How-to-Search SSOAR: SSOAR

1. What does SSOAR contain?

For the most part, SSOAR contains objects which authors have deposited as online documents. (See also FAQ VII.2: Why should I use the online form to deposit my document?) In other words, the content is to a large extent provided by the users themselves. To a lesser extent it comprises documents gathered and archived by our editorial staff.

The type of documents stored include both individual journal articles and complete annual volumes, reviews, contributions to collective volumes/anthologies, monographs , discussion papers and working papers from institutes' series or research networks, and complete documentation from specialist research areas. (See also FAQ II.1 What type of document can I deposit in SSOAR?)

Deposited material can range from recent peer-reviewed articles which have been accepted for publication (postprints) to digital versions of social science classics. In order to become a major resource for researchers and scholars, SSOAR aspires in the long term to cover the whole range of document types and, where legally possible, to make both postprints and publisher's versions available. (See also FAQ II.2: When is a text a postprint or a preprint and what is the relation between a postprint and the published or printed "publisher's version"?)

2. Can I search for a specific document or author in SSOAR?

SSOAR offers both a simple and an advanced search function. The simple search is carried out on the basis of the standard details recorded for each document (metadata). The advanced option refines the search by using more specific search criteria. We also offer a browsing function which provides access to documents via a number of paths . You can browse by subject, country of publication, journal title, author, document type and language. Alternatively, you can directly access portals for journals or journal-like series (research reports).

3. Can I find out about new document arrivals?

4. Can I be notified when new documents become available in SSOAR?

We offer an automatic notification service ? the alert function ? which lets you know when new documents become available. If you don't want to receive too many e-mails, you can opt to be notified when 10 or 20 new documents have been deposited. It will also be possible to limit the alert function to certain types of document such as journal articles, reviews, contributions to collective volumes/anthologies, monographs, discussion papers or working papers, thus tailoring it to your needs.

5. Does a search in SSOAR also extend to documents in other databases?

SSOAR can be searched individually. Alternatively, our link to the social science information portal sowiport provides access to many other bibliographic databases, most of which are not, however, open-access. In addition, the SSOAR editorial staff will conduct searches in other subject-based document servers and arrange with the providers to make relevant documents accessible via SSOAR and vice versa.