Using Advanced Search filters in RR+

Advanced Search filters let you narrow down connection-based results to focus on exactly the slice of literature you care about.

Instead of scanning everything at once, you can progressively refine your search to surface the most relevant papers for your specific goal.

A good way to use filters is to start broad, then refine step by step:

Avoid over-filtering too early. This can hide useful connections.

👉 When to use it: Spot research gaps, explore sub-topics, and get deep into a topic fast.

Use the keyword filter to look for papers which contain these keywords in their titles or abstracts.

Example: “spectral composition”, “LED”, “migratory stopover”

💡 Tip: Start broad, then narrow down with more specific or combined keywords to explore intersections between topics.

👉 When to use it: Target recently published work, do historical analyses, update an existing library.

Use the date filter to limit results to those published within a certain date range. For example, you may be interested only in research published in the last few years. Update the date ranges to reflect this, and you’ll only see results in that range.

Example: 2022 - Present

💡 Tip: Use recent filters alongside large seed sets to quickly identify new developments.

👉 When to use it: Focus on specific publications or journals, review research from a journal, determine venue-fit for your work.

Use the journal filter to limit results to those published in certain journal(s). This can be an essential step in research when evaluating how your work fits into that venue’s publications, or to find relevant research on your topic from a publisher you know.

Example: Journal of Avian Biology, Global Change Biology

👉 When to use it: Target high-impact, high-quality papers, expand your search to include articles from unexpected publishers.

Use the quartile filter to limit results to those papers published in journals with a SJR Quartile of Q1, Q2, Q3 and/or Q4. The SJR Quartile correlates to the prestige of a journal, with Q1 being the top 25% of journals, Q2 being top 50%, and so on.

This is useful for quickly surfacing papers from high-impact journals (i.e. limiting results to Q1 and/or Q2), or to conversely expand results and check if there’s any relevant research from publishers you may not normally review.

Example: Q1

⚠️ Note: Quartiles are journal-level, vary by subject area, and are not identical to Journal Impact Factor or Journal Ranking.

Filters become especially powerful when used together. For example:

As you explore, adjust filters iteratively rather than trying to get perfect results in one pass.

Advanced Search filters are most effective when used progressively. Start broad, then refine based on what you’re trying to learn or validate.

Used well, they let you move quickly from a general search to a highly targeted view of the literature, without losing the benefits of connection-based discovery.