Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Rationale for change
PubMed
(general)
This database could only be searched
when the user was not logged in.
This database can now also be searched
when logged in.
PubMed fields
Only Title, and Title and text (all fields)
could be searched.
There is now a greater selection of
fields.
User can now add results from PubMed
to ‘saved results’.
Advantage is that PubMed contains very
recently published material, such as
articles published online ahead of print.
A more advanced/precise search can be
developed.
Note: the following search features are
not available in PubMed:
Limits (e.g. Date, Language)
Thesaurus (MeSH headings)
This means users do not have to take
extra steps by retyping, re-running and
deleting search lines for the sake of
changing terms or field codes.
Editing searches Search terms or field codes could not be
edited within search history: a new
search would have to be run and the
unwanted one deleted.
Adding limits to
a search
Click ‘Apply Limits’ in Search History.
Select one or more limits from the
‘Limits’ area of the screen.
To apply limits, click the Search button.
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Search terms and field codes can be
altered within current strategy. Users
need to click Update to complete the
process.
Note: if a user alters a search line which
has been combined with another
search, the result row of the combined
search will be updated automatically
Add limits within current strategy as
follows:
1. Click the ‘Edit’ link.
2. Click ‘Edit limits’
Essentially, in terms of adding limits to
individual searches, little has changed,
but the Search button now says Update.
Category
Adding limits to
a combined
search row
Old HDAS
Click Apply Limits; add limits and then
click Search.
Users will see that the number of the
search to which the limits are applied is
in search history.
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
New HDAS
Rationale for change
3. Ensure the Check Box to the left of
‘Limits’ is ticked. Click on the
appropriate filter group label (such as
‘Article Type’, ‘Date’) and select options
4. Go to the search box. Users will see
that the search terms are there. Click
the Update button.
5. Details of the amended search should
then appear in the ‘Current Strategy’
area.
1. heart attack
2. outcome
3. 1 AND 2
In practice it is the same, the only thing
that has changed on new HDAS is that
you enter the search number first.
In the search strategy, there is no Edit
option for row 3.
To apply a limit to row 3:
 Type 3 into the search box
 Ensure the Limits tick box is selected
 Select the limits you want to apply
 Click Search
Users know a limit has been applied
because the name of the limit group is
highlighted green. Then click the Search
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Rationale for change
button. The syntax will be shown on the
results page and in current strategy.
Combining rows 1. Heart attack limited to male
with limits
2. Outcome limited to aged 80 and
over
already applied
Users could combine these 2 rows to
get a results set.
Combining rows Users could select multiple databases,
from multiple
run searches and combine the search
database
row.
searches
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Users cannot combine rows that have
limits already applied.
USers need to search for their terms
without limits, combine the rows, then
apply limits at the end (see above).
Users cannot combine rows that have
been run across multiple databases
The old version of HDAS is inconsistent
in how combine works, and applies both
limits to both search rows, which might
not be what the user intended. The
way in which data is received from the
database suppliers means that in order
to get an accurate set of results, with
the limits applied as the user intends,
limits need to be applied at the end of
combining the search rows.
Although the old version of HDAS looks
like it was doing this, the results sets
were not always combining properly.
This is due to the way old HDAS batches
sets of results. Different databases use
different systems for ordering the
results that are returned, so old HDAS
was inconsistent in the way it did this.
Because of these differences, we’ve
found that it isn’t possible to combine
search rows from multiple databases
and give accurate results.
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Syntax: optional
wildcard
Rationale for change
Use one symbol only for this operator
across the 8 database in new HDAS
It is not practical (or intuitive) to honour
the syntax of each database / provider,
especially as providers can change.
?
colo?r finds
colour, color
Syntax:
mandated
wildcard #
nurs# finds
nurse
Use one symbol only for this operator
across the 8 database in new HDAS
Thesaurus
Map to thesaurus produced list of
suggested terms (as did browse!)
One button only matches the users’
query to a thesaurus term.
Thesaurus
HBE
Thesaurus only available if you entered
a term and clicked Browse thesaurus.
HBE
HBE thesaurus available via the
standard Thesaurus button
Thesaurus
Tree display as supplied by
APIs/Gateways – not consistent.
Terms on the same level within the
immediate part of the tree (AMED …)
are shown as ‘sibling’ terms
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Analysis showed that the browse button
on old HDAS was underused and the
mapping feature was popular, indicating
it was better to just have the one
button to access thesaurus headings.
Greater uniformity across thesauri in
terms of presentation/design pattern.
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Rationale for change
Thesaurus
searches
Can select more than one thesaurus
term from the thesaurus display,
combining them with OR, AND, but they
are displayed as a single query (line) in
search history.
Can choose to search each term as
individual queries so they appear on a
separate line (one query per line) in
current strategy area
Enhancement: benefits advanced
searches.
