Basic Searches in SciX

Last updated on 2025-05-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do you find an article by a specific author?
  • How do you find articles about a topic like craters?
  • What other types of resources can you discover besides articles?

Objectives

  • Execute a basic author search
  • Execute a basic keyword search
  • Refine a search using facets
  • Identify useful metadata and resources through the abstract view
  • Follow links from the abstract page to access resources such as the open access version of the article, related software, and associated datasets
  • Apply consistent naming conventions to project documents

Basic Searches in SciX

Once you’ve logged into SciX, you’re ready to explore its search capabilities. In this episode, we’ll cover both author and keyword searches, then show you how to refine your results.

You might mention the kinds of searches you commonly perform in SciX (e.g., finding articles for your domain or checking citation metrics).

Setting Up Your Environment

When you open SciX, ensure you can see the homepage.

Screenshot of the SciX homepage showing the main search bar and navigation options
Screenshot of the SciX homepage

Ask learners: “Can everyone see the SciX homepage on their browser?”

Selecting Your Discipline

On your first visit, select your preferred discipline from the dropdown menu in the upper left.

Note: This step customizes your search tools but does not limit your overall search.

Dropdown menu for selecting a discipline in SciX, such as Planetary Science
Dropdown menu showing discipline selection options

Quick Help & Navigation

SciX offers a help carousel on the main search page. Click the left/right arrows to view introductory resources, including a quick start guide and search examples.

Help carousel on the SciX homepage showing navigation arrows and learning resources
Quick Help

For more detailed assistance, click the “Help” button in the upper right.

SciX homepage with the Help button highlighted in the top-right corner
SciX help carousel with a Help button in the top right

As an open science search engine, SciX is primarily concerned with ensuring that literature, data, and software are findable or discoverable. So, let’s find some relevant papers. Author searches are among the most common performed in SciX.

Highlighted search bar on the SciX homepage for entering search terms
Main search field highlighted on the SciX homepage

Challenge

If you select author from either the quick fields or the dropdown menu, SciX will add the field to the search bar.

Author field selected in the SciX search bar
Starting an author
  1. In the search field, select author from the quick fields or dropdown.
  2. Type "shoemaker" (for example, for Gene Shoemaker) and click the blue magnifying glass.
Search results initiated for author name "Shoemaker"
Searching on author name Shoemaker

Search by Author

Try searching for Gene Shoemaker on your own. How many results do you get? Discuss with your neighbor.

Search results view showing 2,560 items for "Shoemaker"
Results for Gene Shoemaker

Author:”shoemaker” returns 2,560 results as you can see in the upper left. The results are sorted by relevance and are in descending order. You can change the sorting criterion by using the dropdown menu to select: date, author count, citation count, entry date, first author, normalized citation count, or read count. Click the button next to the dropdown menu to switch between descending and ascending order.

For each article returned, you see the title, author list, date of publication, journal, and citation count. Looking at the three icons on the right, you can tell whether SciX links to the full-text, references or citations, and data.

List of search results showing article titles, author names, dates, and icons for full-text, references, and datasets
Article results view in SciX

As an open science digital library, SciX is also concerned with ensuring you can access the papers, data, and software that you want.

Annotated results view showing icons for open access papers, data links, and related software
Article results view in SciX with annotation of paper, data and software

Looking at the list of results as a whole, I see some interesting articles with an author named “Shoemaker” but perhaps not immediately, Gene Shoemaker, planetary scientist. The author box on the left allows me to narrow my results. It lists variants of the name “Shoemaker” at the top followed by the names of co-authors.

The most common variants and co-authors are listed first.

Clicking a name variant opens additional options:

  • Limit to preferred name(s), showing only papers by that variant
  • Exclude unlikely variants to remove unrelated results

This helps narrow your results to the specific individual you’re interested in.

Author facet sidebar showing Shoemaker variants and frequent collaborators
The Author facet in SciX shows variants of “Shoemaker” along with frequent co-authors, allowing the user to refine results to the correct individual.

Refine by Institutional Affiliation

You can further narrow your search results using the Institutional Affiliation facet.

For example, if your target author worked at Lowell Observatory, you can:

  • Limit to papers with authors from that institution
  • Exclude results from other affiliations

This is especially useful when multiple authors share similar names but work at different institutions.

SciX sidebar facet showing a list of institutions such as Lowell Observatory with checkboxes to include or exclude them from results
Institutional Affiliation facet in SciX

Refine by Date

You can also adjust the date range of your results using the slider in the left sidebar.

  • Drag the endpoints of the slider to limit results by year
  • Click the expand icon (four arrows) to see a larger or more precise timeline

Use this if you’re researching a specific publication window or want to filter out older or newer results.

