Advanced search

Search our data holdings at https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/eidc/documents

Simple search will find the records you are looking for most of the time.  However, if you need to, you can include special symbols and words in the search box to refine your search results.

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Basic search

  Example Explanation Results
Text match soil chemistry Searches for records containing either the word soil or the word chemistry  Earthworms, plants and soil chemistrydata
  Survey of bracken biomass, soil chemistryand other environmental factors
  UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) soilsolution chemistrydata: 1992-2015
  Soilprofile and chemistrydata in the Ankeniheny Zahamena forest corridor, Madagascar
Phrase match "soil chemistry" Searches for records containing the phrase "soil chemistry"  Earthworms, plants and soil chemistrydata
  Survey of bracken biomass, soil chemistryand other environmental factors
  UK Environmental Change Network (ECN) soil solution chemistry data: 1992-2015
  Soil profile and chemistry data in the Ankeniheny Zahamena forest corridor, Madagascar

Search terms

Search term Example Explanation Results
OR soil OR chemistry Searches for records containing either the word soil orthe word chemistry  Pontbren neutron probe soilmoisture data
  Soilwater chemistrydata from Climoor fieldsite in Clocaenog Forest
  UK lowland river chemistry
  Woodlands survey soildata 1971-2001
AND soil AND chemistry Searches for records containing both the word soil andthe word chemistry  Pontbren neutron probe soil moisture data
  Soilwater chemistrydata from Climoor fieldsite in Clocaenog Forests
  UK lowland river chemistry
  Woodlands survey soil data 1971-2001
NOT soil NOT chemistry Searches for records containing the word soil but which does notcontain the word chemistry  Pontbren neutron probe soilmoisture data
  Soil water chemistry data from Climoor fieldsite in Clocaenog Forests
  UK lowland river chemistry
  Woodlands survey soildata 1971-2001
These terms must be included in UPPERCASE - for example, NOTwill work, notwon't.

Search symbols

Symbol Example Explanation Results
- (minus) soil
-chemistry
Excludes words.  The example shown searches for records containing the word soil but which do not contain the word chemistry (same as NOT)  Pontbren neutron probe soil moisture data
  Soil water chemistry data from Climoor fieldsite in Clocaenog Forests
  UK lowland river chemistry
  Woodlands survey soil data 1971-2001
+ soil +chemistry Searches for records which MAY contain the word soil but MUST contain the word chemistry  Pontbren neutron probe soil moisture data
  Soil water chemistry data from Climoor fieldsite in Clocaenog Forests
  UK lowland river chemistry
Woodlands survey soil data 1971-2001
* tr*e Multiple character wildcard: searches for records which have any number of characters (including zero) in the position of the wildcard. tree, trace, true, tribe, trends, Trent, treatments, triplet, ...
? tr?e Single character wildcard: searches for records which have exactly one characters in the position of the wildcard. tree, true (but not tribe)
~ seabird~ Fuzzy search: searches for records that contain words which look similar seabird, seabirds, seabed
When you search using symbols, don't add any spaces between the symbol and your search terms. For example, a search for -birdwill work, but - birdwill not.

Search specific fields

You can search specific parts of a record by entering a field name, a colon (':') and then your search term. For example, title:birdlooks for records with the word 'bird' in the the record's title.

There must be no spaces between the colon and your search term. For example, a search for title:birdwill work, but title: birdwill not.

Search for phrases by enclosing them in quotes.  For example, title:"bird survey"

Search term Example Searches for
title: title:Windermere Returns results which contain the word Windermerein the title of the data resource
description: description:lake Returns results which contain the word lakein the description of the data resource
lineage: lineage:estimate Returns results which contain the word estimatein the lineage of the data resource

The terms above will match partialwords. For example:

title:tempwill return titles containing temperature, temperatures, temporary, temperate, etc

Search term Example Searches for
keyword: keyword:Wales Returns records which contain the keyword Wales
organisation: organisation:Defra Returns records which contain the organisation Defra
orcid: orcid:0000-1234-6789-000X Returns records which have authors with the ORCiD 0000-1234-6789-000X

The terms above match only wholewords. For example:

keyword:rainwill return records containing the keyword rainbut not rainfall, raingauge, drain, etc

