Custom search

Introduction

The research and observation work in Envirobase has been classified according to the dimensions described in the ERFF Research Classification Scheme Manual to make it more accessible to people with different backgrounds and interests. The Advanced search allows you to select work using combinations of any of the detailed classifications in the scheme. However, to do this effectively needs a good understanding of the scheme and how it works, so we have also developed a simpler way for you to benefit from its power. The ERFF Issues (2010) scheme 'maps' many of the most likely areas of interest to combinations of codes from the full scheme, so you can select your search criteria from a single list. This allows you to perform more specific searches than the Simple search without the need to understand the full ERFF classification scheme.

We can relatively easily add other 'mappings' designed to meet the needs of particular LWEC partner organisations or other significant users, so if you expect to have an ongoing need to perform searches which use the full scheme, and in particular to repeat the same combinations of classifications over a period of a year or more, please contact us to discuss the design of a 'Custom scheme' for your own use. Additional Custom schemes like this will be added to the dropdown list. To use the Custom search:

Options for searching:

• Choose (in the 'for' box) whether you want to display information about research projects, research programmes, UK-EOF observation activities, UK-EOF programmes, UK-EOF data sources and/or LWEC accredited work. You can choose any or all of these independently (default is all of them). LWEC accredited work is included in Envirobase independently of other entries; associations with other research or observation work are shown in the detailed results where we are aware of these.
• Choose (in the 'starting' box) your date range either using the dropdown menu or by selecting a specific date range for the starting dates of research you want to see (default is "anytime").
• Choose (in the 'including' box) whether you want to display all the records which meet your chosen criteria or only the more recently updated ones (default is "all records").
• Choose how many results you want displayed per page when the Summary results are returned (default is 20 results per page).
• Choose a custom scheme from the dropdown list; this populates the class dropdowns for that scheme.
• Select your search criteria by using one or more of the individual classes from your chosen custom scheme. See Selecting criteria (below) for how to do this.

See Searching (below) for details of what happens when you press 'Search'. You can sort the summary results using any of the column headings except the Date/Status column (but note that detailed results will retain the same order as your original summary results).

Selecting criteria

A custom scheme must be selected from the dropdown. Only one custom scheme may be selected at a time. Choosing a new custom scheme will repopulate ten class dropdowns and this may take several seconds. A spinning graphic is displayed while this occurs (may not be visible in all browsers), and when the graphic disappears it indicates that the dropdowns have all been refreshed.

The custom class dropdowns sit on a dark blue background and each contains all the classes for the chosen custom scheme.

To the right of the first class dropdown list is a button with a + sign. Clicking it will add another dropdown for that custom scheme. If that new dropdown has another + button on its right you can repeat the process if you wish, clicking the + button to add a further dropdown. A maximum of ten class dropdowns may be used. The dropdown you’ve just added will have a button with a – sign beside it and clicking that will remove the dropdown you have just added.

Above the class dropdowns is a small dropdown that defines how your criteria choices will be applied in a search of the database. It is labelled: Select records which include….. and you can complete the phrase by choosing all, any, or none of these. This choice affects your search as follows:

• Choosing all is only relevant where you have more than one class dropdown for the custom scheme (with just one dropdown it has no effect). It ensures that your search will only return items that have been classified as including all the classes that you have chosen. It is equivalent to a Boolean AND.
• Choosing any is also only relevant where you have more than one class dropdown for the custom scheme. It means that your search will return items that have been classified as including any one of the classes that you have chosen. It is equivalent to a Boolean OR.
• Choosing none means that your search will only return items that do not include any of the classes you have selected. Be careful with this because your search may return a large number of records.

Searching

When you click the Search button the search looks for all projects, activities or programmes that match the criteria you entered. The criteria panel is automatically collapsed to save screen space but you may expand the panel again by clicking anywhere on its header bar.

The time taken to perform the search is roughly proportional to the number of records that match your criteria, although a very complex search that returns few records might still seem slow. Rest assured that the search will soon refresh the page and show you the records that matched your criteria.

The work matching your search will be displayed in a grid, one item per row, displaying summary information about each item. Unlike the Simple search the results cannot be presented in order of relevance (because each item is equally relevant: all displayed items match the criteria).

