Natural Science Collection: Searchable Fields

The Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) Thesaurus, EIS Controlled terms, Life Sciences Thesaurus, MeSH 2019 Thesaurus, Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Terms, Pollution Thesaurus, ProQuest Thesaurus, Taxonomic Terms (Latin Names of Organisms Vocabulary), Technology Thesaurus, and Water Resources Abstracts Thesaurus are used to index the Natural Science Collection subject field. Subject terms are found in the subject field and this field is part of the searchable fields table to the right. Subject terms are also commonly known as descriptors, controlled vocabulary, and sometimes classification terms.

The thesaurus allows you to find subject terms to narrow or broaden your search and is available from the Advanced and Command Line Search. If you want to run a search on a subject, but you do not know what term to use, use the thesaurus to search the controlled vocabulary. A hierarchical display is available and will give suggestions on the appropriate subject terms to add to your search.

To use the thesaurus, select the Thesaurus link from the Advanced or Command Line Search. Mark the items that you would like to search and then select the appropriate Boolean operator to combine your items. Click the Add to search button and your terms will be placed into the search form. From there, run your search to include the subject terms (adding additional search fields and terms if needed).