About Inspec’s scientific concepts
Follow the guide below or skip to our walkthrough video.
All Inspec articles are assigned several ‘controlled terms’ – subject keywords – which the article is about. Additionally, several ‘subject classification codes’ are assigned, which are generally more specific than controlled terms, and also place it on a detailed hierarchy - differentiating between, for example, ‘Statistics’ for differential geometry, within Physics, or ‘statistics’ for Electrical Engineering, or Computing, or Mechanical Engineering. This contextualisation gives far greater meaning to a keyword than just a single controlled term.
Understanding the view
Controlled Terms column (A): Controlled terms appear listed in order of research output indexed in Inspec with the highest total number of articles at the top.
Article Count column (B): For each scientific concept you can see the number of articles indexed with the term.
Percentage Change column (C): The percentage change column shows the total change in output as a percentage over the selected time period.
Citation columns (D) - Inspec Analytics Plus only: The times cited column shows the total number of times these articles have been cited. The average times cited shows the average number of citations per article.
Co-occurring Controlled Terms column (E): The co-occurring controlled terms column shows the number of co-occurring controlled terms indexed with the term. Click on the number to view and explore these on the co-occurring controlled terms page.
Co-occurring Subject Classifications column (F): The co-occurring subject classifications shows the number of co-occurring subject classification indexed with the term. Click on the number to view and explore these on the co-occurring subject classifications page.
Organisations, Journals, and Conferences columns (G): In the last three columns, you can see the number of organisations, journals, and conferences associated with articles indexed under each scientific concept. Click on the number to view and explore these.
Comparison Graph (H) - for co-occurring controlled terms only: To compare output for a number of controlled terms, select your chosen subjects and click “update graph”. The line graph at the top will display the research output for each of your selected subjects over time. Hover over the points to display the number of articles and percentage change for each year. Inspec Analytics Plus only: citations are also displayed when hovering over points in the graph.
Change chart type (I) - for co-occurring controlled terms only: To display your results as a histogram chart, select the toggle at the top.
Search Bar (J): Search for a scientific concept using the search box at the top of the table. Start typing to see suggestions or press “enter” to see results including your search term. Click “Advanced” to see advanced search options:
Advanced Search (1): Use the drop-down to select “Include” of “Exclude” search
Advanced Search (2): Add multiple conditions. Each condition will be treated as “OR”.
Advanced Search (3): Search for whole words, partial words or start typing to see suggestions and select a term.
Advanced Search (4): Remove conditions by clicking on the corresponding X or by clicking “remove all”.
Advanced Search (5): “Apply” to see your results.
Exporting your insights
Click on “Export as PDF” at the top of the page to download your current view. The PDF includes a link to your view so you can return directly to the data in the future.
Inspec Analytics Plus only: You can also choose to download your insights as an Excel file.
