Advanced Search

Text Field Searching

These rules apply to any plain text field on the advanced search form.

• For an exact match, enclose a phrase within quotes: "traffic signal"
• For a wild-card search, use an asterisk (*) after a partial word. Note that you may also truncate at the front of a term or use more than one asterisk for a term but the terms will not be highlighted in these cases.
• For a boolean search, use OR, AND, or NOT between words or phrases.
• A nested search may be performed by enclosing term(s) within parentheses.
• Search example: (plow* OR salt*) AND "snow removal"

Keyword Field

This field searches all of the indexed fields in TRID which include title, abstract, notes, index terms, subject areas, record accession numbers (both TRIS and ITRD), and authors.

Title Field

Enter one or more terms from a title or the exact title to search on a publication title.

Serial or Conference

Enter one or more terms to search for records from a serial or conference.

Issue Number

Enter one or more terms to search by TR News issue number or TRR number.

Subject Areas

Click the field or use the down arrow to select a TRB subject area to limit search results by a specific transportation mode, function, or activity. You may also start typing to filter the list, then use the arrow keys or highlight with the cursor to select a subject area. Multiple subject areas may be selected; simply repeat the process as for selecting the first subject area. If you select multiple subject areas, you can switch between "or"/"and" Boolean logic for your selections by selecting the appropriate radio button.

*Note that ITRD Subjects are searchable in the keyword field

Identifier

Enter complete or partial terms to search for report, contract or grant numbers.

To search for multiple terms, use OR to separate search terms.

Index Term

Begin typing an index term. If the term is from the Transportation Research Thesaurus (TRT), matching terms will appear in a drop down list from which you can select terms. More than one term may be selected; in this case the default Boolean operator is OR.

Uncontrolled terms and ITRD Thesaurus terms do not appear in the drop down list but are still searchable in this field. To search uncontrolled terms or ITRD thesaurus terms, simply enter the terms on which you wish to search and press Enter.

To use Boolean logic and/or wildcards, simply enter the query without selecting any terms from the drop down list.

Person

Enter a person's last/family name and first/given name or initial to search among authors and editors. You can use wildcards and Boolean logic to search across all matching names, including first names.

Note that a query for Smith, R* will return results for 'Smith, Robert,' 'Smith, Richard' and authors 'Smith and Robert' or other last/family and first/given names that begin with the letter R. It will not return results for 'Smith, Bob'. Please keep in mind that due to differences in indexing practices among the various contributors to the TRID Database, some records contain only first/given initials rather than full names.

Result Type

Select from the list to limit your search to publications, monograph or analytic publications, or a combination.

Limit results to free or fee-based full-text links

Checking this box will display only those results that have direct or indirect URL links to the full text document. Publishers may charge a fee for accessing the full text.

Date Options

The default is set to search all dates. To narrow your search, enter a start and end date, or select one of the presets.

The range entered in the From and To fields limits results based on the option selected in the Date Range Type field, which can be set to search project start date, project end date, or system created date.

Sort Options

Use these parameters to change the order in which results are displayed.

Records per Page

Select the number of results shown on each page.

Search Results Page

RSS Feed

This icon , allows you to view an RSS feed for the search you just performed. You may also subscribe to the feed by using the link directly or by clicking on which is located on the upper right and will provide you with a list of popular web-based RSS readers.

Share Results

The icons above the search results on the right side allow you to share results using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

E-mail Results

The icon is used to send results via e-mail. Clicking it will open a form to e-mail the results.

Mark Records

A user can print, e-mail, save, or view selected records during the course of a session by marking one or more records. Use the Mark: All | None | Show options at the top of the results to select all the records on a page or the entire record set. Marked records will persist across searches, allowing you to combine many different results into a single collection. To clear your marked records, use the Clear link on the top right of any page.

Pagination

Use the page navigation to move to the next or previous page of results. You can also jump to a page by entering the page number into the page number field and pressing enter.

Record View

Record Navigation

This allows a user to navigate through the current set of search results.

Mark this Record

Click on Mark this Record to select it for printing, saving, or emailing.

Marked Records

Actions

• Print marked records in various formats.
• Email marked records to yourself or another person.
• Save marked records for other uses including importing bibliographic software like RefWorks, EndNote, or ProCite.
• View all of the marked records on one screen.
• Clear your marked record collection.

Formats

• RIS - used to import into bibliographic software like RefWorks, EndNote, or ProCite.
• DOC - used to open with Microsoft Word 2003 or later.
• Text - a text version of the full record detail.
• Citation - a text format for displaying the basic record information.
• HTML - used to open in email or Internet browsers.
• XML - used to export results for use with third-party software or databases.