Please note that this information concerns the new SpringerLink search. For information on the older version (still available for some features), see our article Search options on the legacy SpringerLink design.
Searching content
A user is able to search all content on the site from the homepage, the integrated page header across the site, and the search page. If you have previously opted out of the new search page and are being redirected to the legacy design, please try this alternative search page link.
This allows users to discover content from SpringerLink, including:
- All content formats: journals, books, reference works, protocols, content collections and more
- Broad subject coverage: science, technology, medicine, humanities and social sciences
- Content from Springer, Nature Portfolio, Palgrave Macmillan, Adis, BMC, Apress, and more
Refining search results
Search results can be refined by:
- Content Type
- Publication date (Specifying custom dates, or filtering for content published in the last 3, 6, 12 and 24 months)
- Language
- Discipline and Subdiscipline
Sorting search results
Search results can be sorted by:
- Relevance to the keyword query
- Date (new to old)
- Date (old to new)
Additional features
While we are building the full search experience, you can still access some additional features from the old search page. Features available on the legacy search function are:
- Subscribe to an RSS feed of your search results
- Download a CSV file of search result metadata
- Check and filter which search results you have fulltext access to in the search page
Advanced search
While we are building advanced search capabilities into the new search page, advanced search options can still be accessed through the Advanced Search page on the legacy design.
The following operators can be used for greater specificity over search results:
"Phrase match"
A search with multiple terms entered within quotation marks ("") will return only results that contain those words in that exact order
Example: "plastic bottles" OR "water pollution"
The OR operator (OR or |)
The OR operator (case-sensitive) allows results to be returned even when they contain only one of the words entered.
Example: wheat OR maize
will give results which include either one of the terms "wheat" or "maize"
The NOT operator (NOT or -)
The NOT operator (case-sensitive) excludes results that contain the term following the NOT.
Example: wheat NOT maize
will give results which include the term "wheat" but exclude the term "maize"
The AND operator (AND or +)
The AND operator (case-sensitive) provides the same results as the default on our site.
Example: evolutionary patterns of families the search that will actually be carried out will be (evolutionary AND patterns AND of AND families)
Precedence
Enables the ( and ) operators to control operator precedence, without parenthesis order is from left right.
Examples: plastic bottles OR water pollution
will be interpreted as:
plastic AND bottles OR water AND pollution effectively ((plastic AND bottles) OR water) AND pollution
The * Wildcard
An asterisk (*) entered as part of a search is interpreted as a substitute for any number of letters.
Example: hea*
will return results containing any word starting with "hea", such as "head", "heats", "health", "heated", "heating" and so on. The wildcard search works best when there are at least 3 characters before the wildcard operator.