODEN is a 6-character representation of a source title. It can be used to limit results to a specific journal. The CODEN can be found in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and CASSI: Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. You can also find a journal's CODEN on the record page.

Collection Title

This is the title of a non-serial collection.

Conference information

Conference information includes the name, date, location, and sponsor of a conference as well as the conference code number.

Controlled term

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in GeoRef can be found in the Ei Thesaurus. The 6th edition of the Ei Thesaurus contains thousands of terms; more than 10,256 are descriptors (preferred terms), and more than 9,420 are entry terms (non-preferred). New terms and descriptors that have been added can now be identified by using the Thesaurus search.

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

These terms are also linked on record page. Clicking any of these terms retrieves records spanning the default time period of the database. In 1993, Ei updated the format of its controlled vocabulary. Pre-1993 records retained their former format.

The former heading-subheading organization was abandoned. Each index term now stands alone. Old heading-subheading controlled terms have been updated in several different ways.

The aspect of Electromagnetic waves called 'Absorption' is now part of the main heading.

The main heading subheading structure is converted to natural language.

The two aspects represented in this main heading, subheading are separated as individual terms.

When a subheading modifies, or adds additional explanation to the main heading, the order is now reversed and presented as a single term.

In Expert search, use the search code CV to search for controlled terms.

If you search the 'Controlled term' field for material published before 1993, you will find it helpful to use both the 'Ei Controlled term Browse' index and the online thesaurus as aids in determining all the appropriate terms.

Country of origin

This is the country where the publication or patent originated.

First author

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) field is built from the 'Author' field in GeoRef. Refer to the 'Author' field description for specific search queries and display Example as they are also applicable for the First author (FIRSTAU) field.

ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a formerly 10-digit, now 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' from the Quick search form or by using the specific BN search code in Expert search. The ISBN can be searched with or without hyphens.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The ISSN 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 can be searched with or without the hyphen. The ISSN is displayed on record page. There may also be an E-ISSN displayed, which is assigned to the electronic version of a serial record.

Publisher

Search the Publisher field to identify publishers or find the journals published by a particular publisher. Be sure to look for all versions of a publisher's name. To do so, it is helpful to refer to the 'Publisher Browse' Index.

In Expert search, use PN to search this field:

Source title

Search the Source title field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, or conference proceedings, from your area of study.

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

As variations of source title names sometimes occur, it is a good idea to use the 'Source title Browse' index. The look-up index also includes books and conference titles.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search the Subject/Title/Abstract field to retrieve results from any of the following four fields:

• Abstract
• Controlled term
• Title
• Translated title

This is an effective way to maximize the relevance of your search results.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose terms within braces or double quotation marks.

Title

To search for specific terms within the title, search the Title field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article. For example, "radio frequency" in the title will likely find articles where radio frequency is an important aspect of the article.

For English language documents, the original title is displayed word for word.

If the document is written in a language other than English but uses the western alphabet, an English language translation is often provided, as well as the title in the original language. The current policy is to provide title translations only for the following languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

For languages not using the Roman alphabet, a translated or transliterated title may appear.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. The information appears on the record page.

• Accession number
• Availability
• Issue
• Report number
• Uncontrolled term
• Volume

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the GeoRef search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language

Other fields only available in Expert search

You can search the following fields via an Expert search. They are not available via an 'All Fields' search. These fields appear on the record page.

Annotation

Contains annotations regarding a document or part of a document. These notes are displayed in free-form text.

Degree type

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

Map Scale

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

Map Type

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

Source note

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

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

You can search the following fields in the Inspec and Inspec Archive databases:

All Fields

Using the default 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• First author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• Classification code
• CODEN
• Conference information
• ISSN
• Publisher
• Source title
• Material identity number
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Country of origin
• CPC Code
• IPC Code
• Funding number
• Funding sponsor
• Funding information
• Astronomical indexing

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the Abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in braces or quotation marks as follows:

To search for documents related to computers or computing, type comput* wn AB. Refer to Wildcards and truncation.

