Differences in the advanced search syntax for platforms

[Bubblbu]

I only recently realized that boolean searches on PubMed and BASE differ significantly. It would be great to somehow address this.

Example: I want to look for articles that contain "free will" or agency.

On PubMed that would be: "free will" OR agency In the case of BASE I am not even sure if there is an exact equivalent: (free will agency) (this query fails: ("free will" agency))

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Ways of making it easier for our users I could think of:

• Tooltip/hint emphasising the difference and eventually linking to the documentations of the respective search engines (e.g., BASE, PubMed)
• Introduce an OKM syntax that is then translated the respective search syntax for the search engine. This sounds like a feasible project, but somehow I feel like there is more to it. Feel like @sckott might know more

[chreman]

I think in the long run some generic OKM syntax would be great to have, it is counterintuitive having to change syntax within the same interface, especially if it is so easy to switch between APIs with a radio button. As you indicated, there are at least two steps necessary for that to work:

• develop a query syntax and parser for the scope of OKM searches; I expect there are some good practices out there we can learn from
• create a mapping from OKM syntax to 3rd party API-syntaxa (whats the plural here?) and keep it up to date; as with all APIs there will be some regular maintenance necessary, this could be integrated there

But I see some utility, especially if we want to introduce some OKM-specific search functionalities.