Tips for searching POST

How to search

• Visit our search page.
• Use key words to search POST material (e.g. food security).
• Select ‘search filters’ to narrow results by date range and/or publication type.
• Results will appear in order of relevance but you can choose to order by date – click ‘order by date’ above your search results.
• Expand results to view material from all Parliamentary research services – click ‘search all research services’ and the ‘search’ button to re-run your search. This will show you results from POST, the Commons and Lords Libraries.

Boolean operators

• The ‘AND’ operator is used by default. For example, if you search ‘food security’ the search will interpret it as ‘food AND security’.
• To exclude search terms, use the ‘NOT’ operator. If you search ‘food NOT security’ the search will exclude ‘security’ from your results.
• Complex operators are not supported (e.g. food OR security OR supply).

Narrow results by publication type

Search results display a range of material produced by POST. You can narrow results by selecting the below publication types in ‘search filters’.

• Event listing (2013 – present) : Events organised by POST with leading experts.
• Event reports (2020 – present): Summaries of event discussions and presentations.
• Fellowships (2019 – present): Opportunities to join POST fellowship schemes.
• Horizon scanning (2015 – present): Reports on major areas of future interest.
• POSTbriefs (2000 – present): Evidence syntheses covering current affairs and committee enquiries.
• POSTnote (1989 – present) : Four-page briefings covering emerging areas of research.
• Rapid response (2020 – present): Timely articles to inform parliamentarians of research developments.
• Resources (2020 – present): Guides on topics such as how to write briefings and data collection methods.
• Work programme (2017 – present): A programme used to inform experts what expertise we are looking for.