Accession number

The accession number is a unique number assigned to each record in Inspec and eight other Engineering Village databases. It is displayed on the record page.

Astronomical indexing

Astronomical object designations have been indexed in the Astronomical object field back to 1995. It allows named or numbered objects to be retrieved more efficiently. Three types of designations exist:

• Name-based acronyms

• Catalog-based acronyms including their catalog entry name. This number may be sequential (NGC 5548) or represent a position in the sky, (PG 0953+414).

• Positional information only

Refer to the Astronomical Catalogue Designations list for detailed information about Astronomical Object indexing in Inspec.

Author

Inspec does not use authors' first names; only their initials. The database also includes any suffixes appended to the name. To search for an author name, enter last name, comma, then a space, initial(s) and suffix (if any) as follows:

Author names can be truncated by using an asterisk (*) as a truncation operator.

Be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial. Use of the 'Author Browse' index is strongly recommended in order to make selections from all the possible variations of an author's name.

Note that only authors whose names are presented in the format given are retrieved. For instance, searching for Templeton, J. A. does not retrieve articles with the author cited as Templeton, J.

To further refine this search, add the asterisk (*) truncation operator after the first initial.

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.

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

Author Affiliation

The institutional affiliation at the time of publication is given for the first author of each record as given in the journal if it can be determined from the source document. The affiliation includes the name, city, state, and country of the organization where applicable. In some cases, more than one level of the organization is cited as well.

As variations and abbreviations may have been used, it is a good idea to use the 'Author Affiliation Browse' index.

Chemical indexing

The Chemical indexing field is a system of controlled indexing for inorganic substances and material systems.

Every significant substance in a record is given one of three basic role indicators:

• element (el) - e.g., {Si/el} wn CI
• binary (bin) - e.g., {Al/bin} wn CI
• system (ss) - e.g., {Ga/ss} wn CI

Some substances may be assigned special roles. These are the following:

• interface system (int)
• surface or substrate (sur)
• adsorbate (ads)
• dopant (dop)

Detailed information about Chemical indexing can be found at the Inspec website.

Classification code

CODEN

A CODEN is a six-character representation of a source title. It can be used to limit results to a specific journal. CODENs can be found in Inspec's List of Journals, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, and the CASSI: Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. You can also find a journal's CODEN on the record page.

Conference information

Conference information includes the name, date, location, and sponsor of a conference.

Controlled term (Inspec)

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in Inspec can be found in the Inspec Thesaurus available online. These terms can also be browsed in the Inspec 'Controlled-term Browse' index.

These terms also appear linked on the record page. Click any of these terms to retrieve additional records on that subject spanning the default time period of the database.

Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC Code)

The CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification) system was jointly developed by the EPO (European Patent Office) and the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). Learn more about these classification codes on the Cooperative Patent Classification website.

First author

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) field is built from the 'Author' field in Inspec. Refer to the 'Author' field description for specific search queries and display Example as they are also applicable for the First author (FIRSTAU) field.

International Patent Classification (IPC Code)

The International Patent Classification (IPC) codes pertain to a hierarchical classification for patents for different areas of technology. Learn more about these classification codes on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Espacenet websites.

ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is 13-digit number, (formerly a 10-digit number), that uniquely identifies a specific title and edition of a book or book series. It can be used to find chapters from the same book or papers from the same conference. The ISBN appears on the record page. It can be searched with or without the hyphens.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is a standardized international alphanumeric code that is a unique and precise identifier for a serial publication. The format of the ISSN is an eight-digit number, divided by a hyphen into two four-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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. 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 publication.

Material Identity Number (1996 - present)

This field contains an internal Inspec code uniquely identifying the publication issue for serials or the entire publication for non-serials. It can be used to find papers from a specific issue of a journal after at least one paper from that issue is located. It can also be used to find all the papers from conference proceedings or chapters from a book.

