Search examples, take 2

Today we're reposting something from last week, after one of our readers pointed out the links in last week's posting didn't work (thanks for the tip!). So if this looks familiar, you're right—but do read on, and click away.

Just a quick post to tell all the new users we've had over the past couple of days that we've updated the home page with a new set of example searches that should give you a better idea of just what Pubget is all about.

There's nothing particularly special about these searches except that the results are just about all public PDFs—although we admit we're big fans of PLoS, Sean Carroll, Penny Chisholm, network theory, and the nik gene cluster (it's true). For good measure, we've copied those searches below:

Simple search
Just type in words—terms, names, whatever. This is fast but sometimes too general (in which case read on).
Try it: nik gene cluster

Title and abstract
[ti] after a word makes Pubget search in the title; use [ab] for abstract, and [tiab] when you want to search for a term in both the title and abstract. We find [tiab] particularly useful.
Try it: centrality[tiab] hub[tiab] network[tiab]

Latest issue
Type a journal name and then [latest]. Note that [latest] means the latest issue, not the latest papers. You get the latest papers by default.
Try it: plos biol[latest]

Authors
It goes last name then [au]. Initials or a first name are optional. AND, OR, and NOT also help.
Try it: carroll sb[au] AND (rokas[au] OR gompel[au]) NOT kassner[au]

Citation
Use [dp] for date, [ta] for journal name; [vi] and [pg] are volume and page but are usually overkill.
Try it: chisholm sw[au] nature[ta] 2003[dp] 424:1047

Note the [au], [tiab], and other tags. Tags always come after the term they apply to. In that respect they're like adjectives in Spanish or French. We really recommend you use them (we'll blog more about them soon). They make searching much more focused and powerful. You can get a reminder of them anytime you're on Pubget just by clicking where it says "How to search" under the search box.

To those of you who came across Pubget for the first time just in the past couple of days, you may want to try out these searches. And thanks for visiting!