Report:EBSCOhost/Viewing Results/The Hit List

The Hit List

By default, EBSCOhost displays results ten at a time. Each is presented with a variable amount of information depending on the data available for each record, possibly including a two-line introduction, author, publication data, or general bibliographic information. An example in standard display mode is shown below.

A typical entry in an EBSCOhost hit list. This record is from the Academic Search R & D database.

Upon mouseover, an icon next to the title displays standardized data about the reference, including the original source, publication date, a truncated list of applicable subjects, a truncated abstract, and citation information where available. Links from this info box also allow the user to save the citation, save the reference to a folder, and view the full citation. This mouseover info box is shown for a sample reference, below.

Mousing over the icon next to the record title produces a pop-up info box.

Beneath the general information is an icon that indicates where full text is available in PDF format or HTML format. A third type of full text, “Linked Full Text,” will only appear if a specific arrangement is made with EBSCOhost to connect the service to other third-party databases the user may have access to. The final line is a link to add the document to a folder, and an icon indicating the relevancy of the result. The relevancy icon is a series of ten small boxes, with more filled boxes indicating a more relevant result as determined by a proprietary algorithm.

The hit list for both the Basic and Advanced search form options in EBSCOhost is shown below.

The Hit List for the Basic and Advanced interfaces.

Above the list is a drop-down menu that changes the sorting style among three options: Date, Source, and Relevance. The “Add” link will add all results on the page to a folder, and an additional link below that allows the user to save the search string, share it with another user, or set up an alert. A small orange icon on the left creates an RSS icon with one click.

Beneath the list of results are two boxes (not pictured in the screenshot above). One allows the user to decrease or increase the number of results per page, and the other offers different ways to view the results, including:

• Standard: The display described above. (Although it may vary slightly, this format generally includes a two-line introduction, author, publication data, and/or other general bibliographic information.)
  
• Title Only:. As the name would suggest, only the title is visible.
  
• Brief: Similar to the standard display, but without two lines of general information.
  
• Detailed: Expands the display to include all bibliographic information and abstracts, where available.

The left column of the hit list is dedicated to the “Narrow Results by” options, which can be used to filter the result set and remove unwanted items. Clicking on one of the categories will display a list of terms. Choosing one will limit the results list by that criterion. Categories include “Source Types,” “Thesaurus Terms,” “Subject,” “Database,” and various bibliographic details.

The left pane.

The right column also contains options to further limit the search results, with check boxes to view only results with linked full text, with Image Quick View, or sourced from scholarly journals. Beneath those is a slider to control the publication dates of the results displayed; the slider is limited to controlling the year only. Further down the right column is a small box that shows the last few citations added to your folder.

The right pane.

Finally, another box displays thumbnail images from the search results. Mousing over a thumbnail displays a full-size version of the image, and clicking on one of these navigates to a separate page with the image and its bibliographic information.

The Image Preview pane.

Editor's Note:

There are a few downsides to the filtering options in EBSCOhost. Firstly, the date slider is limited to controlling the year only, not the day or month of publication. This can be a slight usability disadvantage for validity searches, who have an exact critical date in mind as a cut-off date for their research

The image preview pane is an interesting feature, but utility for the prior art searcher may be limited. Patent drawings and chemical structures are not included at this time, eliminating the two chief reasons to inspect images.

Additionally, although both left and right columns can be hidden, the result list does not expand to fill the space, so the option is of questionable utility.