Earth and Space Index - Fielded Search

Enter Query Term(s) and Select Field(s) to Search       In ALL FIELDS UNIQUE IDENTIFIER TITLE AUTHOR ("Lastname, M. I.") AFFILIATION JOURNAL (use "...") VOLUME ISSUE PAGINATION ISSN/ISBN (use "...") KEYWORDS EDITOR BOOK TITLE/SERIES PUBLISHER PLACE OF PUBLICATION YEAR NOTES OR AND NOT       In ALL FIELDS UNIQUE IDENTIFIER TITLE AUTHOR ("Lastname, M. I.") AFFILIATION JOURNAL (use "...") VOLUME ISSUE PAGINATION ISSN/ISBN (use "...") KEYWORDS EDITOR BOOK TITLE/SERIES PUBLISHER PLACE OF PUBLICATION YEAR NOTES OR AND NOT      In ALL FIELDS UNIQUE IDENTIFIER TITLE AUTHOR ("Lastname, M. I.") AFFILIATION JOURNAL (use "...") VOLUME ISSUE PAGINATION ISSN/ISBN (use "...") KEYWORDS EDITOR BOOK TITLE/SERIES PUBLISHER PLACE OF PUBLICATION YEAR NOTES   Maximum 10 20 40 100 200 400  Results   Display Format: HTML Refer

The Basics

• To search for name and initials, enclose within double quotes, e.g. au="Jones, P. D.". Enter a space between initials, and include punctuation.
• To search for phrases or hyphenated terms, enclose within double quotes, e.g. "Southern Oscillation"
• To search in several fields, use the Boolean operator AND, OR, or NOT (in UPPERCASE) between components, e.g. jl="J. Geophys. Res." AND au="Hinze, W. J."

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EASI Help - Search Guidelines

Contents:

• Introduction
• Basic EASI Search
  • Natural Language
  • Locating Words with the Same Root
• Fielded Search
• Advanced Search
  • Query Syntax
  • Entering Query Term(s)
  • Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT and ADJ
  • Searchable Fields
    • Selecting AGU Index Terms (GAP Terms)
    • Journal Names
    • Book Series
    • Publication Types
  • Phrase Searching
  • Truncation
  • Using Parentheses
  • Fine-Tuning the Search
  • Entering Complex Boolean Expressions
  • Stop Words
• Retrieving Results
  • The Search Results Page
  • Viewing Hits
    • Relevance Ranking
  • Display Formats
    • Refer Format
• Additional Support

Introduction

Earth and Space Index (EASI) contains citations with index terms for all journal articles, books, and other documents published by AGU. Coverage is from 1988 to present, a total of over 70,000 records. Searches can be entered as natural language or Boolean expressions.

Prior to 1997, EASI has been distributed on diskette together with a bibliographic search application called EndNote from Niles and Associates. EASI Monthly Updates are also disseminated via e-mail for current awareness. These services offer certain advantages beyond just the searchable data, such as the capacity to import sets of references directly into an article in a wordprocessor, and to automatically format those references according to a range of journal-specific "styles". There were some restrictions, however, such as the finite size of the EndNote "library", the maximum number of records that can be searched as a unit, and also the lack of a Unix version.

As a part of its continuing plan to develop and improve electronic information services to scientists and members, AGU has now decided to offer the full EASI database via the World Wide Web. Future plans include extending the service to incorporate abstracts submitted electronically by authors, direct ordering of full-text articles via a variety of media (mail, fax, download, etc.), as well as direct linking to the full-text of online articles that are published electronically. EASI will thus serve not only as the AGU bibliographic database but also as the access route to a suite of online products and services that collectively comprise the electronic AGU repository.

This EASI Help document is a brief guide to searching the EASI database using the WAIS (freeWAIS-sf) search server and Z39.50 WWW gateway (SFgate). While EASI can be searched simply and effectively by just entering search terms into the text box and pressing "Submit Query", familiarizing oneself with these help pages can lead to more accurate and more comprehensive search results.

