Help page for Search with EASE system.
EASE is the first search engine on the web to combine both free-text searching with data direct from the IPA Databank.
You can just use this tool for free-text searching of the IPA case study collection. Using free-text searching you can search through all case studies submitted to the main IPA Effectiveness competition from 1980 to date.
There are various standard ‘phrase options’ you can select or simply type a word into the search box. Word inflections such as ‘tax,’ ‘taxed’ or ‘taxing’ are automatically enabled, as are plural forms.
Using free-text the EASE tool will search through title, abstract, keywords and the PDF of the case study itself. Results will be displayed to the right of the search engine and you can continue to refine your search in the normal way. Adding subsequent terms directly into the box (without using phrase options) acts to refine (AND) your search whereas taking terms out will broaden (OR) your search – just as with Google!
You can hit the Reset button at any time to start again.
If you wish to download or purchase a case study, simply click on the title of that case study and you will be taken to its download page.
The filter system can be used independently or in combination with free-text searching.
Please note that the fields we have selected here link directly to data in the IPA Databank. This data is compiled from questionnaires submitted with each entry to the IPA Effectiveness Awards competition. Back-coding is still taking place as part of this project but data is complete for all entries from 1996 onwards. Before 1996 the coding is complete for winning entries and continues for non-winning entries in those years.
So, the filters will give you comprehensive data for the last 14 years immediately and winning data for the previous 16 years. In addition, non-winning entry data is being added all the time and uploaded to this site overnight. We will update this page with the latest status of Databank data.
New fields have been added since the competition began in 1980 and may not therefore be applicable to earlier entries. If you scroll over the ‘i’ box for each field, it will explain what data the field contains and from when it was compiled.
Use the "+" buttons to expand or collapse the individual fields. Alternatively, click on the Expand or Collapse buttons at the top of the fields list to open or close all the fields at once.
Use the tick boxes to select which responses are of interest to you.
You can hit the Reset button at any time to start again.
Please note that EASE searches using the AND operand between different fields and the OR operand within a particular field. For example, ticking more than one box within a particular field such as 'Business objectives' will give you more results, as you are expanding your choice. Ticking one or more boxes in different fields e.g ticking 'Sales volume gain' in 'Business Objectives' and also ticking '2009' in 'Year' will give you less results as your are narrowing your choice.
As with free-text searching, results are displayed to the right of the search engine at each stage.
You can contact IPA web support for help on EASE issues as well as any other aspect of IPA web content by e-mailing [email protected] at any time.