How to search

Choose your search method

Flexible matching is the default behavior and will ignore word endings using stemming.

Exact matching will match exact words only. In this mode it is advised to use wildcards to match word-variations.

Clustering and operators

Use parentheses and boolean operators to cluster different search combinations.

AND is the default if you do not type anything between multiple search terms. The search operators AND and OR must be in all caps.

It is important to use parenthesis when combining AND and OR...

Example: (waste OR pollution) AND (denmark OR sweden)

Example: (air AND pollution) OR (luft AND forurening)

Document types

You can limit your search result to certain document types by clicking "Journal article", "Book" or "Journal" in the left hand menu.

Keyword/prefix matching

Author - use au or author or authors as prefix - e.g. au:anderson or author:anderson (Or use our dedicated author search “By author” under Advanced search to get a more extensive result.)

Title - use ti and title as prefix - e.g. ti:nanotechnology or title:nanotechnology

Abstract - use ab and abstract as prefix - e.g. ab:nanotechnology or abstract:nanotechnology

Keyword - use ke or kw or key or keyword as prefix - e.g. kw:nanoparticles or keyword:nanoparticles or key:nanoparticles

ISBN - use isbn as prefix - e.g. isbn:3540001875

ISSN - use issn as prefix - e.g. issn:07306679

DOI - use doi as prefix - e.g. doi:10.1002/adv.21262

Year - use year or y as prefix - e.g. year:2012 or y:2012

Publisher - use pu or pub or publisher - e.g. pu:wiley or pub:wiley or publisher:wiley

Supervisor - use supervisor - e.g. supervisor:anderson

Phrase search

Search for a phrase by enclosing words in quotation marks - "neural circuit". This will find results where the words are next to each other.

When using Flexible matching stemming will still be applied, i.e. "neural circuit" will also return results for "neural circuits".

Proximity searches

You can specify search terms to be within a certain number of words apart. To do a proximity search use the tilde ~ symbol at the end of a phrase. To search for carbon and spectra to be within 3 words of each other in a record, specify the search like this: "carbon spectra"~3

Stemming

When using Flexible matching words are compared by their "stem". Searching for waters will find results containing water, watering etc.

The algorithm used to find the stem is for the English language so it will not work correctly in other languages.

Wildcards and truncation

Wildcards can be used with both flexible matching and exact matching but NOT inside phrase searches.

A question mark ? matches a single character. The query organi?ation will find both organization and organisation, but not organification.

An asterisk * matches zero or more characters. The query organ* will find organ, organiser and organizationally etc.

Wildcards can be used in the middle of a word. The query org*ally will find organically and organizationally.

Year range searches

Search for records published between 2006 and 2008 - year:[2006 TO 2008]

Want to know more?

DTU Findit uses Apache Solr as its backend. Read a more technical description of the query syntax.