FAQ

About 2Dsearch

Q. What is 2dSearch?

A. 2Dsearch is a platform for systematic searching. It uses a universal visual format for searching across multiple sources.

Q. What is a search strategy?

A. A search strategy is a systematic solution to a complex search problem. It combines the key elements of your research question to retrieve matching results. Search strategies are typically used to find documents, but can also be used to find people (e.g. via their social profiles). Some search strategies take the form of ‘Boolean strings’. 

Q. Who is it aimed at?

A. 2Dsearch is aimed at anyone who needs to search in a structured, systematic manner. These include ‘traditional’ information professions such as legal research and patent search, emerging sectors such as competitive intelligence and recruitment/sourcing, and students or researchers wishing to undertake systematic literature reviews.

Q. What makes 2dSearch different?

A. Instead of entering Boolean strings into one-dimensional search boxes, queries are formulated by combining objects on a two-dimensional canvas. This eliminates syntax errors, makes the query semantics more transparent, and offers a more effective way to optimize, save and share searches and best practices.

Q. Is 2dSearch free to use?

A. Yes. 

Q. How do I log in?

A. You can authenticate using your Google account or use a bespoke username and password. 

Q. Can I save my work?

A. Yes. Once you have logged in, you will have your own filespace for saving your work. 

Q. Can I share my work?

A. Yes, you can create a sharable link to any of your search strategies. Anyone opening this link will receive a digital copy of your work.

Q. is this a new search engine?

A. No, 2Dsearch is a meta search engine, agnostic of any particular search technology or database. Your search is mapped to the syntax of the source database. You can choose which sources to search via the user interface.

Q. What sources can i search right now?

A. We currently support 14 different sources, with more to come. For example, if you are a healthcare information professional or scientific researcher, you can use 2Dsearch to search a variety of multi-disciplinary sources such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Lens.org, Epistemonikos, Trip Database or ERIC. If you are a recruiter, you can use 2Dsearch to source social profiles via Google, Bing and Yandex. We support the use of x-ray filters to allow you to locate profiles on 3rd party sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, Stack Overflow, etc.

We also provide automated translations for several additional sources.

Q. What sources can i search in future?

A. In due course we will be rolling out other integrations, and 2Dsearch can be customised to search proprietary databases (for further details please contact us).

Q. WHAT is the science behind 2dsearch?

A. We remain committed to working closely with the scientific community and publishing our work wherever possible in open access scholarly publications (for further details see our R&D page).

Using 2Dsearch

Q. How do I open an existing search strategy?

A. Select ‘Open…’ from the main menu.

Note: to delete a strategy, simply select the trash can icon.

Q. How do I create a search strategy?

A. Select ‘New…’ from the main menu, or simply start typing on the canvas.

Note: to add content see ‘How do I populate my first strategy’ below.

Q. How do I name my strategy or change the default operator?

A. At the top of the workspace you will see your search strategy name (new strategies are initially labelled ‘Untitled canvas’). Select the name and in the property sheet you can rename it or change the default operator.

Q. How do I Save a strategy?

A. Select ‘Save’ from the main menu. Unsaved changes are identified by a red dot.

Note: To save your strategy as a new file, select the ‘Save As…’ option from the main menu. 

Q. How do I add a component to the canvas?

A. Select ‘Add to canvas’ from the main menu. This is useful if you want to add a saved search block to your current search strategy.

Q. How do I add terms to the canvas?

A. Double click anywhere and start typing, or right-click and select ‘Create term’ from the context menu.

Q. How do I add a group and edit its name and operator?

A. Right-click on the canvas and select ‘Create group’. Alternatively drag a term onto another term to create a new group.

Note: to change a group name or operator, simply click to edit. You can nest groups inside other groups using drag and drop.

Q. How do I negate a term/group?

A. To make a term or group negative (i.e. to apply a Boolean 'NOT'), right-click and select ‘Make negative’. To remove the NOT operator, right-click and select ‘Make positive’.

Q. How do I Enable/Disable aN ELEMENT?

A. To temporarily include / exclude a term or group from your strategy, right-click and select Enable or Disable from the menu. Alternatively, hold down the shift key and click to toggle it from enabled to disabled.

Q. How do I delete a term/group?

A. Right-click and select ‘Delete’. Alternatively, select the element and press the delete key.

If you want to undo any operation use CTRL-Z on Windows or CMD-Z on a Mac. Alternatively, you can use the undo and redo buttons at the top of the workspace. 

