A
Summary of an article, book, or publication.
A notification sent when new publications or other items meeting your search criteria are added to Dialog. This notification may be delivered by email, FTP, or on demand using an API pull.
Authentication
The process of identifying an individual or institution, based on username and password, IP address, or single sign on.
B
Book
A written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction.Broaden
To expand terms terms and/or reduce limits in your search criteria. Broadening produces a larger, more general set of results.Less restrictive terms associated with a larger set of records.
C
Citation
An identification of the sources used in a paper that would allow others to access and retrieve this material.Cite
To identify the sources used in a paper in a way that would allow others to access and retrieve this material.Combine Searches
To combine the criteria from two or more separate search sets into a single search.Command Line Search
An advanced search mode that allows a user to uses combine different fields and use syntax, controlled vocabulary, and other features within a search.A list of index terms provided by a publisher which can be used to find relevant documents more easily when you search.
D
Database
A collection of articles, books, images, multimedia, etc. that you can search. Depending on your organization's subscription, there will be one or more databases available.Default
An option selected by the database if no other option is selected.Dissertation
A written essay, treatise, or thesis, especially one written by a candidate for a doctoral degree.Document Type
The type of article published. For example, a journal article, case report, conference abstract, literary review, or editorial.Duplicates
The same document can be available from more than one Dialog database. This situation gives rise to the term duplicate documents, or simply, duplicates. On the Advanced Search and Command Line Search pages, as well as the My Research: Preferences page, you can specify whether duplicate documents are retrieved in search results. By default, Dialog removes duplicate documents where possible from the results page.
E
Encyclopedia
A book or set of books containing authoritative summary articles and illustrations on various topics, usually in alphabetical order. Encyclopedias may be general, covering all branches of knowledge, or treat comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge.
F
Field Code
A code you can apply to your search terms that limits the search to specific database fields. For example, AUTHOR(Melville) retrieves documen ts where Melville occurs in the Author field.Full Text
Limits your search to only those articles for which Dialog has the rights to the entire body of work. Abstract-only articles are not included in this search.
H
Hierarchical
A structured presentation of topics, showing a relative subordinate relationship.
I
To index a document refers to the editorial process of identifying and storing specific information about the document in a database for search and retrieval—such as the document title, author, citation information, keywords, controlled terms, full text, abstracts, accession number, and more.
L
Limit
A criterion you can apply to narrow your search to produce fewer, more specific results. For example, Document or Source Type, language, abstract included, and more.Look Up Citation Search
A search mode that finds articles by entering specific information from the article's citation. For example, author, title, or ISBN.
M
Magazine
Publications that are issued periodically that typically contain articles by many writers (and often photographs and drawings), frequently specializing in a particular subject or area.A mnemonic (also called a field code) is a short-hand abbreviation for a search-field name. Use mnemonics to quickly craft a targeted search.
For example: AUTHOR(Smith) and space exploration, where AUTHOR is the mnemonic for 'author.'
STYPE(scholarly journals) and mining, where STYPE is the mnemonic for 'source type'.
My Research
A personalized area within Dialog where you can save and organize documents, RSS feeds, saved output templates, and update some account information.
N
Narrow
To use more terms and/or limits in your search criteria. Narrowing produces a smaller, more specific set of results.More restrictive terms associated with a larger set of records.
Newspaper
A serial publication that is usually printed on newsprint and issued on a regular basis, such as daily or weekly. A newspaper commonly contains news (often of local interest), editorial comments, regular columns, letters to the editor, cartoons, and advertising.
O
Operator
An operator (or search operator) specifies relationships between your search terms. This might be Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) or proximity (NEAR, PRE), or other operators.
P
PDF, an acronym for Portable Document Format, is the Adobe Acrobat document type (.pdf). A PDF document is either a scanned image of an article or an electronic copy of an article.Peer Reviewed
A publication in which articles go through an official editorial process that involves review and approval by the author's peers (people who are experts in the same subject area). Most (but not all) scholarly publications are peer reviewed. Some trade publications are peer reviewed.Periodical
A type of publication that is issued at regularly recurring intervals. For example, a magazine, newspaper, or journal.
R
Recent Sets
Recent sets are the searches you’ve run during your current session. When you save a search, you can elect to save recent sets with it. If the search you are saving references any recent sets—for example, if your search is s1 OR s3—those sets (the first and third searches you ran during your session)—are automatically selected for you on the Save Search page. You can optionally save additional recent sets with your search.RefWorks
An online research management, citation and bibliography tool that is integrated with My Research.Related Terms
Similar terms suggested for use with your search.Relevance
An option for sorting results that causes the items most closely matching your search criteria to appear at the top of the results list.Report
A publication that records an account of an event, situation, speech, debate, meeting, etcRSS
An acronym for "Really Simple Syndication", RSS is an XML based syndication format that is used to easily disseminate news and other web content through the internet to users that subscribe to an RSS feed.
S
Scholarly Journal
A scholarly journal is a publication that is authored by academics generally to report research. The scholarly journal is often published by a recognized society with academic goals and missions. The Dialog criteria states the publication must be academic in focus with the intent to report on or support research needs as well as advance one's knowledge on a topic or theory. The publication will be targeted for professional or academic researchers and have in-depth analysis typically focusing on one discipline or academic field. The publication will likely be peer reviewed or refereed by external reviewers. The publisher should be a professional association or an academic press.Scope Notes
Scope Notes provide information about the use of a subject heading. The scope note may contain a definition of the subject, the year the subject term came into use and other important information.Search Alert
This alert notifies you when new documents that match your search are available in Dialog.Search Field
A field within a record that is indexed for search and retrieval—such as Author, Document Title, or Subject Heading. See Mnemonic above.A search strategy is made up of the terms, operators, limiters, and other user-specified search criteria that collectively allow the user to accomplish the research goals of a session. The search strategy can be as short as a single focused search, or may run to hundreds of successive searches (also referred to as sets) that iteratively narrow or broaden the focus of the search strategy.
A session begins when you click your institution's link to Dialog, or when you log in with a username and password. Your session ends automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity, or when you click End Session.
A set is a search and its corresponding results.
Source Type
The type of publication that an article was published in. For example, a book, newspaper, or journal.Subject Areas
Collections of databases with related subject content that can be searched together as a group.
T
Thesaurus
An alphabetical listing of all the subject terms in a single database, used to classify and organize information for that database. A thesaurus may contain cross-references to preferred controlled vocabulary.Thesis
A dissertation on a particular subject, based on original research, written when the author is a candidate for a diploma or degree.A periodic publication dedicated to distributing news and information of interest to a specific target industry or business. Trade journals are often published by a trade association.
U
Use For
A phrase found in a thesaurus that points you to a synonymous concept that is an authorized (preferred) thesaurus term.Use Instead
A phrase that points you to a preferred thesaurus terms for your search.