What Are Some Tips for Searching in a Database?
General Search Tips
Quotation marks (" ") search for an exact phrase. For example:
"Virtual reality" finds results only with that exact phrase. A search for the phrase without quotation marks retrieves results that may include those two words separately anywhere in the title, abstract, or document depending on your type of search.
An asterisk (*) searches for all endings to a word at the same time. For example:
laugh* will find laugh, laughter, laughing, etc.
technolog* will find technology, technologies, technological, etc.
A question mark or dollar sign (? or $ or #) will match any one character. For example:
colo$r will find color or colour
te?ts will find tents, texts, tests, etc.
Proximity searches limit search results to terms within a specified number of words from each other. To perform a proximity search, enclose your search terms in quotes and use the tilde (~) followed by a number indicating the distance you want to allow between search terms. For example:
“coronary heart disease”~10 will find material where "coronary", "heart" and “disease” appear within ten words of each other.
Boolean operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms.
|
Operator |
Example Search |
The Search Will Find… |
Visual Results |
|---|---|---|---|
|
AND |
prison reform AND mental health |
Articles containing “prison reform” and “mental health”. Both terms must be present. Using AND will give you fewer results. |
|
|
OR |
punishment OR sentencing |
Articles containing “punishment” or “sentencing” or both terms. Using OR helps you find more results. |
|
|
NOT |
race discrimination NOT youth |
Articles containing “race discrimination” but not “youth”. Using NOT will give you fewer results. |