QUOSA Information Manager Tutorial

QUOSA Information Manager (QUOSA) enables researchers in the life sciences to retrieve full articles, organize them, and perform powerful full-text searching. It also has many other features that automate and accelerate literature searches and management.

After you've downloaded, installed, and registered QUOSA, follow these instructions to get started:

Note: The following information is for PC users. Please see the Getting Started Guide for Mac if you are a Mac user.

Starting QUOSA Information Manager

A QUOSA icon should be on your desktop. Double-click on it to start.

Quick tour of the QUOSA user interface:

Retrieving Articles in PubMed Using QUOSA

Before you begin your search in PubMed you must choose the PubMed-UW channel through QUOSA by clicking Channels on the menu bar, and then selecting PubMed-UW.

Search PubMed as you normally would. You may apply limits and use the Clipboard. For PubMed searching tips, see PubMed at the UW.

1. Either check the checkbox of each article of interest in the PubMed list of references or enter the number of articles you'd like to retrieve in the text box next to the Retrieve button in the QUOSA Browser pane.
2. Select the format you want (abstract, PDF, or HTML).
3. Click Retrieve.

The Results pane opens (if it was closed) and displays the list of retrieved articles. If you chose PDFs, QUOSA will retrieve them; if PDFs were not available, QUOSA will retrieve HTML versions. Abstracts will be retrieved if neither full-text format is available. Icons in the Type column indicate whether the article is a PDF, HTML version, or abstract.

During the retrieval, QUOSA creates an entry for the search under My Searches in My Article Organizer on the left.

Reviewing Articles

When QUOSA retrieves articles and abstracts, it automatically highlights passages that contain all or a part of the search expression. This feature gives you an easy way to quickly review articles.

1. If you already have the Results pane open with search results, you're all set. (If not, bring the search list you want to review into the Results pane by clicking on it under My Searches.)
2. Double-click on the article you want to review to display it in the Browser pane.
3. Click the Document Summary tab (at the bottom of the Organizer pane).
4. Click on a highlighted passage. QUOSA will scroll to the place in the opened article where the passage occurs. Passages with all elements of the search term (for example, if both "sinusitis" and "antibiotics" occur close together in the passage) will be shown in one color (default is yellow), while those with only part of the expression ("sinusitis" or "antibiotics," but not both) will be shown in another color (default is blue).
5. Click on the next passage in the Document Summary and repeat this process until you are done reviewing the article.

Searching in Results

You can search within the full text of multiple articles simultaneously using QUOSA's Search in Results feature. This feature enables you to mine more deeply in the articles, as well as re-find information.

1. Click the Search in Results button on the Results pane toolbar. The Search in Results dialog box appears.
2. You have the option of using the Quick Search feature, which searches only the current set, or you can click the Advanced Search button and specify the scope of the search using the "Scope" drop down menu, as follows:
• Click Current Set to specify the set of articles currently in the Results pane.
• Click All Folders to specify all folders in My Article Organizer.
• Click All Searches to specify all searches in My Article Organizer.
• Click All Folders & Searches to specify all folders and searches in My Article Organizer.
3. Enter your search in the "Full text" box.
4. Click Search.

Saving Results in QUOSA Folders

QUOSA folders are not the same same as regular Windows folders. QUOSA folders are specifically designed to support features such as exporting references to citation managers and they're also indexed for faster searching.

To save selected articles into a QUOSA folder:

1. Flag the desired articles (by clicking in the column with the flag icon).
2. Click the Select Flagged button on the Results pane toolbar.
3. Click the Save button.
4. From the Save Document dialog, choose an existing folder or create a new folder, and click OK.

To save all the articles in the Results pane:

1. Click Ctrl-A before clicking on the Save button.
2. From the Save Document dialog, choose an existing folder or create a new folder, and click OK. The saved results will appear in My Folders in My Article Organizer on the left.