Numeric indexing

Numeric data indexing standardizes the manner numeric values are expressed by the authors within their papers as these values may be expressed in a variety of ways. Numeric data indexing solves these different manners of citation by standardizing these differences into a consistent format. Numeric data can be searched via Expert search.

There are two different types of numeric value-based searches in Inspec: text-based numerically indexed values and true numerically indexed values.

Text-based numeric data indexing (which is only available in Inspec) uses the field code "NI" and is composed of the following three elements:

1. Quantity (e.g., temperature, wavelength, frequency): {power 3.5E+07 W} wn NI
2. Unit (e.g., Kelvin, meter, hertz): "7.151E-10 M" wn NI
3. Value (always expressed in scientific notation format), e.g., "Temperature 9.5E+01" wn NI

Refer to the Inspec website for detailed information regarding text-based numerical data indexing.

Numerically indexed data is available in Inspec and Compendex and contains 62 numerically indexed fields with the NU prefix. It is composed of four elements and the searches must be structured in the following order as shown below:

1. field name (e.g., NU_TEMPERATURE, NU_CAPACITANCE)
2. operator (greater than [GT], greater than or equal to [GTE], less than [LT], less than or equal to [LTE], or equals [EQ])
3. numeric value

4. default unit (refer to Numeric index search fields chart, e.g., "K," "W," "eV")

   Alternately, you may use the optional units of measure, (e.g., "Ci," "kW," "MHz")

Publisher

Search the 'Publisher' field to identify publishers or find the journals published by a particular publisher. Refer to the 'Publisher Browse' index to search for all versions of a publisher's name.

Source title

Search the Source title field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, monographs, or conference proceedings, from your area of study.

To search for a specific source title, enclose the title in braces or quotation marks.

As variations of source title names sometimes appear, it is a good idea to use the 'Source title Browse' index. This look-up index also includes books and conference titles.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Searching the 'Subject/Title/Abstract' field retrieves results from any of the following fields: 'Abstract,' 'Title,' 'Controlled term,' or 'Uncontrolled term.'

Title

To search for specific terms within the title, search the 'Title' field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article. For example, 'radio frequency' in the title likely finds articles where 'radio frequency' is an important aspect of the article.

All titles in Inspec are in English.

Uncontrolled term

Uncontrolled terms, also known as free language terms, are additional subject terms assigned by indexers. These terms are not selected from the Inspec Thesaurus, but can reflect new expressions and terminology used in a particular discipline. These terms allow for further specificity in indexing that is not available using controlled vocabulary. Uncontrolled terms may subsequently become part of Inspec's controlled vocabulary.

Additional fields

Searching 'All fields' in a Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields. The information appears when you view the record page.

• Accession number
• Monograph title (not directly searchable)
• Translated source title (not directly searchable)

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the Inspec and Inspec Archive search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language
• Treatment
• Discipline

Use Expert search to search these additional fields directly in the Inspec database:

• Country of origin
• Issue
• Volume

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

You can search the following fields in the Knovel database:

All fields

Using the default of 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from any of the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu when doing a search.

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• Title
• ISBN
• Publisher
• Source title
• Subject Area

Abstract

Search the Abstract field to find terms in the Abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in braces or double quotation marks.

Author

Author names are cited as they appear in the original document. Surnames appear first, along with the remainder of the name as it appears in the original document.

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

On the Results list, as well as the record page, click an author name to retrieve records by that author from the entire date range of the database.

Author search tips

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

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

Author search tips

• Be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial.
• Note that only authors whose names are presented in the format given will be retrieved.

  • Searching Smith, A. B. will not retrieve articles with the author cited as Smith, A.
• If a single word surname is entered as the author's last name, all forms of that name will be retrieved.

To further refine this search, add the asterisk (*) truncation operator after the first initial.

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 contains company names as well surnames.

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

ISBN

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 at the abstract or detailed level of a record.

