PDB Focus: Author Searches

Users can query for a particular author of a structure or a primary citation using the SearchFields interface at http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/cgi/queryForm.cgi. In the Citation Author field, enter the two initials and last name of the target author. An example of an author query would be:

S.S.Taylor

The initials should be separated by "."s without spaces between them or the last name. If the query is not formed this way, no results will be returned. For authors with a title included in their name, the format should be:

W.E.Royer Jr.
H.Brumer III

A search can also be performed using the author's last name only, for example:

Matthews

This will return all authors with the last name "Matthews" that are referenced in the PDB archive, as listed in the JRNL records or PDB REMARK 1 records in the structure entries. To remove a particular author from this result list, select the Refine Your Query option from the pull down menu at the top of the Query Result Browser page, which will return the SearchFields page. At the top, select the BUTNOT logic button and enter the author to be removed from the results list in the Citation Author field. For example:

B.W.Matthews

Multiple authors can be queried for by performing a search for a single author as noted above, then selecting Refine Your Query from the pull down menu at the top of the results page, and entering the second author in the Citation Author field (note: the AND logic button on the SearchFields page must be selected; it is the default).

The Text Search field can also be used to query for part or all of one or more author names in a single query, such as:

Taylor and Zheng

However, users should be aware that this type of search scans the entire text of each PDB file and will return entries that include text that literally matches the query, so some undesired results may occur.

Requests for assistance with queries may be sent to info@rcsb.org.