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Inspec on Ovid

Use Inspec to find articles in physics, astronomy, EE and CS. Get to Inspec from the Find Articles Button on the library home page.Coverage goes back to 1898

Searching

There are three search modes available in OVID: Basic, advanced and citation specific. You can navigate between the modes via the tabs.

Basic search works for simple author and/or keyword searching and is quite self-explanatory.

Subject Search

Inspec defaults to the advanced search, with one box.

Enter your search keyword / keywords linked with a Boolean Operator (such as "and" or "or"). Without an operator, terms will be looked for as a phrase.
Click on the Search icon.

If you know the classification code for your subject you can enter your code or codes with ".cc" on the end. Example: To find articles robotic vision, use the codes for robotics (C3390) and computer vision (C5260B): (C3390 and C5260B).cc

Author Search

Author search can be done many ways.

Use the Basic Search, and enter only the author.
Enter the author's name: last, first intital$.au into the advanced search box (e.g. bhanu b$.au). This is mostly useful if you want to combine and author with a journal title or other type of search in one line.
Click on the "Author" button on the advanced search menu, and select the author names from the list.

Limits

If you get too many results, use limits to refine your results. Click on the target to get even more limiting options.

Field code Search: (i.e. searching for words in specific fields such as title, journal etc…)

To search for terms in specific fields, type the term and field tag separated by a "." (e.g. unicorp.co). To search in multiple fields separate the field codes with a comma (tailings.ti,ab). Indexes are available for all fields on the "search fields" page.Use the Search Fields button to see what kind of information is contained in each field.

Tag	Field	Example	Tag	Field	Example
ab	abstract	conductivity.ab	jn	journal name	fuel.jn
ao	astronomical object	vir.ao	jw	journal title word	fuel.jw
au	author	bhanu b$.au	lg	language	fre.lg
cd	CODEN	.cd	mp	keywords	emissions.mp (default)
cf	conference info	ieee.cf	nd	numerical data	03.nd
ch	chemicals	ag-agbr.ch	pb	publisher	elsevier.pb
cl	classification code	c13.cc	pg	pagination	407.pg
ib	ISBN	1-56091-360-6.ib	pt	pub type	monograph chapter.pt
in	institution	riverside.in	sh	subject heading	ac motors.sh

Combining Search Terms

and	Finds records that contain both of two terms.
or	Finds records that contain either or both of two terms.
. (in)	Finds records that contain a term in a specified field.
adj	Finds records that contain two adjacent terms
ADJn	Finds records that contain both terms within a specified range of words. (n)
not	Finds records that contain one term but not another.

There are 3 ways to combine searches:

1. Combine terms in the original search (robotics and vision and bhanu$.au)
2. Combine previously returned search sets by typing the set numbers into the search box. (1 and 2)
3. Click on the Combine Icon in the main search page tool bar.

Note: Because one can combine search sets by number, use quotes around numbers in your search. (ethanol "80")

Truncation

To retrieve all words that match the beginning of your word, use the “$” to indicate the point of truncation. For example, “log$” retrieves log, logs, logging, loggers, etc.

     Limited Truncation: $n (n is number of letters after the $)
     The wild card: "#" replaces a single character within or at the end of a word
     Optional Wild Card: "?" replaces 0-1 characters within or at the end of a word. (colo?r = color or colour)

Note: You must have at least two characters in a word before any wild card or truncation.

Display Results

To view results, scroll down the Main Search page or click the button next to the set list.

Print, Email and Save Results – Results Manager

The Results Manager displays at the bottom of every set of search results.
Display allows you to display selected Citations in the desired format,
Print Preview formats the page for printing,
Email allows you to send the citations to any email address, and
Save allows you to save items to a floppy disk or other available disk

Saving to Endnote: If you are currently at the machine where you want to import your records:

Choose which citations and fields you want to import.
Choose Direct Export, then Save.

Otherwise use the Reprint/Medlars Citation Format and Email or Save your records for importing later.

Finding call numbers and full-text

Click

in a record for links to full-text and/or call numbers. Not all articles indexed in Inspec are available at UCR.

Last modified: 6/22/2006 2:00 PM by by M. Potter