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Search Tips

  • If you can't find what you are looking for, it may be because you have not registered on the site. Some of the metadata and data on the site are only accessible to registered users. Registration is free and can be applied for via the registration page.

Ways of searching

  • There are four different ways to begin a search: quick search, advanced search, browsing by category or browsing by geography.
  • You can enhance your search results by using a thesaurus to broaden the terms you search or adding other databases to your search

Quick Search

  • Searching from the text box on the menu bar will look for the search word in any of the following fields: title, description, body, url,  description, rights, spatial coverage, creator, publisher and contributor.
  • All of the text searches support logical operators.
    • Use an uppercase OR between terms to retrieve pages that include either term.
    • Use an uppercase NOT before a term to exclude it in the search.
    • If more than one search term is entered without any logical operators the AND operator is entered automatically to restrict the search to only those resource that match all of the terms entered.
    • Use ( and ) to group terms and operators, e.g. "Bedfordshire AND NOT (county OR council)" will retrieve resources which include the term "Bedfordshire" but not "county" or "council".
  • All of the text searches support phrases, stemming and word variations.
    • To search for phrases use quotes around the words, only resources that include the exact phrase will be returned.
    • Use the % character either side of the term for word stemming.
      Examples: -
      %source will match text which ends with "source" (e.g. resource).
      source% will match text which starts with "source" (e.g. sources).
      %source% will match any text which includes "source" (e.g. resource, sources and resources).
    • Use the * character at the end of a term to search for word variations, e.g. "dry*" searches for all resources containing words of the form dry: dried, drying, and so on.

Advanced Search

  • You can select from within a restricted set of categories by checking the appropriate checkboxes below.
  • The advanced search utilises the same logical operators, phrases, stemming and word variations as the quick search option
  • You can search for resources owned by a particular person by selecting the "Choose a person" button.
  • When searching for events you can choose a range of dates for your search by using the "Start date..." and "End date..." buttons.
  • Searching from the menu bar will look for the search word in any of the following fields: title, description, creator, contributor, rights, keywords, publisher, geographical unit and geographical coverage.
  • Use the thesaurus to expand your search terms.
  • You can search for events using the advanced search form, or view the events calendar.
  • Use this page to find people and organisations by searching for a person's name or job title, or by searching for an organisation's name.

Browsing by Category

  • Browse by 'PHITS' category (a three-level deep tree structure)
  • All the resources can be searched via the PHITS tree, which is located on the left of the Home Page.
  • Click on > to browse the sub-categories

Browsing by Geography

  • 'Browse by Geography' is a also a three-level deep tree structure, splitting on the highest level administrative and health geography and going down to Primary Care Organisations for health and to Local authority level for administrative units.
  • All the resources can be searched via the tree, which is located on the left of the Home Page.
  • Click on > to browse the sub-areas.

Other search options - setting preferences

IMPORTANT NOTE: These options may not be suitable for use on slow networks as they may significantly slow the return of search results.

Thesaurus

  • To use the thesaurus, go to the 'Preferences' menu and select the 'Search preferences' option.
  • Tick the 'Use thesaurus lookup' box.
  • That's it, next time you search you will see any terms used at the top of your search results page.

Other databases

  • To search other databases for resources.
  • Go to the 'Preferences' menu and select the 'Search preferences' option.
  • Tick the databases you wish to search (Note: the more you search, the longer your search will take)

Caching search results and resource details

  • Using these options will improve performance, but you will not see changes to the site unless you close your browser and open a new one.

Data Dictionary
 

General Terms
Contributor Definition Person(s) and/or organisation(s) responsible for making contributions to the content of the resource.
 
Copyright Definition Statement and identifier indicating the legal ownership and rights regarding use and re-use of all or part of the resource.
Example Crown Copyright ©.
 
Creator Definition Person(s) or organisation(s) primarily responsible for making the content of the resource.
Example Creator: Cabinet Office, Office for the e-Envoy, Technology Policy, Assistant Director.
 
Description Definition An account of the content of the resource.
Example Range of composite measures, measuring various aspects of deprivation
 
Format Definition The digital (or physical) manifestation of the resource.
Example An image might be supplied in bitmap format: .bmp
 
Geographic Coverage Definition The extent or scope of the content of the resource.
Example For a list of hospitals in a particular region the geographic coverage would refer to the region e.g. East of England.
 
Geographic Unit Definition The units the information is broken down to.
Example The Stephen Lawrence inquiry: report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny.
 
Language Definition The language of the intellectual content of the resource.
Example English.
 
Resource Type Definition The nature or genre of the content of the resource.
Example Presentation
 
Situation Definition Area for which the resource has primarily relevance.
Example Two options: Local Resource or National Resource
 
Temporal Coverage Definition Refers to the time period covered by the resource (not a creation or publication date). It is set by start date and end date.
Example A study began on 31/5/2002 and ended on 31/5/2003.
 
Title Definition The name given to the resource.
Example The Stephen Lawrence inquiry: report of an inquiry by Sir William Macpherson of Cluny.
 
 

Date Based Terms
Creation Date Definition The date of creation of the resource.
 
Expiry Date Definition The date on which the resource will cease to be visible.
 
Publication Date Definition The date of publication of the resource on the website.
 

Relationship Terms
Relationships define in which way resources are related to each other an can be seen from either of the related resources. For example if a part relationship exists one resource 'Is part of' another resource, the other resource 'Has part' the first resource.
Definition Definition Where the resource defines or is defined by the related resource.
Example Glossar of used terms
 
Format Definition For resources that are, or have a different format to the related resource.
Example The same data could be presented as Chart or as Spreadsheet
 
Method Definition Any methods that are related to or used for a resource.
Example The YLL (Years of Life Lost) component of DALYs
 
Output Definition For any resources that are outputs of an event, meeting or conference e.g. presentations, minutes.
Example Summary of Results of Workshop XY
 
Part Definition Any resources that form part of a series, a collection or are linked physically or logically.
Example Summer school presentations
 
Publisher Definition An entity responsible for making the resource available. The organisation needs to be a resource in the system itself.
Example Health Development Agency
 
Reference Definition The described resource references, cites, or otherwise points to the referenced resource.
Example A press release for the launch of a report would be in a reference relationship with the report
 
Replace Definition Resources that either supersede or are superseded by the related resource.
Example If there are special reasons to keep obsolete versions of a resource.
 
Require Definition Resources that require or are required by the related resource.
Example If the legend of a map is in a different resource the legend is required by the map.
 
Source Definition Where the resource is derived from or derives the related resource.
Example The underlying data for a report.
 
Version Definition The described resource has a version, edition or adaption. Includes translations of a resource.
Example Children's version of White Paper:'Every child Matters'
 

Download Advice

This site mainly accesses files of the following types:

HTML HTML is the basic file format used on the Internet, this page is in HTML format. It is our policy to make as much information as possible in this format. Resources may also be made available in the following formats.
DOC DOC is the file type for documents created using Microsoft WORD. This is a widely used word processing package.
XLS XLS is the file type for documents created using Microsoft EXCEL. This is a widely used spreadsheet package.
PPT PPT is the file type for documents created using Microsoft Powerpoint. This is a widely used presentation package.
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF) are usually electronic copies of paper documents. To read them you will need a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Users will need to have the correct software loaded on their machines to make full use of the information available.

File viewers for Acrobat (PDF), Excel (XLS), Word (DOC),and Powerpoint (PPT) files are available for download free of charge from their developers- follow the links below:

Adobe Acrobat Reader Excel file viewer Word file viewer Powerpoint file viewer