Basic EASI Search

The Basic Search screen has a single box for entering search term(s) or phrase(s), and choosing an operator (AND, OR, or NOT) if necessary, to combine search terms, while the Fielded Search screen supports the combination of several terms or concepts into a single query.

To search EASI without deliberating over special features, simply enter one or more query terms into the first text box, following the on-screen instructions (The Basics), select the maximum number of hits you want to be returned, and press the Submit Query button. The basic query can consist of one or more targetted keywords, or it can be entered as natural language. Documents in the database matching the query are returned in a results page, where you can review the titles and select records to be displayed in full.

Natural Language

The WAIS server can be queried using natural language questions such as "Tell me about tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean in 1996". The search engine takes the words and phrases in the question and finds matching documents, i.e. ones that include the specified words and phrases. (In this example, the server will search for documents containing the words "tsunamis", "Pacific", "Ocean" and "1996"; the other words are called "stop words" and are not used for searching a document).

Locating Words with the Same Root

Place an asterisk at the end of a query term to search for occurrences of words that begin with the same root, also known as "right truncation", or "wildcards". For example, tecton* will find all terms that begin with the letters tecton, such as tectonic, tectonics, tectonophysics, tectonogenesis, etc. This technique is important when the user wants to retrieve as many relevant items as possible, i.e. does not want to miss any relevant items.

Stemming in a field means that every word is reduced to its word-stem, before it is added to the index. This way 'computer', 'computing' and 'computers' are treated identically. Stemming is handled automatically by the server.

Fielded Search

The Fielded Search screen supports the combination of several terms or concepts into a single search:

Enter search term(s) in the first box

Select the appropriate field (Title, Author, ...)

To combine the search with other terms, select the appropriate Boolean operator -- AND (to narrow the search by combining with other criteria) OR (to broaden the search) or NOT (to exclude references)

Advanced Searching

Users can construct more sophisticated search queries in either form (Basic or Fielded) using a combination of search parameters including phrases, truncation, field names, nesting within parentheses, controlled vocabulary, authority lists, and Boolean operators. Entering a query using these parameters in an advanced search requires the following syntax.

Query Syntax

The standard query specifies the terms to search, the fields to search in, and the Boolean operators to apply, using the following syntax:

field=term operator field=term ...(etc)

where

field is the two-letter field code, e.g. ti=Atlantic; au=Potter; yr=1990. The default is ALL FIELDS, i.e. if no field code is specified before a term.

term is the term (or phrase) to be searched on. All occurrences of terms that begin with a given text string can be searched by truncation (appending an * at the end of the string), e.g. kw=atmos* will retrieve all occurrences that begin with "atmos", such as "atmosphere", "atmospheric" etc.

operator is one of

• AND (both terms required)
• OR (either or both terms required)
• NOT (exclude items containing the term that follows)
• ADJ (terms are adjacent one another)

Examples:

au=Smith AND ti=Mars
ti=moon OR ti=lunar
kw=dust NOT kw=volcan*
Southern ADJ Oscillation

Entering Query Term(s)

Complex searches can be entered as a single query in a text box, using Boolean operators, field codes, nesting, truncation, and so on. As a general rule of thumb, be specific by using query terms at the desired level of detail: for broad searches, use more general terms; for more specific searches, use narrower terms.

Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT and ADJ

Boolean operators are mathematical operators based on set theory, and they provide a powerful mechanism for specifying exact relationships between words, literal phrases, and field specifications in a search query.

Note the following guidelines regarding the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT and ADJ:

• Keywords separated by spaces will result in an OR operator, e.g. Gulf Stream will retrieve items containing either Gulf or Stream or both, which is the same result as searching Gulf OR Stream
• Use AND (in UPPER CASE) to separate words that are both to be contained in the record, e.g. Gulf AND Stream retrieves first those records containing both Gulf and Stream.
• Use OR (in UPPER CASE) to separate terms in searches where records containing either Term A or Term B will be retrieved. For example, OR can be useful for searching for concepts that are often expressed in different ways, as in current OR flow
• The NOT operator excludes the term that follows it: Gulf NOT Stream will retrieve items containing Gulf but not Stream.
• The ADJ (adjacent) operator is used to combine (bind) two terms together. This is useful for narrowing a search to just those documents in which the two terms occur immediately next to one another because this phrase has a precise meaning. For example, crustal ADJ accretion will be more specific than crustal AND accretion; cloud ADJ cover will be more specific than cloud AND cover This feature can be useful to exclude non-relevant items in which the terms are separated by intervening words within a document.

