The Access Water platform provides the ability to search for content by author, content type, full text, keyword, print date, subject, title and more. If you can't find what you need in the information below, please contact us .
General search tips
The search is designed to provide you with the most relevant results based on your keyword search. Here are some additional tips for searching:
To ensure that your search includes terms that are next to each other, put quotation marks around the terms.
When searching for dates within the image search, be sure to start with the oldest date (“From”) to the newest date (“To”).
Content Included in Search
All the content available on the platform is accessible via the search interface.
Please note that anyone may use the Access Water platform search engine. To view accessible content, however, you must either login for freely available content, content purchased previously or be within the IP range of an institution which has arranged access to the various subscriptions on the Access Water platform.
Simple Search
The search box is available on each page on the website.
Enter term(s) in the search box. Use quotations to search for a phrase (e.g., "Activated Sludge").
If desired, use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine terms in different ways.
- Full text searches for your term(s) in all content such as titles, publication information, and the contents of the book chapters, compilation, conference paper, fact sheet, magazine article, technical report, etc.
- Title searches for your term(s) in the title.
- Author searches for content by a particular author. The results display all content written or edited by the author.
- Print date searches for all book content by a particular date. The results will display all content published within that timeframe.
Advanced Search
Enter term(s) in the search box(es).
Use quotations to search for a phrase.
Select to search within any of the filters (see above for descriptions).
Select related categories, as desired.
Adding new terms combines terms (you don't need to type AND between your terms) to search within filters.
Options for Filtering (Limiting) Search Results
Use the "Refine By" search area on the left side and below the Simple Search box to further refine your results to a more focused set of results. The facets within the "Refine by" area are described in the box below. They can be used separately or in tandem with the Simple Search and/ or one another to find the content most relevant to your search.
Sort by
As you conduct your search, the results are presented by the relevancy to the search criteria you have used. However, you can choose to sort your results by Author, Title or Date.
Content Type
In the "Refine By" area, you can select the type of content you want to search by including Conference Paper/ Proceedings, Digital Books, Fact Sheets, Magazine Articles, and Technical Reports.
Content Source
Select a source of content including conferences, magazines, institutes, committees, etc. to target your search to a specific source. You can use the "+Show More" option to reveal additional sources.
Publication Year
Select a specific year or a range of years using the drop down menus to refine your search to the publication date(s) of content.
Subject keywords
Select one or more subject keywords to view content tagged with that keyword. You can use the "+Show More" option to reveal additional keywords. NOTE: Not all subject keywords are displayed. Only the top 100 terms for each search are displayed in the subject keyword list.
Associated keywords
You can further refine your search by selecting associated keywords specific to the content. You can use the "+Show More" option to reveal additional keywords. NOTE: Not all associated keywords are displayed. Only the top 100 terms for each search are displayed in the keyword list.
Saving a Search
To save your search, you must first log in to the platform. Once you have logged in, the “Save Search” option will appear at the bottom of the search filters.
Diacritics, Special Characters, Hyphens, and Punctuation
You can use diacritics in your search or an alternative spelling. For example, you could type große to find only instances of that, or grosse to find a combination
Type "ae" for æ
Type "o" for ø
Type "n" for ñ
Type "a" for å
Type "c" for ç
Keep in mind, you can always type it with the diacritical, but the results will be restricted to the search to words it recognizes as having a diacritical in the first place.
When punctuation or characters appear as parts of words (e.g., hyphenated names or initials), enter the punctuation or character.
Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) and Phrase (" ") Searching
Boolean "operators" AND, OR, and NOT are supported.
Type in AND, OR, and NOT in the search statement when using the single search box available on each page.
Use quotation marks (" ") to search for phrases (words together in exact order).
The search box automatically combines terms so you don't need to type "AND." The “Add” button available under the search fields also function as an “AND.”
When using more than one kind of "operator" the search engine combines the operators in the search string from left to right.
Examples:
“Teaching methods” OR learning AND homework
Retrieves chapters with homework and either learning or “teaching methods” or both.
To make sure you enter the search you want regardless of order of terms, either:
Use parentheses to have those terms searched first: (“Teaching methods” OR learning) AND homework
homework AND (“Teaching methods” OR learning)
Retrieves content with homework and either “Teaching methods” or learning or both.
Working with Search Results
Sorting Results
Use the " Sort by:" pull-down to sort results by:
Relevance (the default)
Selecting Relevance results in an order starting from the most pertinent based on calculation of frequency and proximity of search terms.
Content metadata is prioritized.
Keep in mind, however, that "relevance" is calculated by software and is not fool-proof. Please use relevancy ranking as a general guide. Use the Options for Filtering Search Results to get a smaller, more focused results set.
Author
Selecting Author puts results in order by author last name either alphabetically (A-Z) or reverse alphabetized (Z-A). Please note in the case of multiple authors, the first author listed will be used for determining the listing of the results.
Title
Selecting Title puts results in order by title either alphabetically (A-Z) or reverse alphabetized (Z-A).
Date
Selecting Oldest First puts results in order by publication date starting from the oldest results.
Selecting Newest First puts results in order by publication date starting from the most recent results.