How can I refine my search results?
Last updated on December 19, 2022
Search query results may be refined by by filtering by one or more of the Facet Groups on the left side of the search results. These Facet Groups allow you to narrow your results across several dimensions, e.g., Content Type, Concept, Date. You can select one facet or multiple facets from any Group, as well as make selections from across multiple Facet Groups for even more refinement.
Facet Groups are offered when using Basic or Advanced Search, and a more limited selection of Facet Groups are offered with Material Property Search. Currently, we offer Content Type and Date with all three search types, but Concept is only an option when using Basic or Advanced Search.
Note that some searches will not trigger the presentation of all Facet Groups. This is generally because a minimum result count threshold has not been met for that Facet Group.
How
- After your search has returned results, select from any of the Facet Groups on the left side of the results page to filter.
- Click on the up/down carat to open/close a Facet Group.
- Click in one or more of the boxes within a Facet Group to make your selections for narrowing your results.
- After clicking a facet, the box to the left of the facet term will turn orange, and the 'Apply' button for that Facet Group will turn blue. The blue Apply button is an indication that you have pending facet selections that are awaiting your finalization. The facet selection will not be applied to your results until you hit 'Apply'.
- After you hit 'Apply', you will see a count flag at the top of the Facet Group from which you’ve applied selections. This will remind you that you have active facet selections for that Group, as well as tell you how many.
- If you decide to remove (deselect) a facet (perhaps it narrowed your results too much), you will need to hit the 'Apply' button to activate that deselection, just as you did previously to apply the selection.
- Should you decide to release all facet selections from a Facet Group, you can use the 'Clear All' link at the top of each Facet Group for a quick removal of that Group’s facet selections (no need to hit Apply).
After you have Applied selections or deselections in a Facet Group, you will notice that the facet selection options for other Facet Groups adjust.
This is the beauty of faceting and to be expected. Facet selections and deselections impact your search result set. Facet selections decrease the result set, and facet deselections increase the result set. As the result set changes, the remaining facet options change in line with the adjusting result set.
Facet Group | Explanation |
|---|---|
Author |
Filters your results by the author or editor of the source material (generally book), from which component content (e.g., chapter, table) is taken |
Content Type |
Filters your results by the format of the content, e.g., Book, Chapter, Table |
Concept |
Filters your results by key engineering concepts found in Knovel’s corpus to provide some topical context; akin to Keywords |
Date |
Filters your results by Date range using the Copyright/Publication date (year) |
Industry |
Filters your results by one of 12 industry sectors (business verticals) |
Facet selections are appended to your original query using an AND Boolean operator.
When you select multiple facets from within a single Facet Group, those selections are handled as if there was a Boolean OR between them. For example, selecting both Table and Graph in the Content Type Facet Group means the query is rerun as original query AND (Table OR Graph). Knovel returns all results for your query that are either tables or graphs.
When you select facets from multiple Facet Groups, those selections are handed as if there was a Boolean AND between the Groups. For example, selecting Table in the Content Type Facet Group, plus Last 2 years in the Date Facet Group means the query is rerun as original query AND Table AND Last 2 years. Knovel returns all table results for your query that have a copyright or publication date within the last two years.
When you select multiple facets within a Facet Group, in conjunction with multiple facets from another Facet Group, a complex query is rerun, such as: original query AND ((Table OR Graph) AND (Last 2 years)). In this case, Knovel returns all results for your query that are either tables or graphs, which also have a copyright or publication date within the last two years.
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