  Queries containing Boolean operators are normally parsed from left to right. Use parentheses to facilitate a different parsing order, or to group concepts together.

  Searchable Fields

  There are a number of searchable fields in the EASI database, described below. In the Fielded Search screen, the desired field to search can be selected from the pull-down menu. Field codes can also be entered as part of a search statement directly in the search box, using an abbreviated field name as given in the desrcriptions below.

  • To limit your search by field, prefix your keyword(s) with the field code, e.g. au=Jones.
    The EASI database contains the following fields:

    au - Author             jl - Journal name (Use journal abbreviations)  
    yr - Year               sn - ISBN/ISSN  
    ti - Title              kw - Keywords (AGU index terms & free terms) 
    vl - Volume             ed - Editor  
    is - Journal issue      t2 - Serial title  
    pg - Page number        t3 - Tertiary title (for Book Series) 
    tp - Reference type 
    

  • Be careful to key the code correctly; if any invalid field code is entered, the search will ignore all fields and operators.

  ALL FIELDS (=default - no field code)

  Performs the search in all searchable fields in EASI.

  AUTHOR (au=)

  The Author field contains the names of the author or authors of a given document (journal article, book, book chapter, etc.) in the format "Lastname, A. B.". Include punctuation and spaces. If initials are included in the name search, enter the name between double quotes; for last name only, the double quotes can be omitted. Initials may be omitted when searching, i.e. it is often sufficient to search using just the last name. For common names, add initials for more precision. Note that a space should be included between multiple initials . Also beware that the same name may be published differently in the original documents: in some records the name may be listed with just the first initial while others may have all initials. It is safer, therefore, to search on the last name and first initial.

  TITLE (ti=)

  The Title field contains the title of a document record in EASI, including titles of articles, books, book chapters, etc. Each word in the title can be searched, except for certain stopwords such as a, the, into which are not useful for seaching due to their frequency or lack of specificity, and are not indexed. Phrases in the title can be searched between double quotes, e.g. "general circulation model*"

  KEYWORDS (kw=)

  The Keywords field contains the index terms assigned to the published article. The index terms are selected from the list of AGU index terms, also known as GAP (Geophysical Abstracts in Press) terms. Each term consists of a unique number and a text heading, and searches can use either the number, or words in the headings, or both.

  Examples:
  

  3040 Marine geology and geophysics; Plate tectonics
  8199 Tectonophysics; General or miscellaneous

  YEAR (yr=)

  The year of publication in the usual format. This field can be used to limit a search to publications with a single year (e.g. yr=1997), a range of years (e.g. yr=(1996 OR 1997)), or combinations of years (e.g. yr=(1994 OR 1997)).

  JOURNAL NAME (jl=)

  The Journal Name contains the name of the AGU journal in its standard abbreviated form. Periods can be omitted for searching. Enter the journal name between double quotes. A list of all AGU journals indexed in EASI is given below to show the correct abbreviation to use. Note that some of the journals are no longer published. You may also search using the ISSN of a particular journal in the ISBN/ISSN (sn=) field.

  VOLUME (vl=)

  The Volume field contains the volume number for an AGU journal article. It is useful for narrowing a search to a particular subset of a journal, or looking for specific article(s).

  ISSUE (is=)

  The Issue field contains the issue number for an AGU journal article. It is useful for narrowing a search to a particular subset of a journal, or looking for specific article(s). It is also useful to define individual sections of the Journal of Geophysical Research, because these are strictly speaking one single journal and only "J. Geophys. Res." is entered as the journal name; ISSN is also the same for all parts (ISSN 0148-0227).

