Searching Names Tutorial

When seeking data for an author, principal investigator (PI), program officer (PO), or other individual of interest, it's important to start with a well structured analysis plan, considering the possible challenges with the names in your dataset, and approach your query with precision. iSearch Analytics addresses many challenges associated with name searches, such as name disambiguation, and conducts a comprehensive name expansion search, enhancing your ability to find the right person.

iSearch Analytics introduces advanced features like Search Assist and Associated People to review prolific authors and awardees for literature and grants. When conducting a name search, iSearch Analytics also includes disambiguated versions of the name(s) entered, improving the accuracy of your search results.

Read more about Associated People:

• Associated People (Grant Records) 
• Associated People (Literature)

If your initial search does not yield the expected person in the Associated People results, you can refine your search using the following options/steps. Use the headings below to navigate to specific sections:

• Option 1. Using search assist to find people
• Option 2. Perform a manual query
• Summary of name searching/people syntax

With these tools and techniques, iSearch Analytics empowers you to effectively locate and identify the individuals you are searching for, streamlining the process and enhancing your research experience.

Option 1. Using search assist to find people

Step 1. From the landing page, enter the dataset of interest. 

Step 2. Click on the Search Assistance tab at the top.

Step 3. Start typing in a field you wish to query, such as author, then select the field from the drop down menu.

Step 4. Next, type in the person’s name (no quotes needed) and click Include.

Step 5. Choose Save and Continue, if appropriate for your search, or click Save and Search. If you choose the former, you should see the Search Assist chip appear in the search bar, indicating the search criteria have been added successfully. Notice the results are still showing the entire dataset.

Step 6. Add the additional criteria using search assist and/or the refine panel. Then, click on the magnifying glass to execute your search.

Option 2. Performing a manual query

Step 1. From the landing page, choose All three datasets or the dataset of interest. In the search bar, type in the person’s name using quotes, e.g. “Anderson, James". 

• This will capture results with “James Anderson” and “James (middle initial/name) Anderson".

Step 2. Check your selected search fields using the Search Fields button under the search bar. 

• Anytime you are performing a text search, you should check your search fields.
• Click on Select/Deselect All to remove any selections, then select the fields of interest (in this case, the People boxes). You can also select or deselect specific boxes within sections.
• Before closing Searchable Fields, click on Save Selection at the bottom. To learn more about using this search strategy, visit Manual query using search fields

Step 3. Click the magnifying glass to execute the search.

Step 4. Check your results.

• Do the numbers make sense? Are they what you expected? Do the topics seem inaccurate?
• Names are difficult to search due to variations in a single person’s name, lack of attribution to a person, and more possibilities. Often, if you have different results than you expected, or there are results missing, you may need to alter your search to find another variation of that person’s name. 

QC Tip: If you do not see the person you searched for in the top of your Associated People list, scroll down the list or use the lookup name filter. The person of interest may have a lower weighted RCR (or other metric which the data is sorted on), therefore, they may be further down in the Associated People list. You can resort on number of papers (in Literature) and this may reorder the Associated People in a more useful way.

When in doubt, use multiple name variations for an individual in combination with the OR Boolean operator to capture more accurate results. 

This strategy still requires you to check and apply the correct Search Fields, but you have a greater chance of achieving the correct results. It may require a few iterations to determine which names  result in false positives versus false negatives (missing data).

Notice that in this example we get the same results using two name variations as we did in the initial example searching for “Anderson, James”. This is because of iSearch Analytics’ powerful name disambiguation, which has merged together name variations of the same individual to solve this issue. Learn more about Name Disambiguation here. If you are interested in all the names we have found for a single individual (and other details for that person), visit their Person Profile. 

In addition to these methodologies, it is important to consider data quality or, moreover, what data the tool you are using may contain. For example, prior to 2002, PubMed only recorded first initials and last names of authors. Therefore, if your time frame falls within this range, you will be required to search without the full first and last names to find the expected results. Additionally, you’ll need to manually clean the data afterwards to ensure you haven’t captured incorrect people with the same last name and first initial. Thankfully, data quality has improved in recent years, but the challenges are still present with older data due to a variety of reasons, including recording guidelines and electronic record keeping.

Look for instances where someone may have altered their name, i.e. their known name is actually their middle name.

• “James Anderson” will capture records with James as a middle name, e.g. Andrew James Anderson or Ryan James Anderson, although the results would overlap with the initial name search using “last name, first name”. 

• Alternatively, you may want to remove those records where James or Anderson are part of the middle name by including the – sign with a specific name in your query. For example, "Anderson, James" -"James Anderson". Note: this will also remove results for authors named "James Anderson" without recorded middle names or initials. 

Use personal identifiers, such as PI ID or ORCID ID, to avoid name issues.

Personal identifiers are very beneficial to the search process, as they can eliminate name variation and disambiguation issues. If you do not see an ID search field in the Search fields dropdown, you can still search for it using a Custom Field if the given the field is in the Analytics dataset. You can check this by looking in the Record View or export.

This search strategy does rely on the individual having recorded their ID in the records you wish to capture. Check the specific dataset of interest to see what the field name is and how it needs to be typed in. To learn more about using this search strategy, visit Manual query using custom fields

Problem: Not adding quotes to the name, therefore performing a partial name search and capturing many false positives.

Problem: Not using the person’s official name, searching for only one name variation (nickname), or being too specific, e.g. “Anderson, Jim” or “James A. Anderson”

Summary of name searching/people syntax

If using a query that does not contain a custom field, e.g. authors.opaId:, be sure that the appropriate search fields are selected. You can use the links below to assist you in executing name queries; appropriate fields are preselected within the links. (Note: links are in the process of being updated)

*All results are as of 12/04/2025