How Researchers can Search on your Public Journal Search

Here is a brief overview of how your researchers can search for journals using your Public Journal Search. For Librarians to search within the JST we recommend using the Internal Search, please see our guide here to find out more.

Please note your Public Journal Search will look different based on your customisations, but the functionality will be the same.

• • Brief overview on how to search
  • Brief overview of how the search works
  • Simple search
  • Filtering
  • Advanced search

Brief description on how to search

Researchers can search on JST by searching for journal title, imprint, ISSN, subject, or keyword. Researchers can also make use of advanced searching e.g. Boolean operators, wildcards, to narrow or widen their search. When conducting a search the results will be sorted by a relevance ranking with exact matches appearing at the top of the search results. To refine their search researchers can then make use of the filters e.g imprint, who pays.

Example searches:

'human biology'

'human AND biology' - Use of AND boolean operator

'Human biology' with filter applied

Brief overview of how the search works

When doing a search it searches for the individual keywords and results are then ranked according to their relevance with exact matches appearing at the top. Journal name matches will be prioritised over other fields. To refine their search researchers can make use of Filtering and/or Advanced Search functionality. For example, if researchers want to search only for specific terms they can make use of AND e.g. Art AND History.

Step-by-Step

1. Researchers will first of all go to your Public Journal Search by using the widget or custom URL you have been provided by SciFree. This will look something like search.scifree.se/UniversityAcronym
   

Simple Search

1. Researchers can then use the Search bar to search for Journals using a simple search (see advanced search for supported advanced searching techniques).
   There are a number of ways to search for journals which includes using one (or more) of the following criteria:
   - Journal Name
   - ISSN
   - Imprint
   - Keyword
   
   
   
2. Once researchers have completed a search they will then be provided with a list of results. These results will display the following information:
   - Journal title - with the link to the journal/publisher page
   - Imprint
   - Who pays - this will display the icon, hover text and link based on the payment method for the journal
   - License option - will display the icon, hover text and link based on the type of open access - license/licenses that are available for the journal
   - Publishing model - this will display what the type of journal it is (Open Access/Hybrid)
   
   
3. If no search results are returned a message will be displayed, customised by the university library
   

Filtering

1. To refine search results researchers can apply filters. This can be done by clicking on the filter icon on the top of the following columns
   - Imprint
   - Who Pays
   - License Option
   - Publishing Model
   
2. Researchers can then select/deselect options across the different filters (note: if they open another filter the previous filter box will close automatically)
   

Advanced search

When using advanced search (Wildcard, Truncation, and Boolean Operators) it will default to search within the Journal Name. Advanced searching is also supported in the Imprint and Subject fields. To do this use:
imprint:
subjects:

Advanced Search Function	About
Wildcard ?	When using wildcards, it default searches within Journal Name. To use wildcard in imprint or subject the field must be specified. E.g. subjects: organi?ation
Truncation *	Supported. When using truncation, it defaults searches within Journal Name. To use truncation in imprint or subject the field must be specified E.g. imprint: Royal Societ*
Phrase Searching " "	Boosts are used so that when there is an exact match these are brought to the top of the search results. Phrase searching is supported within imprint: or subjects:
AND	Supported. When using AND it defaults searches within Journal Name. To use AND in imprint or subject the field must be specified and parentheses used. E.g. subjects: (art AND history)
OR	Supported. When using OR it defaults searches within Journal Name. To use OR in imprint or subject the field must be specified and parentheses used. E.g. imprint: (microbiology society OR royal society)
NOT	Supported. When using NOT it default searches within Journal Name. To use NOT in imprint or subject the field must be specified and parentheses used. E.g. subjects: (art NOT history)
Parentheses ()	Parentheses are supported to hold searches together with more than one argument

Specific field searching

Field searching	About
Journal Name	Matches within journal name are listed higher in the results. When using an advanced search string this will default to search only in the Journal Name field
Imprint	Search within the Imprint field by using 'imprint:' and use quotes for phrases e.g. imprint: "Portland Press"
Subject	Search within the Subject field by using 'subjects:' and use quotes for phrases e.g. subjects: "art history"