Publisher

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

Source title

Search the Source title by single words or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in braces or double quotation marks.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Subject/Title/Abstract retrieves results from any of the following fields:

• Abstract
• Controlled term/Subject Area
• Title

On the Results list, as well as on the record page, click a subject area link (e.g., 'Manufacturing-Engineering,''General-Engineering-Engineering-Management,'etc.) to retrieve records with that particular field of study from the entire date range of the database.

Title

To search for specific terms within a title, search the Title field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of the article.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. The information appears when you view the record page.

• Accession number
• Source

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the Knovel search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language

Additional fields in Expert search only

Use Expert search to search this additional field in the Knovel database.

• DOI

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

You can search the following fields in the NTIS database:

All Fields

Using the default 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from the following fields, or you can select the field(s) from the dropdown menu to search a specific field:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Contract number
• Country of origin
• Monitoring agency
• NTIS accession number
• Report number

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the abstract field.

Search by single terms and/or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose term within braces or double quotation marks:

(NTIS) Accession number

This is a unique NTIS order number and the format varies among the records.

Author

The format of authors' names varies in the NTIS database. In some instances, the name appears with the last name, first name, and middle name. In some cases, it will be the last name and initial, or it might be just the last name. Use the 'Author Browse' index to help you identify the possible variations.

Author Affiliation

This is the organization where the work was performed. Since 1980, NTIS has maintained a related index of author affiliation codes. Since the organizational names may vary, use of the 'Author Affiliation Browse' index is recommended.

Availability

Information about obtaining the document is found in this field. This field may also contain notes about the document format or availability of the hard copy.

The content for this field is available via the 'All fields' selection in the Quick search field dropdown menu, but it is not directly searchable from the search field dropdown menu. Refer to Expert Search fields and codes to search for this field directly in Expert search.

NTIS classification codes

NTIS uses two sets of classification codes, COSATI and NTIS Subject Category Classification. Since 1986, only the NTIS Subject Category Codes have been used. They can be found in the database guide on the NTIS website.

The content for this field is available via the 'All fields' selection in the Quick search field dropdown menu, but it is not directly searchable from the search field dropdown menu.

Contract number

This field contains the contract or grant number issued by the federal agency sponsoring the research.

NTIS controlled term

The controlled terms are assigned by indexers to describe the subject of the document. At least three different sets of terms are used in the NTIS database. They include the subject lists from the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense Technical Information Center, and NASA.

Controlled terms can be identified by using the 'Controlled term Browse' index.

Country of origin

This is the country where the publication or patent originated.

Document type

The document types are not entered into the NTIS database in standard formats and therefore are not available as a filter on the Quick search form. According to the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL), some Example of common document types are the following:

• Technical report
• Conference proceedings
• Journal articles
• Patent
• Thesis

This is only a partial list as there are 22 document types. Refer to the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) website for further information.

Filing date

This is the date the patent application was filed.

Monitoring agency

This field contains the acronym of the sponsoring organization and may contain a report number as well.

NTIS price codes

The detailed records for NTIS have a field with the NTIS price codes. These indicate the cost of ordering the document from NTIS.

The content for this field is available via the 'All fields' selection in the Quick search field dropdown menu, but it is not directly searchable from the search field dropdown menu.

Notes

The NTIS database provides several notes fields that might include information about the title, collaboration, sponsoring agency, document type description, format, etc.

The content for this field is available via the 'All fields' selection in the Quick search field dropdown menu, but it is not directly searchable from the search field dropdown menu.

 

Report number

This is the number assigned by the sponsoring agency. It is usually a series of alphanumeric numbers, such as EPA/600/J-94/280.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search this field to retrieve records from the 'Abstract,' 'Title,' 'Controlled terms,' and 'Uncontrolled terms.' This is helpful for maximizing the relevance of your search results.

Title

To search for specific terms within a document's title, search the 'Title' field. Words in a title are often an indication of the importance of those terms in the article. For instance, "radio frequency" in the title likely finds articles where radio frequency is an important aspect of the article.

Uncontrolled term

Uncontrolled terms are indexing terms that do not come from the controlled vocabulary lists. They are assigned by indexers when there is no appropriate term available in the controlled vocabulary. They often describe new technology and terminology.