Thesaurus –
navigation
The breadcrumb trail was NOT clickable. In order to move to more specific terms
However you could see more of a
click those which are narrower. You can
thesaurus in one go.
see these most easily when you click
the number in the column headed
‘narrower’ to the right of the screen.
To move up a level and see associated
sibling, broader, narrower terms use the
breadcrumb in the top left-hand side of
the screen.
Results from more than one database
Results are presented in multiple tabs:
can be seen within a single view.
one tab per database.
View results
(multi-database
search)
Saving results
Save to clipboard, then export/email
from there.
Clipboard is temporary.
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Create sets of saved results, which are
permanent until users decide to delete
them.
Greater consistency across databases.
Different providers present thesauri
differently
Users do not have wait for the results
from the slowest provider to be
returned before being able to view their
results.
Clipboard was unreliable. Saving sets of
results to work with increases the
reliability and functionality.
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Rationale for change
Saving results
If user tries to add duplicated results to
the clipboard on-screen message reads:
‘The site says … 0 results added to
clipboard, 2 results duplicate existing
clipboard content’.
The system doesn’t allow users to add
the same result into a saved results set
more than once – but does not give
specific notification of this.
The functionality is the same.
Occasionally the number of results
actually saved may be lower than the
number you selected to save.
Each record from each database is given
a unique identifier number.
Occasionally these IDs from the
providers are duplicated in the record.
HDAS detects this and automatically
assumes that they are duplicate
records, so only saves one copy of the
record.
Pre-development research showed that
users were confused as to how view
results of the search they had just
carried out.
Saving results
Viewing search
results
Users had to click the result count in
‘search history’:
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Results are displayed once the search
has finished running; in current
strategy, you will see the word Viewing
to the left of the results count once the
search has finished running:
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Rationale for change
Full-text links
All full-text links for an article are
displayed, such as in this example in
MEDLINE:
In the new HDAS, we display no more
than 2 full-text links.
It is not helpful to show multiple links
which ultimately lead you to the same
full-text article, which is what the user
wants to see.
Also, displaying more than 2 links
increases scrolling and distracts
attention from citation/bibliographic
data.
Links to National Content are displayed
first - there is a priority rationale here.
If the user wants to see all available fulltext links, they can click the More fulltext links option – see below (same
record as left):
If you click the More full-text links link
then you will see the other options:
Highwire Press, and National Library of
Medicine visible on live HDAS
Results (fulltext availability)
There is no way of creating a distinct
view for results available as full-text.
If you click the Expand Full-Text button
you will notice that only those results
with full-text links display all citation
data and full-text links.
Also note there is a light grey ‘book’
icon towards the right of the screen
(level with the title).
Also in this view, only the title shows for
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
The user research phase showed that
users wanted to restrict the results view
to full-text items.
Category
De-duplication
Old HDAS
Results sets can be de-duplicated:
search history offers the option to view
unique and duplicate results.
You have to view the unique and
duplicate records separately, as a
complete ‘set’.
Could not make a direct comparison
between the ‘original’/unique result
and the corresponding duplicate.
User can’t delete any of the results –
you would either add them to clipboard
or simply not export/e-mail them.
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
New HDAS
those articles for which there is no fulltext availability. You can see the rest of
the citation data of these results if you
click the upward chevron to the right of
the screen (same level as screen).
Cannot de-duplicate result sets directly
– need to save results into a set of
Saved Results.
Duplicates are automatically detected in
Saved Results. The following on-screen
feedback is given:
(1) The set is ‘free of duplicates’
(2) 1 of your saved results have
duplicate entries.
To view the results identified as
duplicates click the link: View only the 1
results with duplicate entries.
The user can then click the hyperlink
Delete selected, OR:
Select either record, and click Delete
selected.
Rationale for change
In old HDAS, the result set is
‘temporary’. The feature was unreliable
in the old version of HDAS.
User can now make informed decision
as to whether an item is a duplicate or
not because both the ‘original’ record
and the duplicate one are shown
alongside each other.
The duplicate result will be shown (with
red background). The display of both
records enables users to check
metadata such as author, title, name of
the journal and page numbers
systematically.
Category
Old HDAS
New HDAS
Deduplication –
maximum
The maximum number of records that
could be deduplicated was 500.
There is no limit.
Recovered
searches
If users run a recovered search then it
will automatically return the latest
results count
Users have to re-run searches to refresh
the result count – users need to click
the ‘View Results’ link to see an up-todate results count.
Note: Recovered searches are in: My
Search Strategies > Strategy History Tab
Old HDAS vs new HDAS October 2016
Rationale for change
The search can be preserved as the user
has left it: this assumes the users have
to break off due to other duties or
network failing.