Name-based searches

Name-based Searching in Symplectic Elements

1. Click on the Menu  button at the top left of the Homepage and under Settings, click on Name-based Search.
2. Scroll down to Name-based searches. These options dictate how articles are searched by the Elements system in databases like PubMed to be placed in “pending” for your review.
3. Name-based Searching: Name Variants

Name variants should include all the variations of names you publish under, including First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name.

The default settings are last name and initials, and/or last name, first name (see below):

Add any variants needed, following the instructions. Consider carefully whether you need to include a last name + single initial option: this may retrieve too many publications that are not yours. Hint: you can always gather citations in stages. Begin with the most precise variants like last name + first name.

As you add each variant, make sure to click the green + button  to save your entry – it will appear in the list below the box (see below). When you are finished, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Name-based Searching: Addresses

Enter words associated with all the previous institutions you’ve published under, avoiding the words “university” or “college” (see below). Use the green plus button  to add each, and again make sure to Save at the bottom of the page. Do not skip this step as it helps to collect the correct information/metadata for your publications.

Name-based Searching: Additional Search Items

This section allows you to exactly specify additional supplementary information to narrow the results returned by name-based searches. Providing information in this section will cause you to only receive results published after the provided start date, which have the supplied keywords.

In the Start Date field, enter the date when you first published.  The date should be in one of the following formats:  “14 Mar 2001” (dd MM yyyy), “Mar 2001” (MMM yyyy), “2001” (yyyy).

Labels: (Should we manually enter them or auto-populate their labels?)

Scroll to the top of the Name Based Search screen to the Status box. To gather results now, click the Run my searches button. Wait a few moments until the Status displays that your Last search succeeded in PubMed and Web of Science (see below):


Now visit your Elements homepage again by clicking on the Home button  in the upper left. You should now see that there are publications pending for your review. Click on the Claim Now button to review the publications.

You may wish to reset your Name-based Settings to your current names and affiliation. Click on the Menu  then under Settings, Name-based Search remove the previous institutions, always leaving Virginia in the Address field for best results going forward.

Finally, you will need to connect to your ORCiD account.  Visit this page for instructions to connect your ORCiD to your Symplectic Elements account.