Q. How do I get alternative suggestions for a term?

A. Right-click on a term and select ‘Suggest terms’.  Select the terms you want to include and choose ‘ADD SELECTED TERMS’.

Q. How do I expand and collapse groups?

A. To expand or collapse an individual group, select the chevron at the top of the group. Alternatively, to expand and collapse all groups, use the up and down chevrons at the bottom left of the canvas. 

Q. How do I RESIZE the canvas?

Hold down the CTRL key and scroll your mouse wheel up or down.

Q. How do I share a search with a colleague?

Select the Share button at the top of the workspace.

Q. are there any limits on the complexity of the searches i can create?

In principle, no - you can create searches of arbitrary complexity and manage that complexity using the controls above. However, in practice your search has to be mapped to a URL in order to retrieve results, and there will be limits on the length of the URLs that each source can accommodate. If you see an error such as HTTP Error 414 “Request-URI Too Long or similar, try breaking your search down into smaller blocks, and check the documentation for the source you are querying.

Q. What are the templates for?

2Dsearch offers a set of standardised templates that are commonly used for systemic searching. Choose one of these to suit your particular research needs.

Q. What are the custom examples for?

2Dsearch offers sample search strategies for each of the sources we support, to give you a sense of the type of searches they support. You can start from one of these and edit it to suit your research needs.

Q. WHAT ARE field tagS?

A. Field tags are operators that are specific to a particular source. For example, to tell Bing to search within linkedin.com:

  1. Select ‘Bing’ from the Search dropdown

  2. Add the term linkedin.com to the canvas

  3. Right-click on it and select Add field tag

  4. Enter the field tag site

Q. WHAT field tagS do you support?

A. Field tags vary by source, for example:

  • ACM Guide: Title, Author, Abstract, Full text, Author Affiliation, Author Keyword, Conference Location, Conference Sponsor, Name, ISBN/ISSN, DOI. Also date specifiers: AfterMonth, AfterYear, BeforeMonth, BeforeYear

  • Bing: altloc, contains, domain, ext, feed, filetype, hasfeed, imagesize, inanchor, inbody, instreamset, instreamset:url, intitle, ip, language, literalmeta, loc, location, meta, msite, near, site, url

  • Epistemonikos: title/abstract, title, abstract, authors

  • ERIC: abstract, +abstract, assessment, +assessment, audience, +audience, author, +author, descriptor, +descriptor, educationlevel, +educationlevel, law, +law, location, +location, pubyear, +pubyear, source, +source, title, +title, funded, +funded, wwcr, +wwcr

  • Google: allinurl, inurl, allintitle, intitle, allintext, intext, allinanchor, inanchor, filetype, site, related, info, cache, define, link, after, before, ext

  • Google Patents cpc, TI, AB, CL, before, after, priority, filing, publication, inventor, assignee, country, language, status, type, litigation

  • Google Scholar: allinurl, inurl, allintitle, intitle, allintext, intext, allinanchor, inanchor, filetype, site, related, info, cache, define, link

  • IDEAS: Abstract, Keyword, Title, Author. Also content type specifiers: Articles. Papers, Chapters, Books, Software and date (year) specifiers: From, To

  • IEEE Xplore: Abstract, Accession Number, All Metadata, Article Number, Article Page Number, Author Affiliations, Author Keywords, Author ORCID, Authors, Document Title, DOI, Full Text & Metadata, Full Text Only, Funding Agency, Index Terms, IEEE Terms, INSPEC Controlled Terms, INSPEC Non-Controlled Terms, ISBN, ISSN, Issue, Mesh_Terms, Parent Publication Number, Publication Number, Publication Title, Standard Number, Standards Dictionary Terms, Standards ICS Terms

  • Lens Scholar: lens_id, patent_citation.lens_id, patent_citation_count, external_id_type, doi, pmid, pmcid, magid, coreid, created, publication_type, publication_supplementary_type, author.collective_name, author.first_name, author.last_name, author.initials, author.display_name, author.magid, author.orcid, author.affiliation.name, author.affiliation.name.exact, author.affiliation.grid_id, author.affiliation.country_code, title, language, chemical.mesh_id, chemical.registry_number, chemical.substance_name, clinical_trial.id, clinical_trial.registry, field_of_study, abstract, full_text, date_published, year_published, conference.name, conference.instance, conference.location, author_count, reference_count, scholarly_citation_count, open_access.license, open_access.colour, source.title, source.title.exact, source.type, source.publisher, source.issn, source.country, source.asjc_codes, source.asjc_subjects, keyword, mesh_term.mesh_id, mesh_term.mesh_heading, mesh_term.qualifier_id, mesh_term.qualifier_name, funding.organisation, funding.organisation.exact, funding.funding_id, funding.country

