<h2>Truncation</h2>
<p>Truncation is like a wildcard. Added to the stem of a word,
it will find that stem plus anything that comes after it. The
symbol used to truncate a word depends upon the index,
database, or Internet search engine you are using. Refer to the
"Help" screens to determine truncation rules for individual
databases.</p>
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<td>
<p><img height="440" border="0" width="550"
alt="truncation symbols" src="/id0904f67a8050da0e" /></p>
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<p>Truncation examples:</p>
<p><strong>psychol?</strong> will return records on psychology,
psychological, psychologist.</p>
<p><strong>?</strong> is used as the truncation symbol, for
example, in <a
href="http://www.siue.edu/lovejoylibrary/research_tools/az.shtml">
ABI/Inform</a> and the <a
href="https://i-share.carli.illinois.edu/sie/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First">
SIUE online catalog</a>.</p>
<p><strong>environ*</strong> will return records on
environment, environments, environmental.</p>
<p><strong>*</strong> is used as the truncation symbol in <a
href="http://www.siue.edu/lovejoylibrary/research_tools/az.shtml">
Academic Search Premier</a> and <a
href="http://www.siue.edu/lovejoylibrary/research_tools/az.shtml#p">
Periodical Abstracts</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Writing a theater paper? Use the rules of truncation
<strong>(theat*)</strong> to find articles on "theater" and
"theatre."</li>
<li>Studying childhood diabetes? Try typing
<strong>child*</strong> to retrieve articles containing
child, children, and childhood.</li>
</ul>