ImmuneData Tutorial

Overview

The ImmuneData team develops a data discovery index (DDI) prototype which indexes data that are stored elsewhere. The DDI plays an important role in promoting data integration through the adoption of content standards and alignment to common data elements and high-level schema.

Boolean Logic

Boolean logic is a system of showing relationships between sets by using the words "AND," "OR," and "NOT." (The term Boolean comes from the name of the man who invented this system, George Boole.) Boolean logic is recognized by many electronic searching tools as a way of defining a search string.

The Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT can be used to combine search terms in ImmuneData.
In ImmuneData, Boolean operators must be entered in uppercase letters.

AND

Used to retrieve a set in which each dataset contains all search terms.

Example: Skin AND Cancer

OR

Used to retrieve a set in which each dataset contains at least one of the search terms.
Use OR when you want to pull together articles on similar topics.

Example: Lung OR Cancer

NOT

Retrieves a set from which dataset containing specified search terms following the NOT operator are eliminated.

Example: Lung NOT Cancer

Search by Field

Terms may be qualified using ImmuneData's search field tags. The allowable fields are: title, author and description.

The search field tag must follow the term -- you cannot prequalify.

Tags are enclosed in square brackets.

Example: Lung[title] AND Cancer

Search by Phrase

Used to retrieve a set in which each dataset contains exact phrase.

The search term must be enclosed in double quotes. "AND/OR/NOT" inside double quotes are not treated as boolean logic.

Example: "Lung cancer"[title] AND Cancer

Reminders:

Boolean operators -- AND, OR, NOT -- must be entered in uppercase letters.
Boolean operators are processed from left to right.
Use double quotes to do phrase search.
Field names must be enclosed in squred brackets.
If you are using our advanced search constructor to construct the query, please use the "add Criteria" button to add boolean logic.