Search Details

'Search Details' is located between Session Results and your Search Results. Click 'Open' in this tab to show your displayed search in both command-line syntax and tabular format.

Command-line syntax

Command-line syntax is used to describe the full details of the search. This syntax can also be used to specify a search in full, in the search text box on any of the Search Forms (although in practice shortcuts such as limits, mapping to preferred terms, drug subheadings and disease subheadings are likely to be used). In addition, command-line syntax is used as the basis for editing searches.

The key features of command-line syntax are:

  • Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, NEXT) together with proximity operators and wildcards; see for more information Boolean operators, proximity operators and wildcards.
  • Combination searches are indicated using hash marks (#) to indicate search set numbers, e.g. #1 AND #2 NOT #3
  • Free text describes search terms typed without field labels, mapping or quotes. If no Boolean operators are specified, Embase finds records that contain all the words in the query (linked by the Boolean operator AND), e.g. the free text search heart attack searches heart AND attack.
  • Phrases are indicated using quotes, e.g. ‘heart attack’. This search retrieves the phrase ‘heart attack’ wherever it appears (in all fields). For further information see phrase searching.
  • Restriction to designated fields is indicated by a colon (:), followed by a two-letter label (see: Fields and Field Abbreviations). To search several fields at the same time, field labels are separated using commas, e.g. ‘heart attack’:ti,ab,de. Quotes are not required for single-word terms: heart:ti and ‘heart’:ti are equivalent.
  • Exact search in designated fields is indicated by a phrase followed by a slash (/) with a two-letter label, e.g. ‘hiv infection’/de. Six fields are available for exact searches: de (index term), dd (drug index term), dm (medical index term), au (author name), jt (journal title) and ta (abbreviated journal title). In addition, mj (restriction to major index terms), exp (explosion search), and subheadings based upon dd and dm (e.g. dd_ae) use exact searches.
  • Subheadings are two-letter labels connected to dd (for drug subheadings) or dm (for disease subheadings), e.g. ‘leukemia’/dm_ae. (see: Drug subheadings , Routes of Drug administration and Disease subheadings). Multiple subheadings are indicated using commas, e.g. ‘pain’/dm_dt,dm_th,dm_su. As described above, all searches using subheadings are exact searches.
  • Map to preferred terminology refers to the translation of synonyms to Emtree preferred terms, i.e. terms in the Emtree thesaurus, and is a feature of all exact searches which use the indexing fields de, dd, dm and mj; of explosion searches (exp); and of searches using subheadings (e.g. dd_ae). These fields and codes may be combined in any order by repeated use of slashes, e.g. ‘pain’/exp/mj/dm_dt,dm_su.
  • Explosion searches are mapped searches of index terms, which include all narrower terms (more specific, derivative terms) of the search term, as defined by the Emtree thesaurus, in the search. For example, ‘brain’/exp finds records indexed with brain, cerebellum, hypothalamus, substantia nigra, and other terms listed in Emtree as narrower terms of brain.
  • Limits are indicated using square brackets instead of quotes and (usually) /lim, e.g. [clinical trial]/lim. However, date limits use the field labels /py (publication year range), /sd (‘since date’) and /wd (‘within date’). instead of /lim. Examples of the use of limits are:
    •  Reviews on AIDS published within the last 5 years
      ‘aids’/mj AND [review]/lim AND [1999-2003]/py
    •    Articles by JC Smith (the oncologist) indexed since mid-2002
      ‘smith j.c’/au AND [cancer]/lim AND [01/07/2002]/sd
    • Recent articles (in Embase within 14 days) from Cell
      ‘cell’/jt AND [14]/wd

Note: exact searches differ from phrase searches in two ways:

  1. In an exact search the search term is exactly specified: ‘heart’/de retrieves only records indexed with heart, not records indexed with other terms such as heart infarction.
  2. Mapping to preferred terminology using index fields (fields de, dd, dm, mj ; the explosion exp and links dd_ae, dm_dt etc) automatically uses exact searches.

Tabular format

Click Search Details - Open tab (from Saved Search and Email Alerts, click Details ), to display search details in a tabular format. In this format, the fields, limits and mapping syntax are described in normal language, so that the details of the search are easy to read, even if you are unfamiliar with command-line syntax. To close the tabular display (in Session Results), click Search Details - Close.