Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. For example, comput* will match all words that begin with compu” (e.g., computer, computation, etc.) Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *,!,?, or # Identify words from different cultures e.g. rubbish/garbage/trash or variant spelling: catalog/catalogue
These include: Boolean operators, phrase search, and wildcards. Learn how to use these handy techniques to become more successful in your quest for information by watching the video Searching databases (4:54). Also have a look at the module Search techniques - from snowball to cited reference search to learn more about different search methods.
This statement would be used to search for material on the behaviour of all pets except cats and dogs. This type of searching is supported in many resources, often with the use of brackets or separate search boxes. Example search: Transferable skills of research students Search terms Discussion {"transferable skills" NOT ("study skills" OR
Use this guide to find online and print resources in information/computer systems and information assurance. The guide is designed for both on-campus and distance education students and includes online sources accessible through the Library. Describes search techniques for creating effective searches in research databases.
When creating a search statement you must use brackets to ensure correct processing of the search. Words representing the same concept should be bracketed and linked with OR e.g. (women or gender) Groups of bracketed terms can then be linked with AND or NOT; This is an example search statement bringing together all the techniques described above:
The techniques explained in this page will help you become the fast, effective searcher you really need to be as a distance learning student relying on online information sources. ... (UK versus US spelling, for example) To search for records that return one or more of your search terms, link them together with the or operator. For example ...
Here's an example of related search terms you might want to include in a single search: educator or educators or educational or education or educate. For this search, use the "root word." The root word is the letters these words have in common. Then, add a "wildcard character" accepted by the search system. For example: educat*
The most common way of using truncation is using the word stem, or the first part of a word. A search for therapy* will only find documents with that exact word, but not related terms such as for example therapies. But a search for the word stemtherap* retrieves the terms therapy, therapies and therapeutical. Remember that too few letters ...
To perform a systematic search, you do not need to learn special search techniques. If you plan to publish the search, however, it must be documented in compliance with one of the established standards and/or your publisher's guidelines. It is a good idea to let the relevant standard structure your search process from the outset.
For example, this search: college students test anxiety is translated to: college AND students AND test AND anxiety. The words may appear individually throughout the resulting records. You can search using phrases to make your results more specific. For example: "college students" AND "test anxiety".
This is a simplified way to search for different forms of the same word with a single search. For example, by searching for electric* you can find results containing all or any of these terms: electric, electrical, and electricity. Figure 3.2 Use truncation to search for multiple words that share a base.
You can use the search operators AND, OR and NOT to combine search terms.These are the most commonly known and used operators. The operators AND and NOT limit the number of results from a search. The operator OR does the opposite; it increases the number of results.. Examples: Endangered AND birds : combines these two words; Endangered OR birds : searches for the words endangered OR birds.
Complex search strings can be difficult to handle. However, most databases display your recent search history, and let you build new searches by combining previous ones in different ways. Example: Search 1: influenza OR “common cold” Search 2: “vitamin C” OR garlic OR echinacea* Search 3: Search 1 AND Search 2 (combining Search 1 and ...
Search efficiently using the search tool and databases. On this page you will find tips on basic search techniques to improve your searches. We use the library search tool as an example but most of the techniques can be used when you search for information in databases as well.
Examples: "classroom management" "genetic engineering" Narrow a search by using AND This command tells the database that you only want to see articles that contain all of the words somewhere in the title, abstract, or subjects of the article's record Example: communication AND cross-cultural AND workplace AND improve; Narrow a search by using ...
Examples of when a cited reference search could be useful: to find out the extent, by whom and in which journals a book or journal article has been cited ... Search techniques can help you search with precision and find what you need. Focus your topic. After reading some background information, you need to focus your research topic. One way to ...
Advanced Search Techniques. These advanced search techniques are designed to help graduate student researchers refine their searches and retrieve more precise and relevant academic information. Phrase Searching: Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases. e.g., "climate change" Boolean Operators: Combine keywords with AND, OR, NOT to ...
By using different search techniques, you can improve your searches considerably. Some basic techniques that will work in most databases are described below. ... In most databases there are advanced search options where you can specify in which field you want to limit your search to. In the example below, you will only retrieve documents where ...
