Limiting an AgeLine Search by Target Audience

Policy & Research

Limiting an AgeLine Search by Target Audience

Since 1996, each book, book chapter, and journal or magazine article abstracted for AgeLine has been assigned at least one of the following target audience codes: Public Policy, Professional/Provider, Research, or General/Consumer. For those searching AgeLine, the system defaults to retrieving items from the four audience codes as well as those pre-1996 items without a target audience code. To narrow a search to documents intended for one or more of these audiences do the following:

Enter your search terms in the search box(es) at the top of the screen.
In the Limit Results section, check Research, General/Consumer, Public
Policy, or Professional/ Provider.
Choose other limits if you want them (document type, year[s], or maximum items displayed) .
Click on the SEARCH button.

The results will be displayed chronologically, with the most recently published items first.

IMPORTANT: Limiting a search by one or more target audience codes also necessarily limits that search to items added to AgeLine since 1996. Thus, searches that are limited by one or more target audience type will bring up very few records that were abstracted before then, if any.

NOTE: A record may have more than one audience code; in a few rare cases, all four codes may apply.

While you are in your search session, your choice of audience will remain the same for all of your searches on any search screen unless you change the setting. To return to the default setting of “all audience types,” remove your check in the Audience box in the Limit Results section or click the CLEAR FORM button at the top or bottom of the screen.

	*Example*
	You may want to find recent research that has been conducted on the retirement planning behavior of older adults, but you do not want retirement planning guides intended for a general audience. In this case, you would use Retirement Planning as a search term, and you would check Research for Audience in the Limit Results section.
	If you were also interested in finding research on retirement planning published before 1996, you should conduct your target audience search first and then conduct a second search that is not limited by target audience but limited by the additional years you want to cover, for example, 1980 to 1995. For the second search results, you will need to review the abstracts individually to identify those that are research oriented.

Using Only the Limit Results Fields to Conduct a Search

It is also possible to search using only the Limit Results fields, leaving empty the search box(es) at the top of the screen.

	*Examples*
	Limiting by target audience and year: You may want to find all of the AgeLine public policy items that were published in the year 2000. In this case you would do the following:

At the “Year” field, type 2000 in the “from” box.
At the “Audience type(s)” field, choose Public Policy.
Click on the SEARCH button.

Limiting by year, audience type, and document type: You may want to see all the general interest books in AgeLine that were published in 1999-2000.

At the “Year” field, type 1999 in the “from” box and 2000 in the “through” box.
At the “Audience type(s)” field, choose General/Consumer.
In the “Document type” field, click on Book.
Click on the SEARCH button.

The Four Audience Codes

Public Policy

Records with the public policy target audience code usually contain discussion or research pertaining to topics such as Social Security policy, federal or state legislation, Medicare regulation, health care reform, or entitlements financing. Examples of journals that have articles aimed toward a public policy audience are EBRI Issue Brief, Health Affairs, and International Social Security Review.

Professional/Provider

Abstracts with the professional/provider audience code identify material aimed specifically at individuals or organizations that provide services to older adults or material that relates to policies and issues that affect the delivery of services by providers. Providers include social workers, rehabilitation specialists, nurses, doctors, lawyers, dentists, nursing home personnel, and home care workers, among others. Examples of journals that have articles with this code are Continuing Care, Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management, Provider, Journal of Gerontological Nursing, and Activities, Adaptation, and Aging

Research

The research target audience code is automatically given to any article or book that describes empirical research (data gathered and analyzed) or discusses subjects primarily of interest to researchers. It also includes gerontology textbooks and any material that focuses on the field of gerontology. Examples of journals that have research articles are The Gerontologist, Research on Aging, Journal of Aging and Health, Journal of Women and Aging, and Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

General/Consumer

Records with this target audience code refer to books and articles from magazines that are geared toward a lay audience or consumers, such as Time, Newsweek, Modern Maturity, and U.S. News and World Report. Examples of common book topics with the general/consumer code are retirement planning, personal money management, and advice on successful aging.

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