The purpose of limits is reduction of the number of hits without sacrificing too many useful records. Limits are imposed by filtering search hits by publication date, document type, language criteria, and name of the institution that contributed records.

Limits are accessible directly from the simple search window (Fig. 1), but they are used in the same way for Simple and Advanced search.

Limits are active until we explicitly clear them one after another. Any type checkbox releases the Type of document limit; Any language releases the Languages limit, and Any date the document age limit.

The status of the limits during the last search is evident from the Search details field. If we are unaware of the limits, which were enforced sometimes before, this could lead to the unexpected search results, therefore pay attention to the limits status.

Dates: Default value is Any date, which means that the limit is not enforced; other values of »Published in the Last« limit are 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years. The chosen number of years is understood by search engine as number of »full« years plus the actual year.

Document types: Ethicsweb databases host several types of documents, bibliographic records (DLIO) being by far the most numerous. »Type of document« limit retains in search hits set only hits of the chosen document type. It is possible to choose more than one document type.

Hovering the cursor over the Type of document checkbox reveals the meaning of the corresponding acronym:
DLIO = Bibliographic records (Document-Like Information Objects)
KOS = Knowledge Organization Systems (thesauri, ontologies, etc.)
EXP = Experts
TP = Training programmes
CEN = Centres, organizations, etc.
WR = Web resources
PRJ = Projects
LR = Learning resources

Languages: It is possible to limit search hits set to documents in one or more languages. By clicking on language names while holding the [ctrl] key pressed the user can select more than one language

Institutions, which contributed records: Ethicsweb databases host documents from various sources and the Institutions limit could be used to limit searching only to records origination from selected institution(s). Selecting checkboxes DRZE and KIB would therefore bring only records from the Bonn and Stockholm centres.

All limits are used to reduce the existing search hits set, therefore at least one keyword must be written into the Search window. An exception is the Institutions, which contributed records limit, which works independently. With this limit it is possible to bring the full contribution of a particular institution into the focus, irrespective of the type of document or any other criterion.