    
  To search for:                  Enter jl="J. Geophys. Res." AND 
   
  J. Geophys. Res. - Atmos.                       is=D* 
  J. Geophys. Res. - Oceans                       is=C* 
  J. Geophys. Res. - Planets                      is=E* 
  J. Geophys. Res. - Solid Earth                  is=B* 
  J. Geophys. Res. - Space Phys.                  is=A* 
  

  (Replace the truncation symbol * with a particular number to limit to a specific issue, e.g. A12)

  PAGES (pg=)

  The Pages field contains the page number(s) for an AGU journal article, book, book chapter, etc. It usually contains a range of pages, but may contain a single page as for a short article, or a total number of pages, as for a reord for a whole book. It is normally used to locate a specific article, for instance from a reference. To pinpoint page numbers above 10,000, include the comma and enclose the number within double quotes. Page numbers from 1000 to 9999 do not have commas.

  ISSN/ISBN (sn=)

  The ISSN/ISBN field contains the International Standard Serial Number for AGU journals and book series, and the International Standard Book Number assigned to AGU books and other monographic publications.

  EDITOR (ed=)

  The Editor Field contains the name(s) of editor(s) of AGU books and monographs in the format "Lastname A. B.". The search tips are as for Author above, using the field code ed=.

  UNIQUE IDENTIFIER (ui=)

  The Unique Identifier field contains the nine-digit AGU Paper Number in the case of journal articles, and a similar number in the case of other publications. The first two digits of the Paper number denote the year, the third and fourth digits indicate the AGU journal, and the remaining five digits are assigned sequentially as the manuscript is accepted for publication, beginning with 00001 each year. The Paper Number for each article is included on the table of contents in each journal issue. Because it is specific to only one document, UI is a very efficient way to quickly pinpoint an article in EASI.

  PUBLICATION TYPE (tp=)

  The Publication Type field includes a phrase to indicate the bibliographic type of document, such as journal article, edited book, book chapter, etc. A list of valid publication types shows the correct form to use for searching. You can also exclude unwanted document types using the NOT operator.

  SERIAL (SECONDARY) TITLE (t2=)

  The Serial Title includes the title of a book in a book chapter record (in which case the chapter title is entered in the Title (ti=) field). Thus, to retrieve all chapters of a book, search on one or more words from the title in the t2 field.

  TERTIARY TITLE (t3=)

  The Tertiary Title field includes the book series title for a book chapter record, in which the chapter title is entered in the Title (ti=) field, and the title of the book is entered in the Secondary Title (t2=) field. To retrieve all records from a certain book series, it is safer to search on one or more words from the series title in t2 OR t3. The list of AGU Book Series shows the corect abbreviation to use.

  

  Selecting AGU Index Terms (GAP Terms)

  Each document in EASI is indexed with terms selected from the list of AGU index terms, also known as GAP (Geophysical Abstracts in Press) terms. These index terms are entered in the Keywords (kw=) field, which is also searched if All Fields is selected. Each term consists of a unique number and a text heading, and searches can use either the number, or words in the headings, or both. The arrangement of the AGU index terms is hierarchical, with major headings that cover broad areas of the geophysical sciences, followed by a number of more specific subheadings, for example

   8400   VOLCANOLOGY 
   8404   Ash deposits 
   8409   Atmospheric effects (0370) 
   8414   Eruption mechanisms 
   8419   Eruption monitoring (7280) 
   8424   Hydrothermal systems (8135) 
   8429   Lava rheology and morphology 
   8434   Magma migration 
   8439   Physics and chemistry of magma bodies 
   8450   Planetary volcanism (5480) 
   8494   Instruments and techniques 
   8499   General or miscellaneous 
  

  This hierarchical structure allows searching either by specific categories using the narrower term (e.g. kw=8434) or by the broader term, using the truncation (*) symbol (kw=84*), i.e. inclusively. If the broader term is searched without truncation (kw=8400), only those records indexed with that heading will be retrieved (non-inclusively). In the list of terms, cross-references are listed in parentheses and indicate other relevant terms that can be included in the query with the OR operator, e.g. kw=(8450 OR 5480)

  

  Journal Names

  The Journal Name field contains the name of the AGU journal in its standard abbreviated form. Periods can be omitted for searching. Enter the journal name between double quotes. Detailed information about all the AGU journals is available in the online journals catalog. The following list of AGU journals indexed in EASI shows the correct abbreviation to use. Those translation journals marked with a * are no longer published.