Additional fields

Searching 'All fields' in a Quick search also retrieves results from this additional field, or you can search this field directly in an Expert search. The information appears on the record page.

• Accession number

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the NTIS search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Language

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these above-referenced fields.

You can search the following fields in the PaperChem database:

All fields

Using the default of 'All fields' in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from any of the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu to search a specific field.

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Author
• First author
• Author affiliation
• Title
• ISSN
• Publisher
• Source title
• Controlled term
• Uncontrolled term
• Funding number
• Funding acronym
• Funding sponsor
• Funding information

Abstract

Search Abstract to find terms in the abstract field. To search for an exact phrase, enclose term within braces or double quotation marks.

Accession number

The accession number is a unique number assigned to each record in PaperChem. It is only displayed in the detailed record format.

Author

Since author names may be cited in a variety of formats, Engineering Village recommends using the 'Author Browse' index. PaperChem cites authors' names 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. Initials may appear with or without periods.

Since author names may be cited in a variety of formats, we recommend using the 'Author Browse' index for optimal author search results.

Author search tips

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.

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.

When an author's initials are not known, you can enter an asterisk (*) to use the truncation search feature to create your search query. However, be aware that this strategy may lead to false hits because there are many authors with the same last name and first initial.

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.

Editors and compilers are also listed in the author field. They are distinguished from authors by the notations (ed.) or (compiler) in parentheses following the names.

To search for the name of a person who could be an author, an editor, or a compiler of a document, truncate your search term after the known part of the name. This allows for retrieval of the notations (ed.) or (compiler).

Author Affiliation

The formats and abbreviations used in Author Affiliations have changed over the years. We recommend using the 'Author Affiliation Browse' index. Author affiliations are displayed in the detailed record.

CODEN

The CODEN is the 6-character representation of serial titles. They can be used to limit results to a specific journal. You can find a journal's CODEN on the record page.

Conference code

A Conference code is a number assigned to a conference proceedings record. This allows you to locate every paper from a conference once you have found one paper. The conference code can be found on the record page.

Controlled term/Subject Area

The controlled vocabulary used to index records in PaperChem can be found in the Thesaurus of Pulp and Paper. The 3rd edition contains 22,000 terms. Approximately 50% of the entries are preferred key terms; the rest are cross-reference terms. For each preferred term there are an average of 12 analytical entries, including homonym resolutions, scope notes, definitions, warning notes, broader terms, narrower terms, cluster terms, other related terms, cross-references, and inverse-reference or USED FOR entries. Nearly 25% of the entries are Latin and common names of trees and other biological species.

These terms appear linked on the record page. Click any of these terms to retrieve records for the default time period of the database.

First author

Funding acronym

This is the acronym of the grant funding sponsor.

Funding information

Contains content from the Funding text, as well as from the Funding acronym, Funding number, and Funding sponsor fields.

Funding number

This is the number of the grant or award supporting the work.

Funding sponsor

This is the sponsor or agency that is providing the grant or the funding for the work.

ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a formerly 10-digit, and now 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 at the abstract or detailed level of a record. An ISBN is searchable in 'All Fields' for Quick search or individually according to the specific search code (BN) in Expert search.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)

The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 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. It can be searched with or without the hyphen. The ISSN is displayed on the record page. An E-ISSN may also be displayed, which is assigned to the electronic version of a serial.

Publisher

Search the Publisher field to identify publishers or find the journals published by a particular publisher. Since publisher names may appear in a variety of formats, we recommend using the 'Publisher Browse' index.

Source title

Search the Source title field if you want to identify source titles, such as journals, books, monographs, or conference proceedings, from your area of study.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose terms within braces or double quotation marks.

As variations of source title names sometimes appear, it is a good idea to use the 'Source title Browse' index. The look-up index also includes book and conference titles. The 'Source title Browse' index also allows you to limit the search to an exact title match, such as the journal Science.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search the Subject/Title/Abstract field to retrieve results from any of the fields listed below.