Setting Automatic Search Alerts

You can configure QUOSA to automatically update your search results, as well as to let you know when the update happens by sending you an alert. To configure an automated search alert:

1. Select a search for which you'd like to set up an alert under the My Searches folder in the Organizer pane. Either right click on the search and select Configure Alert, or click the Set Alert button in the Results pane menu. The Configure Search Alert dialog appears with the name of the search in the "Search" field at the top.
   
2. Select the article type you'd like to retrieve from the drop-down list (PDF, HTML, or abstract).
3. Set the start time in the "Start at:" text box by clicking the up or down arrow (goes up or down in one-hour increments) or enter the time.
4. Set the frequency in the "Every __ day(s)" text box.
5. Check the following checkboxes as needed:
   • Send E-Mail Notification (to let you know when an update has occurred)
   • Keep only New articles (QUOSA will retain only new results and discard previous results), or
   • Keep only Unread articles (QUOSA will retain only unread articles and discard any that have been opened). This is the default.
6. Click OK.

• To designate a folder where the new results can be copied to, click Destination Folder under the Advanced options in the Configure Search Alert window. When the Configure Destination Folder dialog appears click the Select/Create button, and either select an existing folder or create a new one.
• To disable copying results to the folder, check the Do not Copy checkbox in the Configure Destination Folder dialog.

Exporting References to EndNote

You can export citations to EndNote or RefWorks. Before you start, however, you first need to select your citation manager in QUOSA:

1. Go to Settings on the Main Menu bar.
2. Click Citation Manager.
3. Click Select Citation Manager.
4. Select your citation manager.

To export selected citations:

Note: You may want to create a target EndNote library before you export your citations.

1. Flag the articles of interest in the Results pane. Remember to click the Select Flagged button to highlight your articles of interest.
2. Click the To Citations button on the Results pane toolbar. EndNote will launch, and you will be prompted for the library or database where you want to save the citations.
3. Select your library and click Open. QUOSA will export the citations, which you will see listed in your EndNote library. When you click on a citation, you will also see a link back to the full-text of the article.

Note: To export all the articles to EndNote, click Ctrl-A before clicking To Citations on the Results pane toolbar.

Importing EndNote libraries into QUOSA

You may use QUOSA to find and attach the full-text for articles within an EndNote library. The first step in the overall process starts in EndNote, where the citations from a library are exported to a text file.

To export a library from EndNote:

1. In EndNote, locate the library you would like to export to QUOSA.
2. With the library open, click the File menu.
3. Click Export. The Export file name dialog appears. Select "Show All Fields" from the Output style drop down list. If "Show All Fields" does not appear in the drop down list, you will need to select Select Another Style... and choose "Show All Fields" from the list.
4. Enter a name for the file to be exported.
5. Click Save.

The next step is performed in QUOSA, where you will import the EndNote file. QUOSA will then download the articles for the citations, if they are available.

To import the EndNote file into QUOSA:

1. Under the File menu click on Import.
2. Select Citation Manager Archive and then find the EndNote file you exported earlier.
3. Click Next. QUOSA will display the Input File Results dialog which will show the number of citations found in the file. If the number is correct, click Import. If you think the number is incorrect, click Cancel, adjust your EndNote export setting, and export the library again.

QUOSA will start the search (going out to find the articles for your citations) and download process. The period of time needed to complete this operation will depend on the size of your library and the speed of your Internet connection.

To export the citations from QUOSA back to EndNote, do the following:

1. Click Yes in the Export to Citation Manager dialog (which appears at the end of the import process, step #3 above).
2. Select the EndNote library where you want to export the citations to.
3. Click Open.

Notes:

• QUOSA automatically saves the downloaded articles into the My Citations folder in the Organizer pane. You can save them to another folder if you choose.
• If you will want to put the references into a new EndNote library, you must create that library as the first step in this entire process since EndNote does not support "in-process" library creation.
• Follow these instructions for RefWorks:
  • Importing references into QUOSA: http://www.quosa.org/support/helpdocs/pc/importrefworkscitationlibraryintoquosa.htm
  • Exporting references out of QUOSA: http://www.quosa.org/support/helpdocs/pc/exportreferencestorefworks.htm

Revised April 2009