  Journals:
  Earth Interact. (ISSN 1087-3562)
  Eos (ISSN 0096-3941)
  Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. (1525-2027)
  Geophys. Res. Lett. (ISSN 0094-8276)
  Global Biogeochem. Cycles (ISSN 0886-6236)
  J. Geophys. Res. (ISSN 0148-0227)
  Nonlin. Proc. Geophys. (ISSN 1023-5809)
  Paleoceanography (ISSN 0883-8305)
  Radio Sci. (ISSN 0048-6604)
  Rev. Geophys. (ISSN 8755-1209)
  Tectonics (ISSN 0278-7407)
  Water Resour. Res. (ISSN 0043-1397)
  Translation series
  *Comput. Seismol. Geodyn.
  *Geomagn. Aeron.
  *Geotectonics
  *Izv. Acad. Sci. USSR Atmos. Oceanic Phys.
  *Izv. Acad. Sci. USSR Phys. Solid Earth
  *Oceanology
  

  You can also search using the ISSN of a particular journal in the ISBN/ISSN (sn=) field, but note that the different parts of the Journal of Geophysical Research are all entered as "J. Geophys. Res." in the jl= field. To limit a search to the individual parts of JGR, the letter designation must be ANDed in the Issue (is=) field (see above).

  

  Book Series

  AGU publishes hundreds of monographs, many of which are edited collections. Detailed information about books published by AGU is available in the online book catalog. Most AGU books fall under one of the following continuing book series:

  AGU Ref. Shelf
  Antarct. Res. Ser. (ISSN 0066-4634)
  Coastal Estuarine Stud. (ISSN 0723-9569)
  Coll. Repr.
  Comput. Seismol. (English translation of Vychislitel'naya ISSN 0733-5792)
  Field Trip Guidebooks
  Geodyn. Ser.
  Geophys. Monogr. Ser.
  Global Geoscience Transects
  History of Geophysics Ser.
  Short Courses in Geology
  Spec. Publ.
  Water Resour. Monogr. (ISSN 0270-9600)
  

  Book series can be searched in the Secondary (t2=) or Tertiary (t3=) title fields.

  

  Publication Types

  The following types of documents can be searched in EASI in the Publication Type (tp=) field

  Journal Article
  Book
  Book Section
  Edited Book
  Translation Journal
  

  

  Phrase Searching

  To search for phrases or hyphenated terms, enclose within double quotes, e.g. "Southern Oscillation". If the terms are not enclosed between double quotes, they will be searched with the default OR operator, and many non-relevant items will be retrieved.

  Author names including initials are also searched within double quotes, e.g. au="Fisher T".

  Journal and Book Series names that are more than one word should also be searched within double quotes, e.g. jl="J Geophys Res", t2="Antarct Res Ser".

  Phrase searching is similar to searching with the AND operator, except that it is more precise: AND will retrieve any record that contains the separate components of the search, in any location within the record, whereas the phrase search searches for the text string in exactly the specified sequence.

  Truncation is permitted within a phrase search, for example where the term might appear with different endings, e.g. "submarine trench*" will retrieve both "submarine trench" and "submarine trenches".

  

  Truncation

  Truncation is the process of searching for occurrences of words that have the same beginning or root. This is done by placing an asterisk at the end of a search term. Truncation is useful when you wish to search for both singular and plural instances, or other situations in which a particular concept may have different spelling variants or word endings.

