What Are Refinements?

Search refinements are categories which allow you to display only results corresponding to certain criteria (ex.: author and file type).

You transparently use refinements when you use facets (see About Facets). You can also obtain refinements by typing field queries (see What Are Field Queries and Free Text Queries? and Available Field Aliases). You can concurrently use various refinements criteria to reduce the number of results to inspect (see Search Results Refining Methods).