Browse Collections

You can browse all public dataverses from the Network homepage Now Available tab. Click the title of a dataverse to browse that dataverse's collections and studies. Click the title of a collection to view a list of studies and subcollections for that selection. Click the title of a study to view the Cataloging Information and study files for that selection.

When you select a dataverse to view its contents, the homepage opens to the root collection, and the dataverse's studies are displayed directly under the root collection name. If the root collection contains other collections, then those collections are listed and not the studies within them. You must select a collection title to view the studies contained within it.

Note: If a dataverse includes links to collections from another dataverse and the root collection does not contain other collections, the homepage opens to a list of the root and linked collections.

Search - Basic

You can search for studies across the entire DVN from the Network homepage, or search within a dataverse from the dataverse homepage. When you search across the Network, studies from restricted dataverses are not included in the search. If an entire study is restricted (both metadata and files), it is not included in search results unless you have access to that data. After your search is complete, you can further narrow your list of data by searching again in the results. See Search Tips for search examples and guidelines.

When you enter more than one term in the search text field, the results list contains studies that have these terms near each other within the study fields searched. For example, if you enter United Nations, the results include studies where the words United and Nations are separated by no more than four words in the same study field, such as abstract or title.

You can restrict a search to content in the following study fields by using the basic Search drop-down list:

• Cataloging Information - This is the default field to search. It supports a search in any field of the studies' Cataloging Information, which includes citation information, abstract and other scope-related information, methodology, and Terms of Use.
• Title - This option searches only the title field of studies.
• Author - This option searches only the author fields of studies.
• Study ID - This option searches the ID field of studies, without including the handle (hdl) and the authority (1902.X) values.
• Variable Information - This option searches the variable name and description fields in the studies' data files, given that a data file is subsettable. Results of a search using this field lists the studies with the file and the variable name in which the search term was found.

Search Tips

Use the following guidelines to search effectively within a Network or a dataverse:

• The default search syntax uses AND logic within individual fields. That is, if you enter more than one term, the search engine looks for all terms within a single field, such as title or abstract.
  For example, if you enter United Nations report, the results list any studies that include the terms United, Nations, and report within a single metadata field.
• The search logic looks for multiple terms within a specific proximity to one another, and in the same field. The current proximity criteria is four words. That is, if you enter two search terms, both terms must be within four words of each other in the same field to be returned as a result.
  For example, you might enter 10 year in a basic search. If a study includes the string 10 millions deaths per year within a metadata field, such as abstract, that study is not included in the search results. A study that contains the string 10 per year within the abstract field is included in the search results.
• During the index process that supports searches, periods are removed in strings and each term between periods is indexed individually. If you perform a basic search for a term that contains one or more periods, the search works because the analyzer applies the AND logic. If you search on a specific field, though, note that you should specify individually each component of the string between periods to return your results.
• You can enter one term in the search field, and then search within those results for another term to narrow the results further. This might be more effective than searching for both terms at one time, if those terms do not meet the proximity and field limits specified previously.
  You could search first for an author's name, and then search those results for a specific term in the title. If you try searching for both terms in the author and title fields together, you might not find the study for which you are looking.
  For example, you can search the IQSS DVN for the following study:

  Gary King; Will Lowe, 2003, "10 Million International Dyadic Events", hdl:1902.1/FYXLAWZRIA UNF:3:um06qkr/1tAwpS4roUqAiw== Murray Research Archive [Distributor]

  If you type King, 10 Million in the Search field and click Search, you see 0 matches were found in the Results field. If you type 10 in the Search field and click Search, you see something like 1621 matches were found in the Results field. But if you first type King in the Search field and click Search, then type 10 Million in the Search field and click Search again, you see something like 4 matches were found in the Results field.

Search - Advanced

In an advanced search, you can refine your criteria by choosing which Cataloging Information fields to search. You also can apply logic to the field search. For text fields, you can specify that the field searched either contains or does not contain the text that you enter. For date fields, you can specify that the field searched is either later than or earlier than the date that you enter. Refer to the Documentation page for Query Syntax at the Lucene website for full syntax details.

To perform an advanced search, click the Advanced Search link at the top-right of the Search panel. You can search the following study metadata fields by using the Search Scope drop-down list:

• Title - Title field of studies' Cataloging Information.
• Author - Author fields of studies' Cataloging Information.
• Study ID - ID assigned to studies.
• Other ID - A different ID previously given to the study by another archive.
• Abstract - Any words in the abstract of the study.
• Keyword - A term that defines the nature or scope of a study. For example, elections.
• Keyword Vocabulary - Reference to the standard used to define the keywords.
• Topic Classification - One or more words that help to categorize the study.
• Topic Classification Vocabulary - Reference used to define the Topic Classifications.
• Producer - Institution, group, or person who produced the study.
• Distributor - Institution that is responsible for distributing the study.
• Funding Agency - Agency that funded the study.
• Production Date - Date on which the study was created or completed.
• Distribution Date - Date on which the study was distributed to the public.
• Date of Deposit - Date on which the study was uploaded to the Network.
• Time Period Cover Start - The beginning of the period covered by the study.
• Time Period Cover End - The end of the period covered by the study.
• Country/Nation - The country or countries where the study took place.
• Geographic Coverage - The geographical area covered by the study. For example, North America.
• Geographic Unit - The smallest geographic unit in which the study took place, such as state.
• Universe - Universe of interest, population of interest, or target population.
• Kind of Data - The type of data included in the file, such as survey data, census/enumeration data, or aggregate data.
• Variable Information - The variable name and description in the studies' data files, given that the data file is subsettable. It returns the studies that contain the file and the variable name where the search term was found.

Sort Results

When your search is complete, the results page lists studies that met the search criteria in order of relevance. For example, a study that includes your search term within the Cataloging Information in ten places appears before a study that includes your search term in the Cataloging Information in only one place.

You can sort search results by title, study ID, or number of downloads (that is, the number of times users downloaded any file belonging to that study). Click the Sort By drop-down list to choose your sort order.

When you browse a collection, the studies contained within the collection are listed alphabetically by title.