Date range slider with adjustable endpoints and expand icon in SciX facet panel
Date range slider controls in SciX

Keyword Search

Experiment with a keyword search both with and without the equal sign. What differences do you observe?

Understanding SciX Synonym Expansion

SciX automatically expands keyword searches with discipline-specific synonyms, related terms, and even common misspellings or alternate forms. For example, a search for crater might automatically include terms like:

  • craters, cratering, cratered
  • craterlets, craterlike, crateris
  • craterform, subcrater, craterization
  • krater, cratori, noncrater, etc.

This expansion improves discoverability across disciplines that might use different terminology for the same concept.

If you only want the exact term you typed (no expansion), add an equals sign: =crater.

This exact-match feature is helpful when you’re targeting highly specific terms or avoiding irrelevant results.

Screenshot showing difference between a keyword search for crater and an exact match search using =crater
Keyword search with synonym expansion enabled and disabled

Using Field-Specific Searches

You can target your search to specific parts of an article by using field prefixes. These are especially useful when you’re looking for a term in just one section (e.g., the title) or want to exclude it from another (e.g., the body).

Common field-specific prefixes in SciX include:

  • keyword: — author- or publisher-provided keywords
  • abs: — title, abstract, and keywords
  • abstract: — abstract text only
  • title: — title only
  • body: — article body only
  • ack: — acknowledgments only
  • full: — full text of the article

You can also use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine or exclude terms.

For example:

abs:(crater AND mars) NOT body:jezero

This finds articles that mention crater and Mars in the title, abstract, or keywords, but exclude any that mention Jezero in the body text.

SciX search bar showing field-specific search using abs:(crater AND mars) NOT body:jezero
Field-specific keyword search syntax

Narrowing Results Using Keyword Facets

After running a keyword search, you can refine your results using the Provided Keywords facet in the sidebar. These keywords come from authors or publishers and are listed in order of frequency.

You can:

  • Click a keyword to include it in your search
  • Use the three-dot icon (...) to browse the full list of keywords
  • Sort keywords by frequency or alphabetically
  • Search for a specific keyword or partial match
  • Choose to limit to preferred keywords or exclude undesired ones

This is especially useful when you’re trying to focus on a specific subtopic or filter out irrelevant results.

Sidebar view in SciX showing list of provided keywords with sort and filter options
Keyword facet panel in SciX showing provided keywords

Filtering by Refereed Status

SciX allows you to filter your search results based on whether a paper is refereed (peer-reviewed) or non-refereed.

You can find this option in the Refereed facet in the sidebar. It’s useful if you’re looking only for peer-reviewed journal articles or want to include other materials like conference proceedings or dissertations.

Note: SciX considers dissertations to be refereed. Most conference abstracts and proceedings are categorized as non-refereed.

  • Select “Refereed” to limit results to peer-reviewed works
  • Select “Not Refereed” to explore grey literature, preprints, or early drafts
Facet panel in SciX showing checkbox filters for refereed and non-refereed papers
Refereed filter option in SciX sidebar

Filtering by Publication Type

You can also filter your results by Publication Type, helping you focus on specific formats such as:

  • Journal articles
  • Book chapters
  • Dissertations
  • Conference papers
  • Technical reports

Use the Publication Type facet in the sidebar to:

  • Limit results to your preferred document types
  • Exclude formats that aren’t relevant to your research

This is particularly helpful when your search returns a mix of source types and you’re only interested in peer-reviewed articles or long-form research.

Sidebar in SciX showing checkboxes for filtering by publication type such as journal, dissertation, or report
Publication type facet filter in SciX

Exploring the Abstract View

Click an article title to open the abstract view. Here, you can find:

  • Detailed bibliographic information (title, authors, publication details)
  • Links to additional resources like open access articles, software, and datasets
Abstract page showing detailed metadata and icons for datasets, code, and open access
Detailed abstract view with links to open access, datasets, and software

Challenge

Select an article and review its abstract view. What extra details can you find that weren’t in the results view?

Launching Searches from the Abstract View

In the abstract view, SciX displays provided keywords associated with the paper. These keywords are clickable — selecting one launches a new search using that term.

This is a fast way to explore related literature or shift your search direction based on what you find interesting in the current article.

SciX abstract page with magnifying glass icons next to keywords, indicating clickable search links
Abstract view showing clickable keywords

Reflection and Discussion

Take a few minutes to perform a search on a topic relevant to your work using both author and keyword searches. Then, discuss with a partner:

  • What did you search for?
  • Did you find relevant materials?
  • What aspects of the process were straightforward or challenging?

Bonus Challenge

Try exporting a citation from one of your articles. Explore the export options and compare different formats.

Key Points

  • SciX enables effective author and keyword searches with powerful synonym expansion.
  • Facet filters help narrow down results by author variants, institutional affiliation, and publication date.
  • The abstract view provides in-depth details and links to additional resources.