Site requirements

Search and browse

Viewing and downloading documents

Printing

Using Scientific American content

Site Requirements
Using Scientific American Digital requires certain software to take advantage of all the features and to access the content. Most computers will already have the required software installed to use the site. However, should you need to install software, use the links below to be directed to free downloads.

Fully-supported browsers:
Internet Explorer 5.5+ (Windows)
Firefox 1.0+ (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Safari 1.2+ (Mac)
Netscape 7.1+ (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Mozilla 1.4+ (Windows, Mac Linux)

Cookies and Javascript must be enabled on your browser.

MSN browser (Windows) and AOL 5 browser (Mac) will not work on the site. Please use one of the browsers above.

Viewing and printing the digital magazine:
Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0

Uncompressing downloaded files:
Windows XP-Service Pack 2+ and Mac OS X 10.3+ have built-in support to uncompress zip files. For older operating systems, please refer to these applications.
Zip Reader (Windows)
Stuffit Expander 6.0+ (Mac)

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Searching

Full-Text Search
When searching a specific topic, you can either enter your request in the search field at the top of each page or on the full-text search field on the Advanced Search page. Documents returned will contain the word or phrase you enter.

Searching 'cancer research' will return documents that contain the phrase "cancer research". It will not search for "cancer" and "research" separately. In addition, the full-text search will return documents that contain the stem variations of a word. For example, if you enter 'nano', the search will return documents that contain any word that begins with "nano" such as "nanotube", "nanotechnology" and "nanometer".

To refine your full-text search, you can use the following Boolean operators and quotation marks:

Operator	Example	Description
AND	Darwin AND evolution	Search will find documents that contain at least one occurrence of each of the search terms.
OR	Darwin OR evolution	Search will find documents that contain at least one occurrence of any of the search terms.
NOT	Darwin NOT evolution	Search will find documents that contain the first search term and not the other.
" "	"diet"	Search will find documents that contain the exact term. It will not look for its stem variations such as "diets" and "dietary".

Advanced Search
In addition to the full-text search, the Advanced Search feature offers the following search fields:

Browsing the Site
You can browse the site to view the contents of a specific issue. To browse an issue, click ARCHIVE at the top of the page and select an issue to browse. You will be presented a listing of the contents of the issue selected.

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Viewing and Downloading

Digital subscribers can download full issues, and download and view individual articles. Full issue downloads are available through the browse. Individual articles are available through the browse and search results. The subscriber will need to be logged in on the site to have access to the view and download features.
Purchased issues can be downloaded immediately after the order is placed. You also have access to purchased issues for 30 days in your download history in MY ACCOUNT.

To view online or downloaded PDF documents, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Downloaded documents are compressed into a zip file and they will need to be uncompressed before you can open the documents with Acrobat Reader. Please refer to the site requirements for more information.

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Printing
PDF document files are formatted to print on most printers. If you experience problems printing, check to see if you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader and upgrade if necessary. If you have the latest version, please refer to Adobe Support or your printer manufacturer for assistance. Some printing issues can be resolved by checking the "Print as Image" property in the print window.

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Using Scientific American Content

Limitations on Use
PDF files purchased and/or downloaded from Scientific American Digital are for individual use only. They are © Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of the material may be reproduced, translated, transmitted, framed or stored in a retrieval system for public use without the written permission of the publisher.

Reprints and Permissions
The items on Scientific American Digital are intended for personal use. If you are interested in high-quality reprints in large quantities, click here.
To request permissions to reuse any material from Scientific American magazine and Scientific American Digital, click here.

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