How to search: IEEE

Performing an Advanced Search

1. Click Advanced Search under the Global Search box.
   
   IEEE Xplore displays the Advanced Search Options page, with the Advanced Keyword/Phrases tab selected.
2. Enter your search query using either the structured advanced search or command search. When you click , IEEE Xplore displays the results of your search.
3. Select the number of titles listed on the page using the Results per page drop-down menu, and specify how the titles are sorted using the Sort by drop-down Menu.
4. View multiple pages of results by using the First and Last links at the top and bottom of the list of titles.

1. View the abstract of an article on the search results page by clicking .
2. Display the abstract page by clicking the document title or the ... View more link.
3. For articles in publications to which you subscribe, view full text by clicking .

The subscription identifier icon indicates articles where you have access to full text.

The Advanced Keyword/Phrases tab on the Advanced Search Options page provides a structured way for you to perform a more complex search. Follow this procedure to perform an Advanced Search:

1. Click Advanced Search under the Global Search box.
2. In the Advanced Search area, select Metadata Only or Full Text & Metadata for your search.
   Note: Users with an IEEE Account can set a search preference to search metadata only or full text & metadata. You must be logged in for this preference to be applied to your searches.
3. Click in the first text box and enter a keyword. The keyword can be a subject term, last name, or phrase. If you are unsure of the spelling, you can use the *wildcard.
   IEEE Xplore searches for items regardless of capitalization. See Entering Search Keywords for additional rules governing entry of search keywords.
4. Limit your search by selecting a specific field in the drop-down menu next to the text box. The menu lists all the searchable fields in the database records.
   
   You can choose to search on a particular field, or on metadata only or full text and metadata as selected in step 2. However, you cannot choose to search for some keywords in metadata only and other keywords in full text and metadata.
5. To include additional keywords or phrases in the search query, enter search text and select fields for the other search query boxes as necessary. Define the relationship between the query boxes by selecting search operators from the drop-down menus between the text boxes. For example:
   The search operators available in the drop-down menus are:
   1. AND: Searches for records that meet the two conditions it joins.
   2. OR: Searches for records that meet either or both of the two conditions it joins.
   3. NOT: Searches for records that do not meet the specified condition.
6. Limit your search results by adjusting the search options. For example, you can:
   • Select one or more publisher to search
   • Select one or more content types to search
   • Select one or more topics to search
   • Specify the publication years to search
7. Click . IEEE Xplore looks through the database records and presents a list of results matching your query. The subscription identifier icon indicates articles where you have access to full text.
8. If more titles containing the keyword exist than appear on the first page, click the First and Last links or the page numbers at the top and bottom of the list, to view more pages of titles.
   

Using Command Search

The Advanced Search Options page enables you to enter a free-form search query. In command search, you can specify and perform more complex searches than you can using structured advanced search. You can join up to 15 search terms, use proximity operators, and exert more control over the order in which expressions are evaluated.

To access the Command Search page, click on Advanced Search under the Global Search box and select the tab.

1. In the Command Search area, click in the text box. If desired, limit your search by using the Data Fields drop-down menu to select a field or by entering the field name in quotation marks followed by a colon (for example, "Authors":).
   
   IEEE Xplore looks for a keyword in all fields (metadata) unless you limit the search to specific fields or select the Full Text & Metadata radio button.
2. If you specified a field name, enter a value for the field (for example, "Authors":jones). Otherwise, enter a keyword. The keyword can be a subject term, name, or phrase. If you are unsure of the spelling, you can use the * wildcard. If you want to search specifically for a phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (for example, "Document Title":"web services" finds documents with the exact phrase web services in the title). If you enter a phrase but do not enclose it in quotation marks, IEEE Xplore uses the AND operator to search for the keywords (for example, "Document Title":web services finds documents with the word web and the word services in the title either singularly or as a phrase).
   
   IEEE Xplore searches for items regardless of capitalization. See Entering Search Keywords for additional rules governing entry of search keywords.
3. Combine multiple search expressions as needed. Use the Operators drop-down menu to define the relationship between search expressions, using the following syntax:
   
   search_expression <operator> search_expression
   
   where search_expression is "field name":value or keyword (including keyword 1 keyword 2 ... keywordn or "keyword phrase") and <operator> is an operator listed in the Operators drop-down menu. If you choose to type the operator, use all capital letters (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, ONEAR).
   
   For example, the following search expressions look for either the phrase radio frequency identification or the abbreviation rfid in document titles:
   
   
   
   Note: You can not use parentheses to nest search terms when using the OR operator within a data field. Thus, "Document Title":("radio frequency identification" OR rfid) is not a valid search; the valid search is "Document Title":"broadband wireless access" OR "Document Title":bwa. You can then use parentheses to nest this search string. For example, ("Document Title":"radio frequency identification" OR "Document Title":rfid) AND scheduling.
4. Click . IEEE Xplore looks through the database records and presents a list of results matching your query. The subscription identifier icon indicates articles where you have access to full text.
5. If more titles containing the keyword exist than appear on the first page, click the First and Last links at the top and bottom of the list, to view more pages of titles.
   

Summary of Data Fields

Data fields identify specific parts of a document record. By limiting a search to a specific field (or metadata), you can reduce the time it takes to process the search and produce more targeted results. Here are the data fields you can use in advanced search and/or command search.

Note: In Command Search, remember to enclose the field name in quotation marks, and use a colon to separate the field name from the field value you want to search for; for example, "Document Title":rfid.

Summary of Search Operators

Search operators are elements that express relationships between search terms or search expressions, or that otherwise modify a query. In structured advanced searching, you can use the logical operators AND, OR, and NOT. In command searching, you can use these operators plus NEAR (for unordered proximity searches) and ONEAR (for ordered proximity searches), as described here.