How to Search the Gateway
Purpose of this page
A guide for users with advice on how to get the best results searching the Gateway
What can you search by?
A keyword search is available for all of the Gateway hosted entities. A description of each of the entity types can be found in the Glossary.
When a query term (e.g. “Asthma“) is entered into the search bar at the top of a search page, the search algorithm scans through fields in the metadata of the relevant entity looking for matches to that query term. The specific fields scanned by the search algorithm for each type of resource are detailed in the table below.
| Resource | Metadata fields scanned by the Gateway search algorithm |
|---|---|
| Datasets & BioSamples | Abstract, keywords, description, title, concepts from data enrichment, Data Custodian |
| Data Uses / Research Projects | Project title, lay summary, public benefit statement, technical summary, funders and sponsors, Dataset titles, keywords |
| Analysis Scripts & Software | Name, keywords, programming language, description, license |
| Publications, “Search Gateway” source selected | Title, journal name, abstract, authors, DOI For more information see the Publications section within the Glossary |
| Publications, “Search Europe PMC” source selected | To find Publications which have used a Dataset, the title, method and results sections are parsed to search for a Dataset name. To find publications relevant to search term populated within the free text box, the title, method, results and DOI sections are parsed. For more information see the Publications section within the Glossary. Point to where this is described within the Glossary. |
| Data Custodians | Name, introduction |
| Collections / Networks | Description, name and keywords of the collection. Dataset names and abstracts of the Datasets in the collection. |
The search function also supports multi-term queries, which means a combination of concepts can be included in a single search (e.g. “asthma ICD-10”). When a multi-term search is entered, by default, the search results that match all of the terms will be listed first as the most relevant (i.e. results featuring “Asthma“ AND “ICD-10“), followed by results matching some of the concepts in the search query (i.e. “Asthma“ OR “ICD-10“).
When searching the Datasets & BioSamples metadata catalogue, it is worth noting that various data enrichment techniques have been applied to allow for searching by medical vocabularies and standards like ICD-10, SNOMED, OMOP concepts. In addition to medical terms the data enrichment also supports searching for other concepts that may be relevant to health data research questions such as socioeconomic status (e.g. deprivation index) or fine granularity geographical data (e.g. Lower Layer Super Output Areas – LSOA).
What can you filter by?
Filters can be found on the left-hand side of the search page. The filters available depend on the resource being searched. For example, the Dataset search has filter options related to the coverage of the Dataset (e.g. spatial coverage, date range). Multiple options can be selected in each filter category and numbers are included beside the filter options to show how many relevant results are available that match a given option.
For most resources, the filters also enable exploration of the links between Gateway entities. For example, to see how a certain Dataset has been used, on the Data Uses search tab there is a filter by “Dataset” By selecting the Dataset you are interested in, you will see a list of the Data Uses linked with that Dataset.
Additional functions
There are two different views available for search results. The table view is the default and provides a high-level overview of the search results and key information about them. The list view provides more detail, including longer text descriptions of each resource.
The “Save search” button, records the search term and filters you have entered and allows you to save the search to your Gateway profile to revisit later. There is also a button to download the search results.