  Some examples of truncation:

  seism* will retrieve seismic, seismology, seismicity, seismogram etc.

  volcan* is expanded to volcan, volcanic, volcaniclastic, volcanics, volcanism, volcanites, volcano, volcanoes, volcanogenic,volcanological, volcanologists, volcanology, volcanomagnetic, volcanos, and volcanotectonic.

  kw=84* will retrieve all values in the Keyword field beginning with 84:

   
   8404   Ash deposits 
   8409   Atmospheric effects (0370) 
   8414   Eruption mechanisms 
   8419   Eruption monitoring (7280) 
   8424   Hydrothermal systems (8135) 
   8429   Lava rheology and morphology 
   8434   Magma migration 
   8439   Physics and chemistry of magma bodies 
   8450   Planetary volcanism (5480) 
   8494   Instruments and techniques 
   8499   General or miscellaneous 
  

  

  Using Parentheses

  Search terms and phrases can be grouped together in the query using parentheses. For example, if you wish to search for records dealing with hurricanes or tornadoes in Florida, you might search for

  (hurrican* OR tornado*) AND Florida

  You can also nest your parentheses, for example

  (hurrican* AND (Hugo OR Gloria)) AND jl=Eos

  searches for articles in Eos about Hurricane Hugo or Hurricane Gloria.

  When using several Boolean operators it is advisable to group concepts with parentheses to disambiguate how the operators are to be applied.

  

  Fine-Tuning the Search

  Important Note: If there is a syntax error in the query, such as a Boolean operator entered in lowercase instead of uppercase, WAIS will continue to execute the search, ignoring Booleans and fields. It is very clear from the results summary that something has gone wrong -- you did not get what you expected.

  If the query uses well-chosen terms and contains no syntax errors, the search results summary usually includes items of interest that can be browsed and viewed. Sometimes, however, reviewing the results of a query may indicate that it is necessary to refine the search to get the results you want. The following is a list of suggested fine-tuning techniques. Use the browser's Back button to go back to the EASI search form, which should still contain the term(s), field(s) etc. that were used in the previous query.

  To broaden the search to retrieve additional records (too few items retrieved)

  • Increase the number in the "Maximum Results" selection
  • Refer to the list of AGU Index Terms to locate additional terms to include in the query, or to select terms with a broader meaning
  • Add alternative forms of query terms using the OR operator
  • Use truncation to include alternative forms that begin with the same root
  • Consider searching in ALL FIELDS rather than in one or more specific fields

  To narrow the search to retrieve fewer records (too many items retrieved)

  • Reduce the number in the "Maximum Results" selection
  • Combine additional concepts with the AND operator
  • Select more specific term(s) for the concept(s) in question
  • Consider searching in specific fields such as TITLE (ti=), KEYWORDS (kw=), JOURNAL (jl=), or YEAR (yr=) rather than in ALL FIELDS

  To amend the search to include relevant records that were missed

  • Append additional concepts to the query, separated with the OR operator
  • Use truncation to include alternative forms that begin with the same root
  • Refer to the list of AGU Index Terms to locate additional terms to include in the query, or to select terms with a broader meaning

  To amend the search to exclude non-relevant records that were retrieved

  • Use the NOT operator to exclude concepts outside the scope of the query, or to eliminate non-relevant concepts
  • Review selection of query term(s) for possible ambiguity
  • Consider limiting search to specific field(s)

  

  Entering Complex Boolean Expressions

  The advanced search allows several concepts to be combined into a single search statement to retrieve the desired items with high precision (exclusion of non-relevant items) and recall (inclusion of all relevant and potentially relevant items without missing any). An example of a more complex query: Find references in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Part C (Oceans) published in 1996 or 1997 that are about tsunamis:

  jl="J Geophys Res" AND is=C* AND yr=(1996 OR 1997) AND tsunami*

  This query employs the following search functions:

  • field codes (jl=, is=, yr=)
  • a phrase search ("J Geophys Res")
  • parentheses to group concepts (1996 OR 1997)
  • truncation (tsunami*).

  Note also the combinaton of jl="J Geophys Res" AND is=C* to specify Part C of JGR.