• Abstract
• Controlled term
• Title
• Translated title
• Uncontrolled term

Title

Search for specific terms within the title, search on the 'Title' field. Words in a title are often indicators of the main focus of an article.

Uncontrolled term

Uncontrolled terms are indexing terms that do not come from the controlled vocabulary lists. They are assigned by indexers when there is no appropriate term available in the controlled vocabulary. They often describe new technology and terminology.

Additional fields in Quick search

Searching 'All fields' in a Quick search also retrieves results from these additional fields, (as available in the document), or you can search these fields directly in an Expert search. Except for the 'Companies' and 'Country of Application,' fields, the following fields display on the record page.

• Accession number
• Companies - (content does not appear on the record page)
• Conference code
• Country of application - (content does not appear on the record page)
• Issue
• Patent issue date
• Patent number
• Volume

The following fields are available on the Document results list via the dropdown menu filters after running a Quick search query. Refer to the PaperChem search limits for additional information regarding these fields.

• Date/Updates to the database
• Document type
• Language

Additional field in Expert search only

Use Expert search to search this additional field in the PaperChem database.

• DOI

See Expert search fields and field codes for descriptions of these fields.

All fields

Using the default of ‘All fields’ in the Quick search dropdown menu retrieves results from any of the following fields, or you can select them from the dropdown menu list to search a specific field:

• Subject/Title/Abstract
• Abstract
• Inventor
• Assignee
• Title
• Ei Classification code
• Main heading
• Patent number
• Controlled term
• Country of origin
• Publication date
• Application number
• Priority number
• CPC code
• IPC code

You may also use these fields in an Expert search. All Example below using "wn" followed by a field code (e.g., gold wn AB)are Expert search examples.

Abstract

Search by single terms and/or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the term within braces or double quotation marks:

Application date

The date of the patent application. Search for the application date using MM/DD/YYYY as shown in the example below.

Application number

Search for the application identification number assigned by the patent office.

Assignee

Search for the Patent assignee by single words or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the term in braces or double quotation marks.

When searching for Patent assignee, you may use the 'Patent Assignee Browse' index since patent assignee names may be cited in a variety of formats.

Authority code

The 2-letter code representing the patent office. Currently, Engineering Village has data indexed from seven different patent offices:

• China - CN
• European - EP
• Germany - DE
• Japan - JP
• United Kingdom - GB
• United States - US
• WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) - WO

(Ei) Classification code

The Patents Plus database has been enhanced with the Ei Classification codes. These codes are now available in Patents Plus and Compendex. The classification scheme is a numerical hierarchy of general subject categories. The numerical hierarchy begins with the 100 series and ends with the 1500 series.

These subject categories are used to place a term into context when the meaning can vary depending on its usage. As an example, windows can refer to building materials or software. The classification codes for ‘Buildings and Towers’ (402 Series) and ‘COMPUTER SCIENCE AND DATA ENGINEERING’ (1100 Series) will limit your search to the proper subject area. Classification codes can be found on the record page.

Searching by classification code can retrieve a large, relevant set of results without using synonyms.

Controlled terms

Controlled terms are a list of subject terms used to describe the content of a document in the most specific and consistent possible manner. The controlled terms are linked on the record page. Clicking any of these controlled terms retrieves documents spanning the default time period of the database.

Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC Code)

The CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification) system was jointly developed by the EPO (European Patent Office) and the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). Learn more about these classification codes on the Cooperative Patent Classification website.

Country of origin

Search for the country in which the patent originated.

International Patent Classification (IPC Code)

The International Patent Classification (IPC) codes pertain to a hierarchical classification for patents for different areas of technology. Learn more about these classification codes on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) website.

Enclose the IPC code in braces to search as an exact phrase as shown in the Example below.

Inventor

Names should be entered as follows: last name (space) first name (space) middle initial, (or middle name) with no punctuation.

When searching for an inventor, you may use the 'Inventor Browse index' since inventor names may be cited in a variety of formats.

