The search engine determines how closely search results match your search terms. By default, the most relevant studies will appear at the top of the list of search results. Depending on the search you are using (Data, Search/Compare Variables, or Reports & Publications), search results can be sorted by study, variable, and bibliography relevance. For more information on SAMHDA's search options, see the FAQ "How do I search SAMHDA's holdings for datasets or particular variables?"
The SAMHDA search engine also enables sorting of search results in several other ways:
Released/Updated: For studies, this date refers to the date on which SAMHDA first released (or updated) the data. Reports & Publications search results may be sorted by publication (pub.) date.
Title A-Z: Search results may be sorted alphabetically by study title (in the Data search) and author (in the Reports & Publications search). Variable search results may be sorted alphabetically by variable label, study title, and series title.
Time Period: Search results may be sorted by year of the study. The sort references the last year in the time period (when the time period is a range or group of ranges). Variable search results may be sorted by both newest and oldest time periods.
Most Cited in the ICPSR Bibliography (Bib.): This is the count of citations that the ICPSR search engine found that relate to the study.
Most Downloaded: This is an indication of unique downloads over the last six months for users logged into SAMHDA or ICPSR using a MyData, Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn account.
Variable Relevance: This option is available with the Data search. The sort is based on how well the study-level metadata matches the search query, as well as how well the variable-level metadata matches the query terms. When sorted by variable relevance, links to matching variables are displayed for each study in the search results.
Recent Additions: This option is available with the Reports & Publications search. Results are ordered by the date the citation was added to the SAMHDA bibliography.
