Advanced search

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Search

To launch an advanced search, click on “Search the repository” from the homepage:

Advanced Search using metadata 

Before getting started, it is important to know where to find the metadata linked to the entities, as these will be necessary for your advanced searches.

First, click on the title of the publication:

You will then arrive on the publication detail page:

1. Click on the three-dot icon.

2. Click on “Show all metadata.”

You will then have access to all the metadata of the entity and will be able to use them to choose the fields you are interested in.

Advanced search can be performed in several ways depending on the metadata you use and with several operators. It can be useful when you want to search with criteria that are not included in the filters available in the basic search.

The syntax field :* allows you to search for all items where the specified field contains any value, meaning it is not empty.

1.   To search, for example, for a publication on the topic “Climate Change,” you can write:

2.   To search, for example, for a publication containing a PMID, you can write:

3.   To search, for example, for a publication containing a DOI, you can write:

4.    To apply several criteria at once, you can use the three Boolean operators below:

• AND: For example, to find all items having both a DOI and a PMID, you can proceed as follows:

• OR: For example, to find all items having a DOI or a PMID, you can proceed as follows:

• NOT: For example, to find all items having a DOI and NOT a PMID, you can proceed as follows:

5.    To set a publication date range, you can proceed as follows:

 6.  To search for all records that have been accepted, including those accepted in press, you can proceed as follows:
unil.editorialstate:"accepted"

However, if you wish to search only for records that have been accepted but not accepted in press, you should proceed as follows:   unil.editorialstate:"accepted" AND NOT unil.editorialstate:"accepted_in_press"

You can also combine multiple search criteria as follows:

dc.contributor.author : Lucile AND (dc.title : council OR dc.title : climat) AND dc.date.issued : [2020 TO 2024]

This search will return a publication where the author’s name contains “Lucile,” the title contains (“council” OR “climat”), and the publication date is between 2020 and 2024.

Advanced search without using metadata 

1. For fields containing dates in ISO-8601 technical format, you must use the technical version of the metadata field. For example, to filter all publications created in IRIS between two dates, several methods can be used:

-   Inclusive format (i.e., the end date is included in the interval):

dc.date.accessioned_dt:[2025-08-18T00:00:00Z TO 2025-08-26T23:59:59Z] 

-   Exclusive format (i.e., the end date is not included in the interval):

 dc.date.accessioned_dt:[2025-08-18T00:00:00Z TO 2025-08-27T00:00:00Z}

-   To filter all publications created in IRIS between a specific date and now:

a)  dc.date.accessioned_dt : [2025-08-18T00:00:00Z TO NOW]

b)  dc.date.accessioned_dt : [2025-08-18T00:00:00Z TO *]

2. If you wish to filter records based on their recent modification date (rather than through standard metadata fields), here are some additional advanced queries. These filters apply to the discovery index, not to the record metadata.

a)   lastModified:[NOW/DAY TO NOW] → all records modified today (since midnight)

b)   lastModified:[NOW-2DAYS/DAY TO NOW] → all records modified in the last two days (since midnight two days ago)

c)   lastModified:[NOW-2DAYS TO NOW]  → records modified in the last 48 hours exactly (rolling window)

⚠️ Limitation: It is not possible to distinguish between system-generated modifications (e.g., embargo, author links, etc.) and user-made modifications.