How To Use the Search Filters

This guide will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. 

The Intelligent and Advanced Search Modules provide filters to help you refine your results and explore only the relevant articles to your research question, in a timely and efficient manner (Figure 1). In this guide you will learn how to:

• Investigate specific publication types (clinical trials, reviews etc.)
• Explore only recent advances in your field of interest
• Examine publications from highly cited journals 

Figure 1: The filters list

In order to explain these filters, “biomarkers for breast carcinoma” will be used as an example search. You can find the search link here.

The guide is divided into the following sections: 

• Publication Type
• Publication Year
• Article Section
• Data Source
• Journals
• Journal Rank (SJR)

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Filter: Publication Type 

To select a specific article type (e.g. reviews, comparative studies, clinical trials or meta-analyses), you can use the "Publication Type" filter.

For example, to explore the validated biomarkers of breast carcinoma, you can select "Clinical Trial" from the "Publication Type" filter.  In this case, the results will originate from clinical trial studies only (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Filter your results for Clinical Trials

In this case, the articles displayed are derived from clinical trials, as per the example below (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Articles related with the HER2-neu peptide and breast cancer, obtained from clinical trials.

Find out more about the "Publication Type" filter here.

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Filter: Publication Year

To explore the articles published in a specific year or time period, you can use the "Publication Year" filter. The system includes two default options (last 5 years and last 10 years) but you can also specify a custom time period, by completing the box(es) below.

For example, to examine the articles on breast cancer biomarkers published in 2020, you can fill in the left and right boxes with ‘’2020’’ (under the "Publication Year" filter) and hit the APPLY button (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Refine your results for publications from 2020

The search now is refined, including only 2020 publications, as illustrated below (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Articles published in 2020 associated with HER-2 gene and breast cancer

Find out more about the "Publication Year" filter here.

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Filter: Article Section

Depending on your query, you can select specific article sections, by using the “Article Section” filter. Novel findings, for example, are usually reported in “Results/Findings’’ or “Conclusion/Discussion’’ sections, while if you are interested in understanding the exact methodology used in an article of interest, or in reproducing a study, the “Methods/Design’’ option should be selected.

For example, to investigate newly reported data on breast carcinoma biomarkers, use the “Article Section” filter, and select the “Article Title’’ and “Results/Findings’’ options (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Look for primary data by selecting “Results/Findings’’ and “Article Title’’ options

The results include newly reported data of breast cancer biomarkers, such as in the example below (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Newly reported data for the ERCC6L gene and breast carcinoma

Find out more about the "Article Section" filter here.

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Filter: Data Source

The data source filter can be used in order to limit your search to PubMed Central results, MEDLINE, Preprints, clinical trials, GWAS catalog and/or USPTO. 

For instance, in order to inspect the evidence obtained from clinical trials related to biomarkers of breast carcinoma, use the “Data Source” filter, and select “ClinicalTrials.gov’’ (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Refine your search for clinical trials by selecting the “ClinicalTrials.gov’’ option below the “Data source’’ filter.

In this case, the articles displayed are derived from the ClinicalTrials.gov website, such as in the example below (Figure 9).

Figure 9: ClinicalTrials.gov evidence on HER-2 vaccine and breast cancer

Find out more about the "Data Source" filter here.

Filter: Journals

You can also refine your search by choosing to only view the articles published in one or more specific journal(s), using the “Journals’’ filter. 

For example, to examine papers on biomarkers of breast carcinoma that have been published in Oncotarget, use the “Journals” filter, and then select “Oncotarget’’ (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Refine your search for publications on the Oncotarget journal, using the “Journals’’ filter.

The search now includes only the articles published in Oncotarget, such as the publication below (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Article published in the Oncotarget journal.

Find out more about the "Journals" filter here.

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Filter: Journal Rank (SJR)

With the “Journal Rank (SJR)” filter we can specify all the articles that originate from highly ranked journals, classified in the top 25% (Q1), top 50% (Q1 and Q2) or other quartiles in their category, based on the Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR). 

Alternatively, you can set a minimum and/or maximum value of an SJR score according to your criteria, by completing the two available boxes.

As an example, you can filter for the publications on breast carcinoma biomarkers with an SJR score above 10 (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Limit your search for journals with an SJR score above 10. 

The results now are obtained from oncology journals with an SJR score above 10, such as the articles below (Figure 13). 

Figure 13: Articles from the “Nature Medicine’’ journal and the “Journal of Clinical Oncology’’ with 2019 SJRs of 15.812 and 10.054, respectively.

The most prestigious journals within a subject area are those occupying the first quartile, Q1. The importance of journals declines as we move down through the quartiles.

Find out more about the "Journal Rank (SJR)" filter here.