Search
This page is intended for developers of services which interface with Oxford Journals search mechanisms.
- The HTTP search mechanism is intended to return search results for human users.
- If you are developing a federated search service, the SRU interface should be used to submit queries and retrieve search results in a machine-readable XML format.
1. HTTP SEARCH PARAMETERS
Oxford Journals provides a search mechanism for each journal as well as an Oxford Journals-wide search portal covering all our journals. Both the journal-specific and list-wide search sites use the same search syntax.
The base URL for the list-wide search is
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/searchresults?
The image below shows the available search fields along with the parameter names for constructing search URLs. Each parameter is explained in more detail below
Fig. 1. Search interface with field names indicated.
1.1. Citation
pubdate_year=yyyy - search for articles published in this year
volume - search for articles with this volume number
firstpage - search for articles with this first page value
1.2. DOI
doi - return an article with the specified Digital Object Identifier
1.3. Keywords
title search in the article title only. Separate multiple words with +. Where multiple words are contained in the title parameter, the following parameters can be specified in addition:
andorexacttitle=or - only one word need occur
andorexacttitle=and - all words must occur
andorexacttitle=phrase - the exact phrase must occur
titleabstract search in the article title and article abstract. Separate multiple words with +. The following parameters can be specified in addition:
andorexacttitleabs=or
andorexacttitleabs=and
andorexacttitleabs=phrase
fulltext search in the article title, article abstract, and full text of the article (both HTML and PDF formats). Separate multiple words with +. The following parameters can be specified in addition:
andorexactfulltext=or
andorexactfulltext=and
andorexactfulltext=phrase
1.4. Authors
author1 name occurs anywhere in author list
author2 name occurs anywhere in author list
1.5. Select one or more journals
journalcode specify a specific journal or list of journals to search in. This parameter uses the HighWire journal code contained in the following list. Where multiple journals are specified, repeat the paramter. e.g. &journalcode=afrafj&journalcode=ageing
1.6. Choose a subject area
src specifies a group of journals to search. Can only occur once. Possible values are:
src=hw - all titles
src=humanities - humanities journals
src=law - law journals
src=lifesci - life science journals
src=physci - maths and physical science titles
src=medicine - medicine titles
src=socsci - social science titles
1.7. Limit results
Search in articles between two dates: from
fmonth month
fyear year
to
tmonth month
tyear year
flag=hwreview - search in review articles only
1.8. Results format
resultformat=1 - return standard results set
resultformat=3 - return a condensed results set
hits=n - return n hits
Sorting results:
sortspec=relevance - sort by best matches first
sortspec=date - sort by newest articles first
sortspec=reversedate - sort by oldest articles first
Examples
Search for articles with titles containing the phrase "stem cell":
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/searchresults?title=stem+cell&andorexacttitle=phrase
Search for articles published in the 1990s whose author lists include Smith and Jones:
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/searchresults?author1=smith&author2=jones&fmonth=jan&fyear=1990&tmonth=dec&tyear=1999
2. SEARCH/RETRIEVE VIA URL (SRU)
SRU is a standards-based search protocol for Internet search queries, using CQL (Common Query Language). Using SRU, clients may search for articles and receive the results in XML. SRU enables federated search. For information about the SRU standard, visit the Library of Congress SRU Standards page.
The Oxford Journals SRU service currently implements Explain and SearchRetrieve operations, and supports SRU Level 0 query syntax.
2.1. Explain Requests
The basic explain request, as shown below, requires two mandatory parameters - version & operation:
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=explain
2.2. SearchRetrieve Requests
SearchRetrieve operations require the version and operation parameters, and also accept the query and startRecord parameters which allow a search client to search for terms and page through the results list.
An example SRU search for the word "arrhythmia" is shown below.
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=arrhythmia&startRecord=&sendit=Search
2.3. Field-specific queries
Field-specific queries can be limited to title, abstract, author, and year of publication. To perform a field-specific search, construct your search as shown below:
Author search for "J Smith":
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=dc.creator+=%22J+Smith%22
Title search for "plasmodium+falciparum":
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=title+=%22plasmodium+falciparum%22
Title and Abstract search for "glaucoma":
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=dc.description+=%22glaucoma%22
Publication Year search for 1980:
http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/sru?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=date+=1980
2.4. Results set metadata
Record data for results use Dublin Core metadata. The results return a limited set of metadata in line with the SRU specification. Additional metadata will be added to results sets in a future release.
Fig. 2. Metadata returned for the "plasmodium+falciparum" SRU query above.