Query assistant

How to use the Query assistant to query SureChEMBL

Start by switching on the Query assistant by using the toggle button. It opens the Query assistant.

The Query assistant works by adding up conditions. A condition is a pair Field-Value. Conditions are connected to each other using a logical operator (AND, OR, NOT).

For the Field, open the drop drown field and select the field name. In the value field, enter the value you want the query to match. The select the type of match. By default, it is set to " = (exact match)". It will search for the exact value in the targeted field. You can choose one of the following option: = (exact match), ≠ (excludes exact match), contains any term, contains all terms, excludes all terms.

For instance, if you are after all the patents that mention "protein kinase" in their title, select the field name 'Title' and enter 'protein kinase' in the value field. Your query is automatically written down in the unique search field but is greyed out as you cannot edit manually the auto-generated query assistant query.

For being more specific, you can add conditions to your query. Click on 'ADD CONDITION' and it will add a new condition field. Note that by default, the system connects the conditions with an 'AND' operator meaning each result has to contain all the values defined in the conditions. You can change for 'OR' and in that case they will contain one or more values defined in the conditions.

To continue with our example, let's say you want to retrieve all the patents that mention "protein kinase" in their title, and "cancer" OR "diabetes" in their abstract, but not "dementia". In the second condition select 'Abstract' and enter 'cancer diabetes' but change the operator to "contains any term" so each term is searched independently from the other. Add a new condition, select 'Abstract' and enter 'dementia' but this time, change the operator for '≠ (excludes exact match)' . You can adding conditions, in the example below, we added another condition to search for 'pyrazole' in the claims section.

The query is written down in the search field and you can click on the 'SEARCH' button to run it.

To remove a condition, click on the red cross next to the condition.

The Query assistant can be used in combination with the other predefined filters (except the Structure search for now). For instance, you can add a date range and restrict the search to only the patents likely to contains small molecule structures.

We also offer a solution for nested conditions, using group conditions. Group conditions facilitate the formulation of sophisticated search queries by combining multiple field-specific filters using Boolean logic, enabling the retrieval of a focused set of patent documents that meet highly specific criteria. For instance we can search for every patent whose applicant or assignee is either Novartis, Bayer, Genentech or Merck, with C07D as part of their IPC or CPC codes, and that contains 'diabetes' either in the title or abstract.