  

  Stop Words

  A stop word is a frequently used word that is not useful for distinguishing one document from another, and is therefore not indexed. If a stop word is encountered in a user query, it is ignored by the server. A list of some 300 stop words is applied during indexing of the EASI database.

  

  Retrieving Results

  When you submit a query, WAIS does a simple keyword search on each word entered and returns a list of records that best match the query, known as the search results summary. The maximum number of hits in the results summary is determined by the number specified under "Maximum Results" in the query.

  The Search Results Page

  Each entry in the search results includes the publication year and title. A ranking algorithm that takes account of frequency and position of keywords gives each hit a score and the highest scoring record (1000) is listed first. Clicking on an item in the results list will display the corresponding database record in full.

  The search described above gives the following result:

  Search Results

  Results for query: jl="J. Geophys. Res." AND is=C* AND yr=(1996 OR 1997) AND tsunami*

  1:   1996 The landslide tsunami of November 3, 1994, Skagway Harbor, Alaska ...
  2:   1997 Spectral analysis of tsunami waves: Separation of source and topography
  3:   1996 The effect of wind-wave enhancement of bottom stress on the circulation ...
  4:   1996 Pressure-forced seiches of large amplitude in inlets of the Balearic Islands, ...
  

  Further documents...

  

  Viewing Hits

  In the search results page, the title of each item is hyperlinked to the the full database record. Records can be displayed (a) one at a time by clicking on an item in the results list, or (b) multiple records concatenated in the same page, by using the checkboxes to make selections for a subset. The order of the items in the results list is determined by a relevance ranking algorithm that is intended to present the items that are most relevant to the query first. The maximum number of hits displayed in the results page is determined by the "Maximum Results" option in the search form; to view additional hits, click "Further documents...". To increase the maximum number of hits, press the back button to return to the search form and re-set the Maximum Results.

  Relevance Ranking

  Each document is scored based on its relevance to a user's question, where the most relevant document has the highest score, or rank -- 1000 being the highest, 1 being the lowest. A document receives a higher score if the words in the query are in the title, if the words appear many times or if phrases occur as they do in the query. A document's score is derived using techniques such as word weighting, proximity relationships, and word density. (Jan 2001 - display of relevance ranking disabled).

  

  Display Formats

  The default display format for EASI records is the AGU Refer format.

  The Refer format is a simple one that is compatible for searching with a number of bibliographic software packages, either directly in Refer, or with minimum manipulation. It is also the format used for the EASI Monthly Updates delivered to subscribers via e-mail.

  AGU is presently conducting research to determine which other display formats will be the most useful, so that the user will be able to select from several options.

  Refer Format

  The Refer format is a standard bibliographic file format in which the contents of each field (Title, Author, ...) are shown as attribute/value (Field tag/Content) pairs, each one on a new line. Each line begins with the tag, followed by a space, followed by the actual data. The two-digit field tags consist of a percent (%) sign and another character (e.g. %T, %A, ..). Records are separated by one or more blank lines. Lines may be any length (any line that does not begin with a % is treated as a continuation line).

  Refer is part of the Unix troff document formatting package and is widely used for bibliographies; the format is entirely in plain text (ASCII) and thus its support is not limited to any software or platform. As such, Refer can be readily imported into popular bibliographic software packages such as EndNote^®, or exchanged with other formats, e.g. bibtex, XML.

  Sample database record in AGU Refer format

   
  %F 95JC03562 
  %A Kulikov, E. A. 
  %A Rabinovich, A. B. 
  %A Thomson, R. E. 
  %A Bornhold, B. D. 
  %D 1996 
  %T The landslide tsunami of November 3, 1994, Skagway Harbor, Alaska 
  %J J. Geophys. Res. 
  %V 101 
  %N C3 
  %P 6609-6616 
  %@ 0148-0227 
  %K 4564 Oceanography: Physical; Tsunamis and storm surges 
  %K 3022 Marine geology and geophysics; Marine sediments-processes and transport 
  %0 Journal Article 
  

  Note that search terms are shown in bold text.

  

  Additional Support

  To contact AGU for further assistance, or to report an error, please e-mail easihelp@agu.org.

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