To search partial words, you must include the wildcard character *. For example:

keyword:rain*will return records containing the keyword rain, rainfall, raingauge (but not drain)
keyword:*rain*will return records containing the keyword rain, rainfall, raingauge, drain, drainage, etc

Search for authors

Search term Example Searches for
authorName: authorName:Smith* Returns records authored by individuals named Smith
authorAffiliation: authorAffiliation:"Newcastle University" Returns records whose authors are affiliated to Newcastle University

Names in the EIDC catalogue normally contain spaces and punctuation (full stops, commas). Unfortunately, these can be used in many different combinations, for example:

Smith, A.B.
Smith A.B.
Smith,   A.B.
Smith,A.B.
Smith, AB
Smith, AB.

To make sure that all matching possibilities are found, use the wildcard in place of spaces/punctuation. For example authorName:Smith*A*B*will find Smith, A.B.; Smith,   A.B.; Smith,A.B.; Smith, AB; Smith, AB.and Smith, A.B.C.(but not Smith B.A. or Smith, A.C.)

Note:Because these are proper names, they are case sensitive - so authorName:Smith*will work but authorName:smith*, will not.

Spatial search

You can construct spatial searches using the locationsfield. You need to specify a bounding box in which to search and state whether you want your search to include only results that are entirely contained within the bounding box (IsWithin), or include those that also intersect the box (Intersects).

Examples:

Search for datasets contained entirely in a bounding box describing Wales:
locations:"IsWithin(POLYGON((-5.47 53.43, -2.65 53.43, -2.65 51.38, -5.47 51.38, -5.47 53.43)))"

Search for datasets that intersect with the bounding box describing Wales:
locations:"Intersects(POLYGON((-5.47 53.43, -2.65 53.43, -2.65 51.38, -5.47 51.38, -5.47 53.43)))"

Search for datasets that are contained within a bounding box describing Scotland:
locations:"IsWithin(POLYGON((-8.65 60.87, -0.73 60.87, -0.73 54.63, -8.65 54.63, -8.65 60.87)))"

Combining terms

The search terms described above can be combined to create complex searches. For example:

title:map AND title:Wales
finds records with the both the words map and Wales in the title

title:map AND Wales
finds records with the word map in the title and which contains the word Wales anywhere in the record

title:night NOT abstract:day
finds records with the word night in the title but omit any records with the word day in the abstract

title:wood
finds records in which the title contains any word starting with wood (e.g wood; woods; woodland)

Parentheses can be used to group terms:

Wales AND (otter OR badger)
finds records with the word Wales which also contains either the word otter or the word badger

Parentheses can also be used to group field searches, for example title:otter AND title:Walescan also be written as title:(otter AND Wales)

Administrative searches

The following search terms are aimed primarily at metadata publishers and administrators

Search term Example Searches for
state: state:draft Returns only results in the draftpublication status. The three options are draft,pendingand published
identifier: identifier:fdc3fd67-a0bc-4e94-950e-9cabd4e636bb

Returns the record with the metadata identifier fdc3fd67-a0bc-4e94-950e-9cabd4e636bb.

Use with wildcards for partial matches e.g. identifier:fdc3fd67*or identifier:*a0c*

view: view:public Returns results which are visible to the publicuser group.
resourceIdentifier: resourceIdentifier:10.5285/xxx Returns results which have an identifier (such as a DOI) 10.5285/xxx
resourceStatus: resourceStatus:Superseded Returns results whose data have been superseded. The options are Available, Embargoed, Superseded, Withdrawnand Restricted
grant: grant:*R016429*

Returns resources funded by the specified grant number 

Note: UKRI grant numbers contain slashes (/) which can cause problems with search.  It is recommended that you search for the text part of the search and enclose it in wildcards (*).

e.g. *R016429*will find NE/R016429/1

funder: funder:"Natural Environment Research Council"

Returns resources funded by NERC

Because funders' names contain spaces, enclose them in quotes. (funder:"Natural Environment Research Council"NOT funder:Natural Environment Research Council)

Use with wildcards for partial matches e.g. funder:Natural*or funder:*Council

Search is case-sensitive so funder:*council may not work but funder:*Council will

incomingCitationCount: incomingCitationCount:[1 TO *]

Shows all records that have at least one citation

NOTE: this is case sensitive.