Find answers to Overton’s frequently asked questions
Access to Overton
API
Data
Before Open Alex, we were using MS Academic which used GRiD. We are still in the process of switching our code.
So yes, we do use RoR but some of our code (especially around finding people mentions in text) is older than Open Alex and therefore it still uses GRiD.
Learn more https://help.overton.io/article/how-does-overton-know-about-author-affiliations/
Exports
If you are exporting policy document results, an alternative would be to use the CSV option instead which will give you more rows of data. The data, however, will not be as rich as in an Excel export.
Filters
Unfortunately no.
In terms of filtering by source we’ve got a limitation at the moment – you can only select one option per filter at a given time. The exception to this is the “Documents” filter the “Search Policy Documents” We’re actively working on allowing multiple selections but it’s not ready yet.Policy Documents
Sometimes this data isn’t available. In these cases, we will check the webpage where the document is from and see if there is an abstract available. If there is no abstract on the webpage, the policy document record in Overton will not have an abstract.
Searching
Sources
Overton provides links to the webpages where we pick up policy documents from so that users can access the full-text of the policy documents they are interested in. Over time, there is the possibility that some policy documents may be removed from the website where we found them or the link becomes inactive. In the event a policy document is no longer available online, the citations and mentions found in that document will still appear in your search results.
Overton keeps a copy of the document’s metadata so it will continue to accrue citations and provide citation matches.While we do fetch PDFs as part of our metadata collection process, we generally cannot share these or full text with users without permission from the original source.
To check when a sources has been updated, go to the “Search Policy Documents” tab and use the “from Source” filter to select the source you want to check. The publication date of the policy documents will be underneath the title.
To check a specific date range, after applying the “From Source” filter, find and apply the “Added after” and the “Added before” filters.
We are looking at overhauling our policy source taxonomy to something more granular in the near future.
If you need to search for articles from your specific department or location, your best chance of success is to search using a list of publication DOIs. To learn more, see this article.