What does “relevance” mean in HOLLIS? How is that calculated?
HOLLIS, like most databases, defaults to sorting results by something called “relevance.” HOLLIS tends to favor results that meet some combination of these criteria:
-
Recent publication date
-
High number of matches to your search terms in the HOLLIS record
-
Matches to your search terms in the author, title, and subject fields
-
For articles, peer-reviewed or highly-cited articles
HOLLIS guesses whether you’re trying to search for a specific citation (as opposed to a general topic), and adjusts results accordingly.
If you enter a person's name, HOLLIS will favor items written by that person over items about that person. Use the "subject" search filter in Advanced Search to search for items about the person. More about searching by subject in HOLLIS.
More details available in the vendor knowledge base.
Have another HOLLIS question? Our HOLLIS User Guide provides an overview of HOLLIS's features and functions.
- We're experiencing difficulty with our Research Appointment Request form (under "Meet"). For now, please click on "Email" and describe for us:
- your Harvard affiliation
- the project you'd like help with
- whether it's for a particular class, faculty member or department
Chat
Monday-Thursday 9am-9pm
Friday9am-7pm
Saturday9am-5pm
Sunday 12noon-7pm
Chat is intended for brief inquiries from the Harvard community.
Reach out to librarians and other reference specialists by email using our online form. We usually respond within 24 hours Monday through Friday.
Meet
Talk to a librarian for advice on defining your topic, developing your research strategy, and locating and using sources. Make an appointment now.
These services are intended primarily for Harvard University faculty, staff and students. If you are not affiliated with Harvard, please use these services only to request information about the Library and its collections.