CenterWatch QuickSearch Help

CenterWatch's QuickSearch allows you to search for information throughout the entire CenterWatch web site or in a specific section of the site.

Search Entire Site

To search throughout the site, enter a keyword or phrase in the field under "Search Entire Site" and click on the Search button beside the field. See below for help on entering keywords and phrases.

Keyword Searching

The keyword fields, as well as the search field at the top of the page allows you to enter specific keywords or combinations of keywords.

At its simplest, a keyword search can be just a single word or a short phrase. But by following the tips on this page, you can expand the focus of your search to give you more fine-tuned results.

• You can look for words with the same prefix, using the asterisk ( * ). For example, in your query form type smoke* to find smoke, smoking, smoker, and so on.

• You can search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form type sink** to find sink, sinking, sank, and sunk.

• Search with the keyword NEAR, rather than AND, for words close to each other. For example, both of these queries, research and center and research near center look for the words research and center on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.

• Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if you want to find all instances of surfing but not the Net, write the following query:

  surfing AND NOT the Net

• Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word or another, for example:

  Abbott OR Costello

  This query finds all pages that mention Abbott or Costello or both.

• Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the search to take them literally. For instance, if you type the following query:
  
  "heathy patient studies"
  
  The search will literally look for the complete phrase heathy patient studies. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks:
  
  heathy patient studies
  
  The search returns all documents containing the words healthy, patient and and studies.

Note that all keyword searches are case insensitive.

Advanced/Specific Searches

You may also search within a specific area of the CenterWatch site, including:

• Clinical Trial Listings
• Newly Approved Drugs
• Drugs in Clinical Research
• Research Center Profiles
• Industry Providers Profiles

Within each area, enter keywords or phrases, or select from the pull-down menus to set the criteria for your search. Then click on the Search button in that section to initiate the search. Note that if you select multiple criteria, for example -- in the Clinical Trials Listings search -- entering a keyword AND selecting a disease or condition AND a trial location, your criteria will be combined to produce search results where ALL criteria are met. Clear a field or pull-down list to make sure it is not included in the search. Note that "State" pull-down fields will include the option "All States" and Company pull-down fields will include the option "All companies". The following are the criteria for each specific advanced search:

Clinical Trial Listings

• Keyword(s) -- enter keywords or phrases
• Disease or condition -- select an illness from this pull-down list
• Trial location -- select a US state or "International" for the location of the trial

Newly Approved Drugs

• Keyword(s) -- enter keywords or phrases
• Drug name -- enter all or part of the drug name
• Pharmaceutical company -- select from one of the companies listed or select "All companies"

Drugs in Clinical Research

• ·Medical Condition / Indication -- select an illness from this pull-down list
• Pharmaceutical Company / Manufacturer -- select from one of the companies listed or select "All companies"

Research Center Profiles

• Keyword(s) -- enter keywords or phrases
• Center name -- enter all or part of the Center's name
• Location -- select a US state or "International" for the location of the center

Industry Providers

• Keyword(s) -- enter keywords or phrases
• Company name -- enter all or part of the company's name
• Company type -- select one of the company types from the pull-down list
• Location -- select a US state or "International" for the location of the company

Combining Search Fields

You may restrict the results of your search by selecting multiple criteria. For example -- in the Clinical Trials Listings search -- entering a keyword AND selecting a disease or condition AND a trial location, your criteria will be combined to produce search results where ALL criteria are met. Note that you will need to clear a field or pull-down list to make sure it is not included in the search.

Reading Search Results

Search results pages will begin with an indication of the number of documents that matched the criteria you set, such as "Documents 1 of 50 of 86 matching the query..." Searches return a maximum of 50 results per page; if there are more than 50 matches, they will be split across multiple pages. Search results will be "weighted" such that pages that contain the most occurrences of specific keywords will be listed higher that pages with less occurrences. You can see how high a page was weighted based on the number of symbols to the left of the page details. Use the and Summary links to view a shore summary of the document with the keywords or criteria highlighted.