Ovid basics: short-cuts
2004 version 2
24 May 2004
The system interprets each of your search steps as a single line command in the Search History box. You can reproduce them for yourself by typing the term for which you wish to search plus the two-letter code label of the field in the enter Keyword or phrase box. The list of fields available for searching, plus code labels and examples, are shown in Appendix 3 .
Author search
You can perform an equivalent search to the one for Anne Ponsonby using an icon by entering ponsonby a$.au. in the enter Keyword or phrase box on the Main Search page:
Figure 16: Short-cut author search
This time you are simply asking the system to look for all authors called ponsonby a and any other initial. Then you get exactly the same result as Figure 6, but the search history looks slightly different. This approach can save you a lot of time where an author has a common name, eg smith j$.au.
Figure 17: Result of short-cut author search
Title search
The equivalent of the title search using an icon is by entering trend$.ti. in the enter Keyword or phrase box on the Main Search page:
Figure 18: Short-cut title search
This gives a result and search history exactly the same as Figure 8 :
Figure 19: Result of short-cut title search
You may have noticed that the word trends in the title of the article by Ponsonby was not at the beginning. That is because the title field is what is known as 'word indexed' - every word in the title, with the exception of some common words like 'the' or 'of', is searchable separately.
Journal search
The equivalent of the journal search using an icon is to enter seminars in perinatology.jn. in the enter Keyword or phrase box on the Main Search page:
Figure 20: Short-cut journal search
This gives a result and search history for the journal identical to that seen in Figure 11 :
Figure 21: Result of short-cut journal search
Remember that by using the icon we could only find this journal by typing words starting from the beginning of the title. That is because the journal field is what is known as 'phrase indexed' - the name is found by looking it up in the alphabetical index. Therefore if you use this journal short-cut method, you need the exact name or the system will return a zero result.
If you are interested in finding out which fields are word- or phrase-indexed, click the button to the left of the database name in the opening search screen.
Alphabetical listings
If you wish to be taken to the index (alphabetical list) for a particular field type the command root before the term you wish to search for, plus a two-letter field code from Appendix 3 eg root population.ti. Again, be sure to include the full stops.
Any questions? Please contact the MEDLINE Plus help desk:
Tel: 020 7383 6224 or 6737
email: info.medline@bma.org.uk
web: http://www.bma.org.uk/medline