Defining queries
The 
function looks through all the information on all publications abstracted in the CISDOC database for the words in the "Query definition" box. In its simplest ("basic") mode, no further instructions from the user are necessary. In this mode, the search program looks for all documents whose citations include all the terms that have been typed into the "Query definition" box. The use of upper- and lower-case letters and that of accented characters is disregarded, as these are not differentiated by the search program. For example, typing either child labour or CHILD LABOUR will locate all records containing both the word child and labour, although not necessarily as the term "child labour". If you have performed searches like this in other databases, this kind of searching corresponds to the use of AND in Boolean searching, i.e. to child AND labour in this case; indeed, you can also use child AND labour as your query.
A certain number of common function words ("the", "in", "of" etc.) will be disregarded in basic search mode. Such words are called stopwords. If you do want to include a stopword in a search query, prefix it with the plus-sign operator (+), e.g. safety +and health will include the three words safety, and and health in the query.
You can widen your search by using the truncation feature. You apply this by placing the asterisk character * either in front of or after the word or character sequence you wish to enlarge. For example, child* will retrieve records containing child, children, childhood, and so on. You can also use left-hand truncation, e.g., typing in *child* will return the author name Fairchild as well.
If you are looking for a specific multi-word term or phrase, use quotation marks. For example, typing in "child labour" will retrieve records where this phrase appears anywhere within the record, but not those where the words child and labour appear in a different order or not next to each other. You can combine search items within the same query: typing in "child labour" shipbreaking will retrieve records where both the phrase child labour and the word shipbreaking appear, although not necessarily adjacent to each other.
If you wish to locate a stop word in a text, you can do so by using quotation marks: querying with "pumping in" will locate all occurrences of the sequence "pumping in", while pumping in will identify all occurrences of the word "pumping" (because "in" is a stop word).
Asterisks and quotation marks can be combined in the same search. For example, "asbestos fib*" will recover all records containing the text sequences "asbestos fiber", "asbestos fibers", "asbestos fibre" and "asbestos fibres".
Boolean searching was already referred to above. This searching technique is widely used in the computer world. Basically, it allows searches to be both more general and more specific, based on the results of searches using more than one search criterion.
As we have already shown, a very wide Boolean searching technique enables users to recover only those items that include all the search criteria present. This is known as AND searching, for example:
asbestos AND mesothelioma will recover those records that contain both the word "asbestos" and the word "mesothelioma".
Another common Boolean operator is OR. This enables users to locate records which contain any one of the search criteria present. For example:
asbestos OR mesothelioma will recover those records that contain either the word "asbestos" or the word "mesothelioma" (or both, of course).
The third key Boolean operator is NOT. This operator is used to restrict the result of another search to documents not containing a specific word or expression. Example:
asbestos NOT chrysotile will recover all records that contain the word "asbestos", except for those that also include the word "chrysotile". You may wish to use such a search strategy if you already have enough material on chrysotile but still wish to find more documents dealing with other kinds of asbestos.
Queries can be combined using the same Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. When combining queries this way, the serial number of the query must be preceded by a hash mark (#). As an example, if query No.1 asks for all records containing the word "asbestos", and query No.2 asks for all records containing the word "France", the query #1 AND #2 will recover all records containing both "Asbestos" and "France".
The numbers in the query are those assigned in the Search History subscreen.
A reference to a query is resolved by replacing the #nn reference by the content of the query No. nn. Therefore it may happen, that a misplaced reference causes the "host" query fail. Like with all other errors, the query definition subscreen gives a good indication of this problem, when it happens.
If you wish to search for information restricted to a specific field, you should use Field search mode. There are four operators in Field-Search Mode: the slash (/), the equal sign (=), the less than sign (<) and the greater than sign (>). They are not always applicable, e.g. the last two are used only for numeric fields.
Click here for a list of searchable fields and operators allowed for them.
To see if a specific word appears in a field in some CISDOC records, use the tag followed by the slash character and the word you are interested in. For example:
TI/asbestos will locate all records whose English title includes the word "asbestos".
If you wish to find just the records where the title is exactly equal to the search parameters, use the equal sign instead of the slash:
TI="Carbon dioxide" will recover all records whose English title is exactly "Carbon dioxide".
Further examples:
- TI/*dependence will recover titles containing the word "dependence" as well as those containing "independence".
- AU/"War*" will recover author names "Ward", "Warden" and "Warner".
- TI/"fall arresters" will recover all titles containing the word sequence "fall arresters".
- TI/asbestos AND LA=French will recover all citations of documents written in French that have the word "asbestos" in their English title.
The definition of each successful individual search of the CISDOC database is copied into the "Search history" box. The information displayed in this box has three components:
- a serial number corresponding to the place of the search in a given search session,
- the number of hits provided by the search, and
- the text of the query
.
A query can be returned later on to the "Query definition" box by simply clicking on it. WARNING: The search history is effaced if the interface language or user changes as well as via the 
button without warning. When it happens, a small introductory text will appear in its window.
Registered users can save queries for use in later sessions by typing a name for it in the "Store the current query as" entry box at the bottom left part of the screen and using the 
button. This stored query definition can be recovered ("loaded") in subsequent sessions from the "Retrieve a stored query" combo box via the 
button or deleted with the 
. To modify a stored query, the new content has to be stored under the same name.
While storing a query defined with #nn references to earlier queries, the references will automatically be replaced by the content of the referred queries.