{"id":1383,"date":"2016-12-30T16:26:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T21:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2018-03-15T12:56:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T17:56:20","slug":"things-have-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2016\/12\/30\/things-have-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Things have changed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"E7

Image by John Stembridge<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

We have given MathSciNet some upgrades.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As of January 3rd, 2017, MathSciNet will be\u00a0running on new software, which has allowed us to add some great new features, with more to come in February 2017. \u00a0This post provides\u00a0some highlights of how MathSciNet is bigger, better, faster, more.<\/p>\n

And please visit the AMS Booth<\/a> at the JMM in Atlanta<\/a> to see demonstrations of the new features of MathSciNet, as well as to meet some of the Editors from Mathematical Reviews. \u00a0There will be free access to MathSciNet at JMM!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sorting Search Results<\/h2>\n

Lists of search results\u00a0will be sortable in a number of different ways, including\u00a0chronologically, reverse chronologically, and by citations.<\/p>\n

Here are the results of\u00a0a search for publications<\/a>\u00a0with Anywhere=(fundamental lemma), sorted three different ways:<\/p>\n

Classic sort: Newest First<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Oldest First<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Sorted by Number of Citations<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Attention<\/strong>:\u00a0Search works differently now<\/h2>\n

Previously, searches in MathSciNet assumed you were looking for a phrase. \u00a0Now, searches in MathSciNet insert Boolean AND<\/strong>\u00a0between terms by default. \u00a0Thus, the search<\/p>\n

\"Anywhere<\/a><\/p>\n

will return all items where the word\u00a0fundamental<\/strong> and the word\u00a0lemma<\/strong> both occur somewhere. \u00a0They need not be adjacent.
\nThe search<\/p>\n

\"Anywhere<\/a><\/p>\n

will search for the phrase\u00a0fundamental lemma<\/strong> anywhere in our listing of the item. \u00a0The two words will need to be adjacent to each other.<\/p>\n

Here is what the results of the second search, for “fundamental lemma”, look like:<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/a><\/p>\n

Notice that the number of matches has dropped from 2510 to 512, which is to be expected.<\/p>\n

Here are the results sorted by citations:<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/a><\/p>\n

Refining Search Results<\/h2>\n

Lists of search results will now include facets that allow users to filter and refine searches. \u00a0These are the choices listed in the sidebar on the left. \u00a0The possible refinements here are\u00a0item type<\/span>, author<\/span>, institution<\/span>, primary classification<\/span>, journal<\/span>, and\u00a0year<\/span>. \u00a0\u00a0Returning to the example just listed (searching for the phrase “fundamental lemma”), we can refine the search by choosing an author:<\/p>\n

\"Author
\n<\/a>\"Author<\/a><\/p>\n

These matches are based on the author identification (author disambiguation) that goes into creating the Mathematical Reviews author database. \u00a0(See Who Wrote That?<\/a> for more on our author identification.) \u00a0The numbers in parentheses tell how many matches there are: \u00a014 matches for B\u00e1o Ch\u00e2u Ng\u00f4<\/span>, 13 for Yuval Z. Flicker<\/span>, 13 for Jean-Loup Waldspurger<\/span>, and so on.<\/p>\n

Clicking on\u00a0Laumon, G\u00e9rard<\/strong> produces<\/p>\n

\"List<\/a><\/p>\n

Notice that the refined results are still sorted by number of citations. \u00a0The choice of sorting follows along with the refining process.<\/p>\n

Related\u00a0items<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In this\u00a0screen shot, notice that the first two items have a light blue background:<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

That is because the two items\u00a0are related. \u00a0Indeed, they are Parts I and II. \u00a0We gather them together, even though they were published as two separate books. \u00a0Indeed, they\u00a0have one joint review<\/a>, written by\u00a0Jonathan David Rogawski<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We can further\u00a0refine the search by making a choice of Primary Classification.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

We see that there are just two choices: \u00a0Number Theory (MSC=11) with 6 items and Topological groups, Lie groups (MSC=22) with 4\u00a0items. \u00a0Let’s look at\u00a0the 4\u00a0items with\u00a0primary classification Topological groups, Lie groups:<\/p>\n

\"Listing<\/a><\/p>\n

Notice that the results are still sorted by “Citations”.<\/p>\n

Another way to refine these results further is to enter a new search term in the “Search within results” box. \u00a0This adds the new search term and looks for it anywhere in our record for the item: Author, Title, Journal, Review Text, etc. \u00a0This example is left as an exercise to the reader…<\/p>\n

\n

Displaying the Results of an Author Search<\/h2>\n

[This section was updated 2017 March 03 to reflect some refinements to Author Searches]<\/strong><\/p>\n

The results of an Author Search now display with more information. \u00a0Let’s use the Fields Medalist Wendelin Werner\u00a0as an example, pretending that we don’t remember his first name. \u00a0Navigating to the Authors<\/strong><\/a> tab, we enter “Werner” in the search field.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

The results look vastly different now:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There is plenty\u00a0of extra information to help choose the Werner\u00a0we were actually looking for. \u00a0In this case, there are 104\u00a0matches. \u00a0My screen shot only allows us to see the first 12, sorted by Profile Name. \u00a0Note<\/strong> that the search is looking for “Werner” only as a last name. \u00a0(An earlier version of New MathSciNet looked in both first\u00a0name and last\u00a0name.) \u00a0By default, the results are listed alphabetically by Profile Name (the name that appears in the Author Profile). \u00a0We can re-sort by Citations:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a few matches with lots of\u00a0citations. \u00a0One of them has 1548 citations. \u00a0We can also see that this Werner started publishing at around the right time to have recently won a Fields Medal. \u00a0Clicking on Werner, Wendelin<\/span> brings us to his Author Profile page<\/a> on MathSciNet<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

An alternative way to have found Wendelin Werner, assuming we knew something of his mathematics, would have been to refine by\u00a0Primary Classification. \u00a0That is to say, to select the classification in which he has published most frequently. \u00a0In Werner’s case, that is Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes (MSC=60<\/a>). \u00a0Note that 6\u00a0of these authors\u00a0have this class as their most frequently occurring MSC.<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>…
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Selecting Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes yields<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Note that, again, the sorting by Citations has followed us as we have refined the search. \u00a0Wendelin Werner, the Fields Medalist, is still\u00a0the top result. \u00a0Clicking on his name leads us again to his Author Profile page<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

These are just a few highlights of what can be done with the new features of MathSciNet. \u00a0You can\u00a0watch a\u00a0demo video<\/a> of some of the sorting and faceting improvements. \u00a0(The video was made when the new features were still prototypes – so some things will look slightly different.) But, the best thing is to try them out — after January 3rd!<\/p>\n

\n

More to come<\/h2>\n

And keep watch for more new features that will come later in 2017:<\/p>\n