SCITATION SEARCH (BETA)

Release Notes, Version 1.0 (February 2009)

This first iteration of a new Scitation search engine will be undergoing continuous changes and improvements over the next several weeks, some based on our own list of features and fixes, and others, hopefully, from your feedback.

The prevailing parameters for this test are as follows:

1. This is an early, first release of the engine. Certain cosmetic changes and more intuitive retooling of certain functions will be available in subsequent revisions. While future testing stages will seek your input on deeper details of look, feel, usability, and accessibility, along with newer functions and specific presentational changes, this stage is focused on basic, or core, functionality. We would like your testing to answer these questions:
   1. "Does the search engine retrieve results relevant to my query?"
   2. "Do the available filtering tools do what I expect them to and are they useful?"
2. In this testing stage, we are interested in your feedback primarily in the following areas (but do not limit your feedback should you be able to provide additional input):
   1. Quality of the relevance ranking in your returns relative to your query.
   2. Usability and efficacy of all of the search fields available in the dropdown menus.
   3. Usability and efficacy of the filtering tools in the right sidebar.
3. Known database characteristics, bugs, or "deficiencies" of this version (major bugs addressed - and changes to the functionality - will be listed further below):
   1. Total number of results is an estimate only (similar to Google). The exact count is displayed when you hit the last page of a search.
   2. Search is limited to bibliographic records (full-text searching will be available in a followup version).
   3. Display of certain mathematical expressions and special characters is not fully optimized.
   4. Certain data being returned as filter criteria may be of dubious value depending on a particular query; we are working to refine the filtering mechanism.
   5. PACS codes (see http://www.aip.org/pacs/pacs08/pacs08-toc.html) are a major filtering criterion; the associated PACS text will be available for display in a future release. Also, there are certain anomalies that appear within PACS; the process of handling these anomalies is ongoing.
   6. Collaboration searching is not yet an option.
   7. The interaction between the filter options and the Search button is not optimal. To filter your results until this is redesigned, click the appropriate checkboxes for any filter(s), and then click Search to filter your results accordingly. To remove any selected filters, uncheck the boxes, and click Search.
   8. Debugging information or other temporary display of certain data elements may appear from time to time. This is a work in progress.

If you'd rather not take our guided search survey (link at upper right), you can quickly report bugs or provide your feedback as free-form comments to us via e-mail at searchtest08@aip.org.

These notes will be revised as new versions of the engine are released; the change tracking log below will be incremented so a complete record of major modifications is available to testers.

Thank you for participating in this test,

The Scitation Development Team