[Eril-l] [External] Re: search result weirdness PsycINFO EBSCOhost new UI

Tue Jul 15 10:51:11 PDT 2025

Thanks so much for the great responses, everyone! It seems that ultimately the issue was a combination of misplaced parentheses/logic and which EBSCOhost 'Search Mode' was selected. We have not yet enabled the 'Natural Language'  search option at Temple U.
[cid:031890a0-d09e-4885-b496-14b6162e8c87]

Erin Finnerty (she / her)
Electronic Resources Librarian
Temple University | Philadelphia, PA
erinf at temple.edu<mailto:erinf at temple.edu>
________________________________
From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> on behalf of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2025 11:59 AM
To: Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list <eril-l at lists.eril-l.org>
Subject: [External] Re: [Eril-l] search result weirdness PsycINFO EBSCOhost new UI

It appears the system isn’t recognizing the “DE” in front of the subject terms when it is typed in.

Here are my results for DE "Pregnancy Outcomes" (typed directly into the search box):

[cid:image005.jpg at 01DBF251.DC49D2E0]

Here are my results if I select the subject term “Pregnancy Outcomes” from the thesaurus:

[cid:image006.jpg at 01DBF251.DC49D2E0]

As you can see, the search looks identical, but it came up with 1,790 results instead of 233.

Now, this is where it gets weird. I took the original search (with only 233 results) and selected the “Natural language search” button below the search box.

[cid:image007.jpg at 01DBF252.E04F6020]

As you can see, we are back to the full 1,790 results from the subject term search that began in the thesaurus. I don’t know why the system isn’t recognizing that “DE” indicates a subject term when typed into the search box, but selecting the Natural language search will successfully make it recognize it as such. Perhaps you can try it with your full search below and let us know if you get more results.

Maria Smith, MLS

Assistant Professor

Electronic Resources Librarian

UMHB Box 8016 | 900 College Street | Belton, Texas 76513

Office: 254.295.4161

umhb.edu<http://www.umhb.edu/> [cid:image001.png at 01DBF251.02792C50] <http://facebook.com/umhb>     [cid:image002.png at 01DBF251.02792C50] <http://instagram.com/umhb>     [cid:image003.gif at 01DBF251.02792C50] <http://twitter.com/umhb>

[cid:image004.png at 01DBF251.02792C50]

Schedule an appointment with a librarian<https://umhb.libcal.com/appointments/>

From: Eril-l <eril-l-bounces at lists.eril-l.org> On Behalf Of Electronic Resources in Libraries discussion list via Eril-l
Sent: Tuesday, July 8, 2025 9:18 AM
To: eril-l at lists.eril-l.org
Subject: [Eril-l] search result weirdness PsycINFO EBSCOhost new UI

EXTERNAL Exercise Caution

Hi All,

My EBSCO ticket is slowly making its way through the support center, but I was wondering if any of you super searchers can verify the weird results we're seeing in PsycInfo via EBSCOhost new UI. Full details below.

Thanks for any insight!

Erin

Erin Finnerty (she / her)
Electronic Resources Librarian
Temple University | Philadelphia, PA

erinf at temple.edu<mailto:erinf at temple.edu>

___

Our librarians reported unexpected behavior and numbers of results when using the PsycINFO search for a systematic review. Is there an issue with the logic or are these searches malfunctioning?

This is one search block that is only giving us 2 results:
((DE "Expectant Mothers") OR (DE Pregnancy) OR (DE "Pregnancy Outcomes") OR (DE "Obstetrical Complications") OR (DE "Premature Birth") OR (XB “pregnan*”) OR (XB gestation*)  OR (DE Fertility) OR (DE "Fertility Enhancement") OR (DE "Infertility") OR (XB fertilit*)  OR (XB infertilit*) OR  (XB "premature birth*") OR (XB "expecting mother*" ) OR (XB "pregnant adult*") OR (XB "high risk pregnanc*") OR (XB "fertility treat*") OR (XB "infertility treat*") OR (DE Sexual Reproduction) OR (DE "Reproductive Health") OR (DE "Reproductive Health Care") OR (DE "Reproductive Technology") OR (DE "Sterilization (Sex)") OR ((XB reproduc*) AND ((XB health*) OR (XB medicine) OR (XB behavior*) OR (XB technique*) OR (XB technolog*) OR (XB histor*) OR (XB steriliz*))) OR (DE Parents) OR (DE Parenting) OR (XB parent*) OR (DE Mothers) OR (XB mother*))

If only include the first five descriptors, I get 2530:
(DE "Expectant Mothers") OR (DE Pregnancy) OR (DE "Pregnancy Outcomes") OR (DE "Obstetrical Complications") OR (DE "Premature Birth")

Just searching (XB “pregnan*”) gives me 58,930.

Now if I try to put those two searches together with OR, I get 4 results!
(DE "Expectant Mothers") OR (DE Pregnancy) OR (DE "Pregnancy Outcomes") OR (DE "Obstetrical Complications") OR (DE "Premature Birth") OR (XB “pregnan*”) 

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