Frequently Asked Questions
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See also: Tips & Tricks
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General | Searches & Results | Organizations | Customers & Products | Consortia | Prospects
General
What is the difference between Simple Search, Advanced Search, and Datasets?
Simple Search: Quickly locate organizations by Organization Name, Alternate Name, Ringgold ID, or ISNI.
Advanced Search: Create multifaceted searches using all geographic and demographic Identify metadata elements. Clients with hosted Identify Audit Service data can also search using their own data fields such as products, customer numbers, and more.
Datasets: Aggregate and compare and contrast multiple sets of data to perform sophisticated analysis.
What search operators can I use to limit my results?
You can use Boolean operators. CAPITALIZATION is required (AND, OR, NOT) and works for the following fields; Organization name, Ringgold ID, URL, post code, admin area.
Use an asterisk for a Wildcard Search e.g. medic* will return records containing “medical”, “medicine”, etc. in the name.
Use quotes for an Exact Phrase Search e.g. “Oxford Brookes University”.
Use a tilde for a Fuzzy Search if you’re unsure of a spelling e.g. medicla~ will return records containing “medical” in the name.
See also Tips & Tricks
Where can I find definitions of icons and metadata used in Identify Online?
- For Customer Icons, see Customers & Products
- For Alternate Name codes, see Identify Records, Alternate Names
- For Identify Record Metadata Details, see Identify Records, Details
- For Ringgold Types, see Ringgold Types
- For Ringgold Tiers, see Ringgold Tiers
- For countries and regions, see Countries & Ringgold Regions
- For all metadata, see Identify Database Metadata Elements
I am not getting results when I search for organizations. What is wrong?
Organization names are usually retained in the native spelling and with English as the alternate name, so search on either of these. If you get no results, in Advanced Search try searching on the organization URL instead of the name. Try also searching for the parent record and then expand the hierarchy to look for subsidiaries. Searching by name with the most unique or significant keyword in the organization name will help find relevant records. And consider synonyms in record names, e.g. medical center/hospital/clinic/health centre. If you are sure that the organization does not exist, you can request that we add it to the Identify Database via your user account detail area.
Can I export information from Identify Online?
Yes, you can easily download full record details, organization hierarchies, and search result lists in both Excel and .csv format. Look for the Download or Export buttons.
Where do I find training materials and support documentation?
Look for relevant Help links 
throughout Identify Online itself and on the Identify Online Support section at https://support.ringgold.com/category/identify-online/. We can also provide training sessions in person – please get in touch if you’d like to organize training for you or your team.
Organizations
How do I search for a specific organization in Identify Online?
Perform a Simple Search Enter Organization Name, Ringgold ID or ISNI
In the search results list:
Click View Identify Record 
to see full details about that organization, including all descriptive metadata related to the organization
What can I learn about a particular company, hospital system, or other complex organization?
In the search results list:
Click View Hierarchy 
to see how the organization relates to other records in the database
How do I check to see how two organizations are related? For example, are Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard related?
Perform a Simple Search Enter (Brigham AND Women*)
In the Search Results list, locate Ringgold ID 1861 Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Click View Hierarchy
Review the full hierarchy for the hospital and look for entries containing ‘Harvard’ in the name. Where ‘multiple parents’ 
are indicated, expand these connections to see if these organizations are present.
When I search for an academic organization, my results include departments and libraries. Is there a way to eliminate them from my search results?
Select ‘0’ in Academic Filters: Level and/or Select ‘academic’ under Ringgold Type
Customers & Products
For clients that have had an Identify Audit of their customer data, Ringgold is able to load this information into Identify Online. Fields identified as important by the client before the Audit will be displayed in the client’s view of Identify Online.
How can I get a list of all my customers and download that information?
Perform an Advanced Search
In the Misc. Filters section, Select is customer of 1 or more products
In the search results list: Click Download Results and be sure to Select Include Customer Data
How do I check my organization’s orders for a particular customer institution? What can Ringgold tell me about that organization, any related organizations, and how much business I currently am doing with them?
I have received an order from what seems to be a new organization. Are they in fact new for us?
Perform an Advanced Search Enter customer Organization Name, Ringgold ID or ISNI, adding additional search elements to help narrow results, e.g. Customer ID, country, etc.
In a search results list, customer organizations are identified as such:
Direct Customer 
Indirect Customer 
Direct and Indirect Customer
To view product detail at organization Click View Identify Record to see full details about that organization including size and pricing tiers. Scroll to the end of the record page for Customers & Products detail section.
To view product detail in an organization hierarchy Click View Hierarchy Click 
in the hierarchy to see Product detail. To download the hierarchy with Product details Click Export Tree.
An organization just approached me for a multi-site license quote for our journals collection. How do I see all of that organization’s sites and what journal subscriptions we already have with them?
Find the organization and expand its full hierarchy Click in the hierarchy to see Product detail. To download the hierarchy with Product details Click Export Tree.
Which of my customers has Journal A but not Journal B? Or A and B but not C?
This can be achieved with Datasets. Lists of customers needs to be created and saved for each journal (using Advanced Search); those saved searches can then be combined and compared using Dataset operations (Union, Intersect, & Difference). Subscriber information will be added to the Search Results Download, and then use search and filter in Excel.
I’ve been asked to provide my organization’s market penetration in North American universities with math programs (not departments). I need to present both the stats (e.g., we have 75% penetration) and a list of the prospects.
Solution: save 2 separate customer & non-customer searches, then use the Datasets feature to compare.
Step 1 – Customer Search. In Advanced Search, Select Countries that meet your critera. And in the Misc. Filters section, Select is customer of 1 or more products Select All Ringgold Subjects: ‘mathematics’ Click Search and in the Search Results, Save Search e.g. ‘NorthAm Customers’. You may repeat this step for each Product.
Step 2 – Non-Customer Search. Repeat Step 1 but instead Select Is not a customer of any product in Misc Filters section and save this search as ‘NorthAm NonCusts’.
Step 2 – Datasets. Now use Datasets to combine, view and export your results.
Consortia
I need to gather data for a particular consortium: who are they, what organizations are members, and how much exisiting business do I currently have there?
Use Simple Search for any known consortium. Use Advanced Search to find consortia by location or other parameter. Either:
In Misc. Filters, Select Is consortium OR
In Ringgold Type, Select All Consortium types
In the Search Results list, Click View Identify Record to see full details about a consortium. Scroll down the record page to see the Consortium Members. In the member list, Customers will be indicated as such:
Direct Customer Indirect Customer Direct and Indirect Customer
Download the full record to export the entire consortium member list with customer status. If the consortium itself is the Customer, your Product information will be in the Customer Data area of the record.
How can I find consortia members in a particular region, say Germany, who might be interested in buying my product?
In Advanced Search, Select ‘Germany’ in Countries
And in the Misc. Filters section, Select Is not a customer of any product AND Select Is consortium member
Prospects
How do I find prospects?
In Advanced Search, in the Misc. Filters section, Select Is not a customer of any product
We are launching a journal in a new topic, immunology. How can I find prospect organizations among universities (not departments) and corporations?
In Advanced Search,
Expand Academic Filters: Subjects > ‘Health’ > ‘Clinical Medicine’ Select All ‘Immunology’ Check Include Parents and
Select ‘0’ in Academic Filters: Level
In the search results list, organizations that are existing customers of any of your titles will be indicated with a Customer icon:
Direct Customer Indirect Customer Direct and Indirect Customer
See also: Tips & Tricks
Have a question? Contact Us