ontario scholars portal a guide to the basic features of the search interface of ontario scholars...

Ontario Scholars PortalOntario Scholars Portal

A guide to the basic features of the search interface of Ontario Scholars Portal at the University of Ottawa

Prepared by:

Ann RomerilLibrary Bibliographic Training CoordinatorMorisset LibraryEmail: [email protected]: (613) 562-5800 ext. 3656


Table of Contents

• What is Ontario Scholars Portal

• Access to Ontario Scholars Portal

• Registration and Login

• Browsing the Journal Collections

• Search functions

• Specific Features

• Saving/printing/exporting Options

• Your Personal Settings

• Online Help


• Searching full-text articles• Tracking citation via automatic updates• Browsing tables of contents

What is Ontario Scholars Portal?

Ontario Scholars Portal provides seamless access to approximately 5,452, 194 articles from 4,091 full text journals acquired by national and provincial consortia of which the University of Ottawa is a member

Ontario Scholars Portal features:


Access to Ontario Scholars Portal?

• Directly at http://scholarsportal.info• Through the University of Ottawa web site at

http://www.biblio.uottawa.ca (through the electronic journals page)

Ontario Scholars Portal is available to faculty and students at the University of Ottawa.

You can access Ontario Scholars Portal:


Registration and Login

To take advantage of all the features of Ontario Scholars Portal, you need to register and obtain a username and password:


Browsing the Tables of Contents

From the “Browse/Quick Search” menu option you can access the tables of contents of the journals:

You can browse by journal title

or

You can browse by publisher


Browsing the Tables of Contents

Once you have selected a journal from the list, you can browse the tables of contents for the available issues and view the articles that are of interest to you


Browsing by Subject

You can browse Elsevier journals by subject area. This feature is not yet available for journals from the other publishers


Search Functions: Search Modes

There are three search modes in Ontario Scholars Portal: Simple, Advanced and Expert

The simple search screen allows you to enter search terms and select a field


Search Functions: Search Modes

The advanced search screen allows you to combine terms with a logical operator.

In the advanced search mode you can apply various limits to your search such as journal name, language or date of publication.


Search Functions: Expert Mode

In the expert mode you can enter complex search strategies, with multiple terms and logical operators.

The limit categories of the advanced screen are also available in expert mode. The expert search screen allows the users to customize their search strategies.


Search Functions: Logical Operators

AND All terms entered must occur in the references retrieved: coral AND Australia.

OR Retrieves any of the terms in the search statement: coral OR reef OR barrier.

NOT Excludes the terms following it: coral NOT reef.

ADJ The term that follows it appears immediately after the word preceding it: coral ADJ reef.

NEAR This proximity operator determines the maximum number of words that separates the words in the search statement: coral NEAR5 reef. The default value for the near term proximity search is 10.


Search Functions: Logical Operators

The asterix character (*) at the end of a term becomes a wild card: micro* will match microscope, microscopic, micron, microcomputer etc.

The quotation marks (“”) around a term indicate a phrase search. The software is going to look for an exact match to the query: “coral reef degradation”


• Combining your terms with logical operators is the most efficient way to build precise search strategies.

• In Ontario Scholars Portals EXPERT search mode logical operators require capitalization. Capitalization is ignored for all other search terms.

• You can use operators on any of the search screens.

• In a full-text environment, proximity operators such as ADJ or NEAR are very useful to retrieve relevant articles.

Search Functions: Tips to Remember


Specific Features: Current Awareness

When you save a search, Ontario Scholars Portal uses it to create an alert. Your successful strategies can be stored and run when you need to find new material on a topic of interest.


Specific Features: Current Awareness

You customize the details of your Alerts, from their frequency to the search strategies.


Specific Features: Saving Articles

You can save search strategies but you can also save and keep specific articles. You can view your articles by clicking on “My Articles” from the menu bar. You can remove articles from your list at any time.


Specific Features: Citation Alerts

You can create a citation alert for a specific article and Ontario Scholars Portal will alert you by email when this article is cited. Just click on the bibliographic view page and select “Save as Citation Alert”.


Specific Features: Citation Alerts

Your citation alerts will be stored with your search alerts. You can view them by selecting “Alerts” from the option menu. You can delete a citation alert at any time.


Saving/printing/exporting Options

To print, save or export your article you need to select a view: bibliographic page or full text PDF


Saving/printing/exporting Options

•From the bibliographic page you can choose to save the citation through your browser “File/Save” option.

•You can view the full text and print or save to disk.

•you can export the reference into a citation managing software such as Reference Manager.


Your Personal Settings

You can access and edit your preferences by clicking on “Settings from the menu bar.


Your Personal Settings

•You can edit your user information

•You can set your default search screen

•You can set the parameters of your Alert searches and deliveries


Online Help

Detailed help screens are available by clicking on “Help” from the menu bar


Online Help

You can also print the help files in PDF format for more convenience.


Questions and Comments about Ontario Scholars Portal

If you have questions or comments about Ontario Scholars Portal, please send an email to:

University of Ottawa|Library Network at:

[email protected]

ontario scholars portal a guide to the basic features of the search interface of ontario scholars...

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