ISSN 2167-5163

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Publications Search Help Topics

Select search field(s)
Enter search criteria
Select a time frame
Select a document type
Set your preferences
Activate the search

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Select search field(s)

Following is a list of the 13 fields to select from:

Field Name	What it Searches
Author	Author's name only
Author/Related	Author's name plus editors, translators etc.
Title	Title of original article
Review Text	Any text in the body of the review
Journal	Journal name
Institution Code	The code assigned to a specific institution
Series	Series name
MSC Primary/Secondary	Primary or secondary Mathematics Subject Classification
MSC Primary	Primary Mathematics Subject Classification
MR Number	Number of item in MathSciNet
Reviewer	Reviewer's name
Anywhere	All of the bibliographic, classification, and review information
References	All reference lists

There are four Field Name pull-down menus on the Publications search screen. Author, Title, MSC Primary and Anywhere are the default fields. You can change these selections by clicking on the arrow to the right of the box you wish to change and then by selecting a field from the pull-down menu. More than one Field Name box can be set to the same field name. A Boolean operator should be set between each Field Name box that is used. The default Boolean operator is AND. 

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Enter search criteria

Initially the cursor is in the blank text input box next to the first Field Name box displayed on the screen. Enter your search criteria. Continue this for each Field Name that you wish to search on. Leave the text input boxes blank next to any fields you are not using. Following are some guidelines to keep in mind when performing a Publications Search in MathSciNet:

• Adjacency is assumed within a field. For example, the search text "invertible matrix" will match only those cases in which the two words occur consecutively. It will not match "invertible triangular matrix".
• The wildcard character is the asterisk (*) and may be used in all fields except MR Number and Mathematics Subject Classifications fields (MSC Primary/Secondary and MSC Primary). If no wildcard is used, the search will look for exact word matches and for the plural (or singular) of the words entered.
• Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) may be entered between criteria. [Additional explanation]
• MathSciNet searches are not case-sensitive.
• The search may be restricted to the singular [plural] search terms by using the exclamation mark (!) at the end of the singular [plural] word. For example, "matrix" will match both "matrix" and "matrices" while "matrix!" will match "matrix" but not "matrices".
• Consider the use of proximity operators when building searches that contain prepositions. [Additional explanation]
• Parentheses may be used inside a field to override Boolean operator precedence rules.
• Search criteria does not need to be stripped of TeX code. [Additional explanation]
• Accented characters encoded in ISO Latin may be used in search strings.

Boolean Operators
Boolean operators that can be used in MathSciNet are: AND, OR, NOT. Boolean operators may be entered in the text input boxes and selected from the pull-down menus located between Field Names. For example, entering modular in the Review text field in the top text box and variety in the Review text field in the second box, and selecting AND as the Boolean operator, will match all MathSciNet items that contain both modular and variety in their review text, in any position and order.

The evaluation of Boolean expressions follows the precedence rule of AND and NOT before OR. Parentheses can be used inside text input boxes to override this precedence. There are implicit parentheses around the entire contents of each text box. NOT is really "AND ~", where ~ is the (logical) unary negation operator, which is evaluated first, on the right argument. (~ is not a MathSciNet operator.)

There is an implicit AND between the expression defined in the text boxes and the date range and document type criteria that follow.

AND and OR are both commutative and associate operators, so for example, in the search Author=erdos AND MSC Primary=05 AND Anywhere=projective, the three search terms can be placed in all six possible orders.

To use a Boolean operator in a text input box, place the operator between the criteria. For example, in the Author field, type graham and luckock to yield a headline list of papers co-authored by Graham and Luckock.

Alternatively, to achieve the same results, set two Field Name boxes to Author and set the Boolean operator between them to AND. Enter graham in one input box and luckock in the other input box.

Proximity Operators
MathSciNet also allows the use of proximity operators in search criteria construction. This can be useful when searching for related expressions (a "family" of expressions that are variants of each other), while limiting the total number of words the expressions can contain. This is also useful when building searches that contain prepositions such as but, of and a. Use of these prepositions will result in extended query times, increasing the likelihood of receiving a time-out error. When searching for items that contain these words, consider using the proximity operators ADJ1, ADJ2, ADJ3, etc.

Unless otherwise instructed, the database assumes adjacency, for example Vector ADJ1 Bundle is equivalent to Vector Bundle. The value of N in ADJN specifies one more than the maximum number of intervening words allowed between the two words connected by ADJN.

Examples:

1. ADJ2 allows one word or no words between the two words connected by ADJ2.

module adj2 differential
instead of
module of differential

as a criterion with Review Text set as the Search Field will return items containing "modules, differential", "module of differential", and "modules and differential",

2. ADJ3 allows up to two words between the two words connected by ADJ3

boolean function ADJ3 variables
instead of
boolean function of n variables

as a criterion with Review Text set as the Search Field will return items containing "boolean functions of $n$ variables", as well as items containing "Boolean function on two variables", "Boolean function over $k$ variables", "Boolean functions on $n$ variables", and " Boolean functions of many variables".

Search Criteria Containing Mathematics (TeX)
You may search for strings that include TeX coding. TeX special characters, such as "\", "&", and "$" are replaced by white space both in the search string and in the target, so their use is optional. For example, searching for "h 3", and "$h 3$" produces the same results, which include "(H)=3", "H/(3", and "$H$, (3)". (White space can be any number of space characters.)

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Select a time frame

Select the radio button for the option desired. The options are as follows:

• Publication Year Ranges. You may set your search to look for items with a Publication Year less than, equal to or greater than a specific year. Alternatively, you may also specify a year range, with inclusive lower and upper year bounds. Each year used must be input as a four-digit number, e.g. 2004. 
• Entire Database.  This option is selected by default. It performs a search of the entire database, which spans 1940 through the present, together with certain historical journal runs (items dating back to the late 1800s are listed in the database). You must enter at least one other search criterion.
  

Remark: To search for items recently entered (within the past six months), try a Current Publications search (see Free Tools).

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Select a document type

The MathSciNet database contains information about the publication format of the original document. By default, all types of documents are searched. To refine a search, a single document type may be specified. Click the radio button next to the option desired. The options are as follows:

• Books
• Journals
• Proceedings
• All (the default)

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Set your preferences

To set your preferences, select Preferences from the tool bar at the top of  the screen.  The following choices are offered:

       After selecting your preferences, save them and close the preferences window.  MathSciNet will remember these.

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Activate the search

Once all desired search criteria have been entered, click the Search button. Search results are displayed as a headline list of bibliographic data that matches the search criteria. From this screen, full items can be selected for display. If a search results in a single item, the corresponding full item is returned, rather than a headline.

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