Why did OnePetro change the search?

Customers are familiar with Google as a research tool. There were a number of differences between Google's approach to search and OnePetro's former search engine. Customers have repeatedly expressed frustration at those differences, so changing the search to Google was a logical and important choice.

Will I get the same results I currently get in Google or Google Scholar?

Results will be similar, but never exact. Google Scholar considers how many times a paper has been cited in determining which documents are most relevant. Google (www.google.com) has been able to incorporate several years of click history to determine which documents are most relevant. The Google Search Appliance used for the OnePetro site search will never have that same history, so results will never be exact. But results will be returned consistent with customer expectations for Google.

What about advanced search?

Many customers still have the need to search for a specific author, company, or journal. OnePetro has retained the advanced search to make this easy. But there are a few things that you need to know to use it most effectively:

• Stemming of root words will apply in the basic search or in a search that covers "Anywhere in Article" but does not apply to a search by title, author, etc. [Stemming is the process of reducing a word to its root form then searching for that root and all possible endings. For example, when stemming is on, searching for the word stemming would also find stem and stemmed as well as stemming.]

• Spaces matter In an author search using initials. In example, G.S. and G. S. are NOT seen as the same to the Google search. [SPE's style is not to put a space between initials, but some exceptions may creep in, and other societies in OnePetro may not have the same style.] So if you are having difficulty with an author search, consider trying both with and without the spaces.

• You can combine multiple sections of the advanced search. For example, you could search for Lake in Author, SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering in Journal, and >2007 in date. If you don't find the results you need, loosen your search criteria so you aren't too restrictive.

 

Can I search for multiple papers at once if I know the paper numbers?

Yes. In the Fast Search by Number box on the home page, you can separate paper numbers by a comma and a space to retrieve multiple papers with one search. For example, you could enter 12345, 23456, 34567, 45678 to locate those 4 papers with a single search.

Why can't I see more than 1000 papers?

This is a function of the Google Search Appliance. Since most customers rarely go past the first 1-2 pages of results, Google has decided that 1,000 results should be adequate, so that's all that they have enabled. The listing by category at right is based on up to 10,000 papers. You can use elements in this dynamic navigation element to focus your search to get to the 1000 papers most relevant to your needs.

Why are results shown with inexact counts (e.g., >2500)?

You would see results like this only in the dynamic navigation on the right side of the results screen when you searched for a very generic term (e.g., oil, drilling) that returned a very large number of results. In order to return results quickly, Google makes an estimate of the number of papers likely to use your search terms. If you click on one of the items in the dynamic navigation, Google re-executes the search based on that added search term and will produce a more accurate count of results.

When I'm entering my search, why do I see few suggestions?

Because the search is new and has only been used in testing, you'll see very few prior search suggestions initially. But the list will begin to improve quickly with more people using it.

Why don't I see search suggestions on advanced search?

Because of the numerous combinations that are possible with the advanced search, it isn't possible to make suggestions based on prior searches. Generally, when using the advanced search, customers have a good idea what they are looking for and are just trying to use the right combination of search terms to locate it. Having suggestions under those conditions would likely be a hindrance, not helpful.

How do search alerts work?

This functionality is similar to the prior "saved search" function, but now you will get an email (weekly or monthly, your choice) about any new items that have been added that meet your search criteria. Start by focusing your search on what you'd like to know, then create an alert to get an email about future papers that meet your criteria. Please note that you may occasionally see older documents in your search alert. This will primarily occur when older documents have been newly added to OnePetro, such as documents from a new society or items that may have been missing from OnePetro for some reason.