How does the publications search work?
Christopher Brooks, 16 Sep 2005
Last updated: 13 Jul 2009

The publications search has a "keywords" text field. When the search button is clicked, the keywords text field is split in to individual words and then the publication database field(s) are searched for strings that match each individual keyword.

For example, if the keywords text field is Foo Bar, then we search for any field that contains Foo or Bar. For example, BifFooBang would match the Foo word in the keywords text field.

The % character can be used as a wildcard character, for example Fo%o will match Foo, Fooo and FooBaro. Note that the search mechanism automatically prepends and appends % characters for us, so there is no point in searching for %Foo% - the leading and trailing % are always added for us.

The publications search page has an "In" selection entry that has the fields that are to be searched. If the (Anywhere) choice is selected, then all the fields are searched.