  • Lens Patents: lens_id, created, ids, doc_number, docdb_id, jurisdiction, kind, lang, date_published, year_published, publication_type, earliest_priority_claim_date, application_reference.jurisdiction, application_reference.date, application_reference.doc_number, application_reference.kind, priority_claim.jurisdiction, priority_claim.date, priority_claim.doc_number, priority_claim.kind, abstract, claim, description, title, family.extended.member.document_id.jurisdiction, family.extended.member.document_id.date, family.extended.member.document_id.doc_number, family.extended.member.document_id.kind, family.extended.member.lens_id, family.extended.size, family.simple.member.document_id.jurisdiction, family.simple.member.document_id.date, family.simple.member.document_id.doc_number, family.simple.member.document_id.kind, family.simple.member.lens_id, family.simple.size, applicant.address, applicant.name, applicant.name.exact, applicant.residence, applicant_count, inventor.address, inventor.name, inventor.name.exact, inventor.residence, inventor_count, owner_all.address, owner_all.country, owner_all.execution_date, owner_all.name, owner_all.name.exact, owner_all.recorded_date, owner_all_count, examiner.name, examiner.name.exact, examiner.department, primary_examiner.name, primary_examiner.name.exact, primary_examiner.department, assistant_examiner.name, assistant_examiner.name, cited_by.patent.document_id.jurisdiction, cited_by.patent.document_id.doc_number, cited_by.patent.document_id.kind, cited_by.patent.lens_id, cited_by.patent_count, reference_cited.npl.external_id, reference_cited.npl.lens_id, reference_cited.npl.text, reference_cited.npl_count, reference_cited.npl_resolved_count, reference_cited.patent.lens_id, reference_cited.patent.document_id.jurisdiction, reference_cited.patent.document_id.date, reference_cited.patent.document_id.doc_number, reference_cited.patent.document_id.kind, reference_cited.patent_count, legal_status.application_expiry_date, legal_status.anticipated_term_date, legal_status.discontinuation_date, legal_status.grant_date, legal_status.granted, legal_status.has_disclaimer, legal_status.patent_status, legal_status.has_spc, agent.address, agent.country, agent.name, agent.name.exact, agent_count, class_cpc.symbol, class_ipcr.symbol, class_national.symbol, sequence.count, sequence.data_source, sequence.document_location, sequence.length_bucket, sequence.organism.tax_id, sequence.type, sequence.organism.name, sequence.organism.name.exact, reference_cited.npl_resolved_count

  • Pubmed: Affiliation, AD, Article Identifier, AID, All Fields, ALL, Author, AU, Author Identifier, AUID, Book, book, Comment Corrections, Author - corporate, Author - first, Author - full, Author - last, Corporate Author, CN, Create Date, CRDT, Completion Date, DCOM, Conflict of Interest, Conflict of Interest Statements, COIS, Date - Completion, Date - Create, Date - Entrez, Date - MeSH, Date - Modification, Date - Publication, EC/RN Number, RN, Editor, ED, Entrez Date, EDAT, Filter, First Author Name, 1AU, Full Author Name, FAU, Full Investigator Name, FIR, Grant Number, GR, Investigator, IR, Investigator - Full, ISBN, ISBN, Issue, IP, Journal, TA, Language, LA, Last Author, LASTAU, Location ID, LID, MeSH Date, MHDA, MeSH Major Topic, MAJR, MeSH Subheading, SH, Mesh, MeSH Terms, MH, Modification Date, LR, NLM Unique ID, JID, Other Term, OT, Owner, Pagination, PG, Personal Name as Subject, PS, Pharmacological Action, PA, Place of Publication, PL, PMID, Publisher, PUBN, Publication Date, DP, Publication Type, PT, Secondary Source ID, SI, Subset, SB, Supplementary Concept, NM, Subject - Personal Name, Text, Text Words, Text Word, TW, Title, TI, Title/Abstract, TIAB, Transliterated Title, TT, UID, Volume, VI, PDAT

  • TRIP: title, from, to

  • Yandex: date, domain, host, lang, mime, rhost, site, url