| Database Search Tips
Truncating | OVID | | $ | used for all variations after the stem
adolescen$ will result in adolescence, adolescents, adolescent, etc. | | $ with number | may be used to specify the number of characters that may be used after the stem
cat$1 would result in cat or cats but not category | | # | may be used for one character only
wom#n for woman or women
cat# will result in cats but not cat | | ? | may be used for one character or none
colo?r for color or colour | | WebSPIRS (SilverPlatter) | | * | used for all variations after the stem
adolescen* will result in adolescence, adolescents, adolescent, etc. | | ? | a wildcard which may be used for one character or none (may not be used as the first letter of a word)
wom?n for woman or women
colo?r for color or colour | | FirstSearch | | + | adds "s" or "es" to the end of a word
disease+ would result in disease or diseases | | * | used for all variations after the stem
adolescen* will result in adolescence, adolescents, adolescent, etc. | | # | may be used for one character only
wom#n for woman or women | | ? | adds 0 to 9 characters
colo?r results in color, colour, colonizer, and colorimeter | | PubMed | | * | used for all variations after the stem | | JSTOR | | + | used for singulars and plurals
disease+ would result in disease or diseases
cat+ would result in cat or cats
fox+ in fox or foxes
cry+ in cry or cries
life+ in life or lives | | EBSCO | | * | used for all variations after the stem | | ? | a wildcard which may be used for one character
wom?n for woman or women |
Boolean Searching | Most Databases -- AND, OR, NOT | | AND | all the terms appear
blood pressure AND stroke | | OR | results in records with either term
teenagers OR adolescents | | NOT | results in records with the first term but not the second
hiv NOT children will result in records with the term hiv but not children
hiv NOT children will also eliminate records that include both adults and children | | () | parentheses will help group terms and limit the search
rabies AND (dogs OR cats) results in rabies and either dogs or cats
rabies AND dogs OR cats results in rabies and dogs and results in cats, but not necessarily rabies and cats |
| NOTE: In most cases the Boolean operators may be upper or lower case, although some databases such as Pubmed require that they always be entered upper case. | | OVID -- AND, OR, NOT, ADJ, ADJn, FREQ | | ADJ | not necessary for adjacency in OVID. When two or more words are separated by a space, Ovid assumes adjacency
chronic disease results in the same records as chronic ADJ disease | | ADJn | ADJ used with a number results in search terms within n words of each other
physician ADJ5 relationship | | FREQ | results in records in which the search terms appear only the number specified
blood pressure.tx./freq=10 results in only the records in which blood pressure appears ten times in the full text field | | WebSPIRS (SilverPlatter) -- AND, OR, NOT, ADJ, NEAR, WITH | | ADJ | terms are next to each other in a specified order
blood ADJ pressure | | NEAR | both search terms appear in the same sentence in any order
Add a number to establish how close the terms must be
language NEAR2 computer searches language within two words of computer in any order | | WITH | results in records with both search terms in the same field
blood WITH pressure gets records with both blood and pressure in a single field | | FirstSearch -- AND, OR, NOT | | PubMed -- AND, OR, NOT (Must be upper case) | | JSTOR -- AND, OR, ANDNOT | | AND | all the terms appear
blood pressure AND stroke | | OR | either term appears
teenagers OR adolescents | | ANDNOT | the first term appears, but not the second
hiv ANDNOT children | | sentence | sentence("blood pressure", "stroke") finds blood pressure and stroke within the same sentence | | words | words(5, "blood pressure", "stroke") finds blood pressure within five words of stroke | | page | page("blood pressure", "stroke") finds blood pressure and stroke within the same page | | EBSCO -- AND, OR, NOT, NEAR (N), WITHIN (W) | | N | computer N5 language finds computer language and language of computers | | W | computer W5 language finds computer language but not language of computers | Limiting the Search Most databases allow for limiting a search in order to omit records that may be too old, in other languages, too broad, etc. Look for limits by year, language, subject or descriptor, author, title, document type, audience, etc. If you have questions or comments about this research guide, please contact Kathlyn Behm, Science and Nursing Libarian, Lovejoy Library, at kbehm@siue.edu. |
