You can search all investigations, studies, and assays in the CSSI DCC Portal by terms found in related ontologies, for example, the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations 
and NCI Thesaurus (NCIt). A search looks for synonyms and subclasses of the keyword you entered in the ontology(ies) you selected and matches them to investigations, studies, and assays in the CSSI DCC Portal. The matching ontological terms can exist in file columns, field definitions, and placeholders of the investigations, studies, or assays.
To search investigation data by related terms
Perform a basic search, as described in Performing a Basic Search. Search results appear below the search criteria area.
- Under Search for related terms, select Ontology for Biomedical Investigations , NCI Thesaurus, or both. By default, both are selected but if you change the selection, the search results refresh.
- Under Include, select either Synonyms Only or Synonyms and Subclasses.
- Synonyms include terms in an ontology that are closely related to the keyword or phrase you entered.
- Subclasses are lower categories associated with the ontology term.
If any ontological synonyms or subclasses of the keyword you selected exist in the CSSI DCC Portal, those terms appear in the Synonyms or Subclasses box, respectively.
In the following example, the keyword is neoplasm and its synonym found in one or both of the selected ontologies is tumor. The subclasses of tumor that appear in the search results appear in the Subclasses box. You can click any of those terms and refresh the search results to show only those investigations, studies, or assays that contain those terms. In the following example, only adenocarcinoma is selected. Note that the selected term has a solid black outline while terms that are not selected have a dotted line.
To expand your ontological search to include all synonyms and subclasses, even if they do not appear in the search results, click the click here link.Â
The page refreshes and shows all synonyms and subclasses, even if they're not in the search results. You can return to the view of synonyms and subclasses only in the search results by clicking click here again.
- Click any investigation name, study name, or assay filename to explore the data further.