Main heading

The main heading in a patent document is a main descriptor, which is a subject classification that serves to represent the main topic of the document. Descriptors are referred to as controlled vocabulary terms, and all Main heading terms are also controlled vocabulary terms. The controlled vocabulary terms that follow the Main heading field represent additional concepts found in the document.

Patent number

This field contains the unique identification numbers assigned to the published publication (document) numbers for applications. You may search this field using just the assigned number, or by adding the 2-letter patent office (authority) code prefix (e.g., CN, DE, EP, GB, JP, US, WO). Refer to the following Example.

Priority information 

This field contains the information in which an application claims priority. It can consist of the following three components, but may consist of only one or two of these components:

• 2-letter code representing the patent office (authority) country (e.g., US, EP, GB, JP, WO, DE, CN)
• Application number of the claimed priority document
• Priority date in MM/DD/YYYY format

Listed below are various formatting examples.

Publication date

Search the date the patent was officially issued using the MM/DD/YYYY format listed below.

Include the forward slashes between the month, day, and year components in your search query.

• MM is the 2-digit number of the month.

  • Enter a leading zero for months 1 through 9.
• DD is the 2-digit number of the day.

  • The day is a number between 1 and 31.
  • Enter a leading zero for days 1 through 9.
• YYYY is the 4-digit year.

You may use truncation to search for patent using the 4-digit year.

Subject/Title/Abstract

Search for the 'Subject/Title/Abstract' to retrieve results from any of the following fields: 'Main heading,' 'Controlled terms,' 'Abstract,' and 'Title.' To search for an exact phrase, enclose the term within braces or double quotation marks:

Search for chemical compounds with subscript (sub) or superscript (sup) in fields (other than controlled terms). Perform an exact match search using braces, as follows:

Do not use special characters such as left and right angle brackets <> or parentheses ( ) in this syntax.

Title

Search for [Patent] Title by single words or phrases. To search for an exact phrase, enclose the term within braces or double quotation marks.

Uncontrolled terms

Uncontrolled terms are indexing terms that do not come from the controlled vocabulary lists. They are assigned by indexers when there is no appropriate term available in the controlled vocabulary. They often describe new technology and terminology.

Examples:

When you select patent database(s) and bibliographic database(s) together, you will notice search field and index changes on your Quick search page and facets changes in the Refine results feature of the Search results.

Search fields

The following fields will be available for searching:

• Subject/Title/Abstract - search keywords in the records subject field, title, or abstracts
• Abstract - search keywords in the abstract only
• Author/Inventor (inventor) - use a keyword search for an author name or inventor name
• Author affiliation/Assignee (assignee) - use a keyword search for an author affiliation or assignee (institution or company to which the author belongs)
• Title - search keywords in titles

Browse indexes

The indexes presented in a combined search are Author/Inventor and Affiliation/Assignee. When searching these indexes, you will be able to conduct a search on author and inventor names as well as assignee and affiliation names. These indexes accommodate both patent data and bibliographic data.

Facets changes

When you search patents and bibliographic information together, the facets for refining your search change accordingly and will accommodate data retrieved from the different databases. The following facets will change:

• Database

  This facet reveals how many records were retrieved from each database you selected for your search.

  The facet displays the first five databases. Click View more to see all the other databases for this facet if applicable.

  You can refine your search by selecting one or more databases and including or excluding them from your search. The number in parentheses identifies how many records were retrieved.

• Author/Inventor

  In a combined patent/bibliographic search, this facet now contains the authors and inventors with the largest number of documents.

Author affiliation/Assignee

In a combined patent/bibliographic search, this facet will contain the most prominent institutions and companies publishing patents or other scientific documents on the searched topic.

Document type

This facet reveals what types of documents were mostly published on the topic. The number in parentheses is the number of records retrieved for each document type. From this list, you can isolate certain types of documents to be searched by selecting them and including them in your search. You can select more than one document type to be included or excluded from your search.