How to use this Website

There are a number of ways you can use the nzresearch.org.nz website.

Search

You can search all the metadata records in nzresearch.org.nz by typing your query term into the search box at the top of every page.

More complex searches can be initiated by following the Advanced Search link, which is also available on every page. This page lets you target your search to specific fields, such as the document title, and to limit your results to particular types of document, subject areas, and years.

Here are some useful search tips:

  • By default only entries containing all terms in the query are returned (i.e. AND is implied)
  • You can combine multiple words with OR to find articles containing either term; (e.g. education OR research)
  • You can use parentheses to create more complex queries like archive ((journal OR conference) NOT theses)
  • You can search for an exact phrase by putting it in quotes (e.g. "open access publishing")
  • Exclude a word by prefixing it with - or NOT (e.g. online -politics or online NOT politics)
  • Use * in a term as a wildcard to match any sequence of characters (e.g. soci* would match documents containing "sociological" or "societal")
  • Search terms are case-insensitive
  • Common words are ignored

Browse

The browse menu at the top of every page gives you access to a range of tools for browsing through all the data in nzresearch.org.nz. The browse tools are:

  • By Subject - Browse a topic hierarchy based on the Marsden Fields of Research taxonomy.
  • By Author A-Z - Browse the list of researchers who are the authors of documents in nzresearch.org.nz.
  • By Title A-Z - Browse the list of documents based on their title.
  • By Year - Browse the list of documents based on year they were completed.
  • By Institution - Browse a list of all the documents at an institution (the Institution home pages may be more useful)
  • Theses and Dissertations - View the list of Theses and Dissertations
  • Most Viewed Record List - View the list of most-viewed records for the previous month.
  • Most Recent Record List - View the list of recent additions to nzresearch.org.nz.

Almost every browse page has an associated RSS feed that you can subscribe to (see below).

Institution pages

The institutions list (on the homepage, and linked from the top of every page) gives you access to nzresearch.org.nz Institution pages. There is a page for every institution that contributes to nzresearch.org.nz.

The institution pages give you a summary of the research focus of each institution, and also show you the most recent records added to the institution (on the right). The yalso provide some institution-sopecific browse tools, including the ability to browse by Author,browse the most recent records, and browse all the records. At the bottom right of each institution page you will find an RSS feed link for that institution.

How to use RSS feeds

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a tool for getting updates from sites that are continuously changing, like blogs, newspapers, and nzresearch.org.nz. You will be see bright orange RSS feed icons on many nzresearch.org.nz pages: these are links to RSS documents, which are also called "feeds", "web feeds", or sometimes "channels".

To use an RSS feed, you will need an RSS "feed reader" or "aggregator". There are two major types: web-based services like bloglines or Google Reader, and computer programs like FeedDemon or Mozilla Thunderbird.

More technical information about the nzresearch.org.nz RSS feeds can be found on the How to Use Syndicated Feeds page.