Summary results grid

• If you hover your cursor over the magnifying glass at the left hand end of the summary results grid you will be able to see the first part of any descriptive information we have about the work.
• There should be a title of some sort for every item displayed. Sometimes these are not very informative. We have provided what information we have been given; we hope that the quality of information provided will improve in time, as the use and perceived value of the database increases and as data providers improve their own systems for collecting and processing project information.
• Most items have Lead Funder and Lead (Research) Organisation information linked to them. For some items we are unable to tell who the Lead Funder, or the Lead (Research) Organisation, is, and these cells may be blank in the summary results grid. You should find all the information we have about organisations and/or people related to the work in the detailed results (see below).
• Most suppliers of research information to Envirobase have been able to provide financial information of some sort, although the type of information varies from one organisation to another, but some of this has been marked as confidential by the data supplier. Where this is the case the LWEC Directorate will be able to use this information for analysis but Envirobase is not able to publish figures for the individual projects. Examples are individual studentships or some individual research projects with private sector contractors. UK-EOF do not at present hold financial information in a form which is amenable to display or analysis in Envirobase, and LWEC provides information on its accredited work at the level of the whole programme or activity, which is funded by two or more organisations. Where we have not been given a figure for 'total funding' for a research programme or project we have calculated an estimated figure where possible, from the information that has been provided. The 'total funding' figure shown in summary search results is the provided figure where we have one, or the estimated figure where we do not. Where the "total funding" cell in the summary results grid is empty it is either because that information is confidential or because we do not have sufficient information to estimate a figure for total funding. Information about funding of research projects and programmes in individual years, where we have been given it, is included in the detailed results for each project/programme.
• The research project/programme start and end dates listed in the summary results grid are "actual" dates where we have these and "planned" dates where we have no "actual" date. Where the research is completed within a single year we have listed that year with no indication of 'from' or 'to'. Where a start date is shown with no end date or and end date with no start date it is because we do not have the missing information. The detailed information for the project/programme shows more precisely what information we have about its start and end dates.
• We have included doctoral research in the database information made available through the website except where the research has been terminated after less than two years. Names of individual students have generally been kept confidential but the relevant supervisor's name is usually provided.
• We have now excluded the Data Provider's ID for the project from the information shown in the summary grid in order to leave space for other items. However, we do still display this information in detailed project/programme results, and some detailed project descriptions include reference to other work from the same data provider using their own IDs, so we still include the Data provider's IDs in the fields which you can search for using the Simple search text search box. For most data providers you need to have the Descriptions checkbox ticked when searching using their Data providers' IDs. For Environment Agency projects, if you are searching using the EA's Proposal or Science Code IDs you need to have the Classifications checkbox ticked.

Detailed results

• You can see the full detail that we hold on work either one item at a time, or as a group selected from one page of the Summary Results grid.
• To see the details for a single item, click on the link from the relevant ID in the Summary grid. From the details for this item you can navigate directly to the details for an adjacent item in the list, or to the first or last item in the (entire) list using the links at the top or bottom of the details page.
• To see the details for a group of item choose the ones you want to see using the checkboxes at the left of the Summary grid. The checkbox at the top of this column can be used to select, or deselect, all of the items on that page and you can then deselect, or select, individual items as you choose. Click on the 'Show details for all ticked results' button to display the details. At present the maximum number of items per page, and hence the maximum number of items for which you can view details at one time, has been set to 100 to avoid overloading our server.

Number of records could be misleading because:

Information about each environmental observation activity and programme is collected and collated by UK-EOF as a single entity and given a unique ID (to help users identify what are often multi-year, long term activities). The information will be updated over time if the activity changes, but the ID will not change. In contrast each research entry relates to a single project or programme funded for a defined period. A new project with a new ID will be established in the database when a new research project is commissioned, even where this is follow-on work.

Apparent duplications from funding sources:

Funding to sustain observation programmes may come from several organisations and sources (and these may vary over time). Furthermore, some organisations fund observations through 'research' budget allocations; in these cases individual funders may submit information (about their funding contribution to observational activities) as part of their 'research' submission, and the Lead organisation will also provide information about the activity to the UK-EOF. A single observational activity or programme may therefore be represented in Envirobase by one 'UKEOF' entry and also by one or more 'RES' entries representing individual contributions which have been made via 'research' budget allocations. In other cases research funding may be used to support investigations which are related to, but separate from, ongoing observation activities. These may have similar titles and information but are not duplication. Extreme care is therefore needed in the interpretation of search results.

LWEC accredited programmes and activities are now included in the database as additional entries in their own right. Most are research but a few are observation work. To include these specific LWEC accredited items in your results, tick the 'LWEC accredited work' option in the 'for' box. LWEC accredited work is usually related to, and sometimes identical with, other database entries and we include links between them where we are aware of these.