How do I use the Search option in Knovel?

Knovel's AI-assisted search helps you find answers faster by understanding your questions in natural language and automatically optimizing your search queries.

What AI-Assisted Search Does

• Natural Language Processing: Ask questions in your own words—no need to craft perfect search terms
• Intelligent Query Optimization: Automatically fixes typos, expands abbreviations, and rephrases for better results
• Multi-language Support: Ask questions in your preferred language
• Transparent Results: See exactly how your question was interpreted and converted to search terms. The AI-generated Boolean can be edited to refine or fine tune results

Key Benefits

• Curated Content Only: Results come exclusively from Knovel's vetted engineering sources
• Full Traceability: Every result links back to authoritative sources
• No Learning Curve: Works seamlessly within your existing Knovel workflow
• Responsible AI: Built following Elsevier's Responsible AI principles with human oversight. Data privacy is built in.

How to Use AI-Assisted Search

1. Enable AI assistance: Toggle on "Enhance Search" below the search bar
2. Ask your question naturally: Type your question as you would ask a colleague

   • Example: " what are the biggest challenges in chemical process intensification?"
   • The system works with technical questions, process inquiries, and material properties
3. Review the reasoning: After searching, check the "Enhanced search query" box to see:

   • How your question was interpreted
   • The generated Boolean query
4. Refine if needed: Click the "Edit Query" pencil icon to modify the Boolean query, or enter a new question in the main search box
5. Save or share: Use the buttons at the top to save searches to "My Knovel" or share results
6. Access search history: Find past AI-assisted searches in "My Activity"

Coming Early 2026: An additional AI feature will offer optional search result summaries to help you quickly understand key findings across multiple sources.

How AI-Assisted Search Works

Knovel's AI-assisted search uses smart artificial intelligence techniques to make finding information faster and more accurate. It takes your everyday questions and turns them into effective search queries. This process involves three main steps:

1. Turning Your Question into a Search:
   When you type in a question like "what are the biggest challenges in chemical process intensification?", our AI first understands what you're asking. It pulls out the main ideas, keywords, and how they relate to each other. Then, it builds a precise "Boolean" search query. This query uses logical connectors (like AND, OR, NOT) and includes synonyms and related terms, all designed to get the best possible results from our content. You'll always see this AI-generated query, and you can even edit it if you want to fine-tune the search yourself.
2. Finding the Best Results:
   Once the AI has created the optimized Boolean query, our search system uses it to scour Knovel's vast library of engineering content. It quickly finds documents and data that match the query, then ranks them by how relevant they are. This ranking considers factors like how often your search terms appear and how close they are to each other in the text. This ensures you get high-quality, relevant information directly addressing your original question.
3. Summarizing Key Findings (Coming Early 2026):
   While the search results always link directly to their original sources, an upcoming AI feature will go a step further. It will offer optional summaries that pull together the main points from the content snippets of the Boolean search results. This means the AI will process these snippets, identify the core information, and present it in a concise overview. This helps you quickly grasp the key insights without having to read every document in detail. Importantly, each summary will still provide clear links back to the original full text, so you can always dig deeper and verify the information.

How do I check the accuracy of AI-generated content? 

• Check the sources: Verify the references and citations provided in the content.
• Cross-reference information: Compare the AI-generated content with other reliable sources. Look for consistency in data and conclusions.
• Consult experts: If possible, ask subject matter experts to validate the information.
• Use fact-checking tools: Use online fact-checking tools and databases to confirm the accuracy of specific claims or data points.
• It is essential to understand that Knovel’s AI features are not designed to offer legal, financial, or medical advice. Additionally, be aware that the tool could sometimes produce content perceived as biased or offensive. To ensure the integrity and safety of your research, avoid entering personal, confidential, or sensitive information.

Use traditional search when you prefer full control over search terms or need to search for specific content types.

What You Can Search

• Books and chapters
• Case studies and conference papers
• Databases and dictionaries
• Equations and graphs
• Tables and regulatory information
• Mathcad worksheets

Search Options

• Basic Search: Use the search box at the top of any page
• Pre-filtered Search: Select content type from the homepage dropdown before searching
• Advanced Search: Specify title, author, publisher, or use free-text combinations
• Material Property Search: Target interactive content by material, substance, or property

How to Use Traditional Keyword Search

Follow the below steps to perform a search or view our Knovel Search video tutorial and our Quick Start Guide for more information. Results by default will be sorted by relevance.

1. Enter search terms: Type one or more words and press Enter or click "Search"

   • Tip: Singular/plural and British/American spellings return the same results
   • Default behavior: Multiple words are searched with AND (all terms required)
   • Exact phrases: Use quotation marks for phrase searches
   • Advanced search techniques like Boolean are also supported
2. Review results: Results appear ranked by relevance, with options to re-sort by date
3. Refine your search: Use facet filters on the left of the search results page to narrow results by:

   • Content type
   • Concept
   • Industry
   • Publication date
   • Author
4. Save and share: Use top navigation buttons to save queries or share results
5. Access search history: Find past searches in "My Activity"

Advanced Search Tips

• Use Knovel's synonym tool to expand search comprehensiveness
• Try Material Property Search for more targeted results when searching tables and graphs
• Take advantage of Boolean operators for complex queries