General Rules | Building Your Search | Boolean Operators | Truncation | Phrase Searching | Proximity Operators | Precedence

I. General Rules

1. If you are unsure what field to search in, use the Full Text search box. This will search across the text fields of that database in each record for the terms you enter.

2. To select multiple terms from any picklist, hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard (the Apple key for Mac users) and click on the selections you want.

3. Searches are case-insensitive. Using either upper or lower case letters will yield the same result set.

4. With the exception of the hyphen, do not use punctuation marks (slashes, commas, periods, colons, etc.). Punctuation marks in most cases will retrieve erroneous results.

5. Do not use the articles a, an, or the. The search software does not search for these words or other common stop words.

II. Building Your Search

III. Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Boolean operators allow you to combine terms in your search. These operators can be used within individual fields, or as a tool to combine terms across more than one field (using drop-down menus).

AND

The default operator is and -- if an operator is not specified by the user, and will automatically be used by the system. Records retrieved must contain all search terms surrounding the and operator.

• Example: typing: pediatric AIDS treatment -- searches for records containing "pediatric" and "AIDS" and "treatment" (i.e. all the terms must be present).
• Example: typing pediatric and Aids and treatment -- is the same search as above.

OR

The or operator tells the system to search for records that contain either of the search terms entered into the field (or to combine the fields on either side of it if using the drop-down menu to the left of each field).

• Example: cancer or oncology -- searches for records containing either "cancer" or "oncology" within the field chosen.
• Example: typing agriculture into the Full Text box and pesticide into the Abstract field and choosing or from the drop-down menu to the left of the latter field -- searches for records containing the term "agriculture" in any text field or for records containing "pesticide" in the abstract field.
• Note: Records can but do not have to contain both terms.

NOT

The not operator tells the system to eliminate any records from the search that contain a given term.

• Example: pediatric not AIDS -- searches for records which contain "pediatric" but not "AIDS."

It is recommended that the not operator be used carefully. In the given search string, even potentially relevant records containing the term "pediatric" might not be retrieved if the term "AIDS" were excluded from the search screen.

• Example: a record with the sentence "research in the development of computer aids for pediatric patients" would not be retrieved.

NOTE: not AIDS -- will not generate a search result. The search software requires that terms both precede and follow the not operator if used within a field.

IV. Truncation (*)

This search method is also called a wild card or root word search. If you type an asterisk after the root of the word you want to search, the search engine will find all records containing words beginning with that root. Use this tool if you are unsure of spelling or if you want to include plural forms of search terms.

• Example: chem* -- searches for "chemical," "chemicals," "chemistry," "chemotherapy," etc.

Please note that left and internal truncation cannot be used -- the system ignores all letters to the right of the truncation symbol (*).

V. Phrase Searching

The simplest way to search for an exact phrase is to enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

• Example: "biological agents" searches for the exact phrase "biological agents."

Note: Phrase searching is the same as using the proximity operator pre/#. This means that phrases containing words from the stop list (which are ignored by the search system) will look like the following:

• Example: typing "history of medicine" (with the quotation marks) is the same as typing history pre/2 medicine. This search will retrieve records such as "history of medicine" but also "...help preserve a patient's history, the medicine used," etc.

VI. Proximity Operators (w/#, pre/#)

If you want to search for words used together but not necessarily limit the search to an exact phrase, you should use a proximity search. Proximity operators define how close to one another you want the terms to be in the records returned. The operator w/# defines proximity of words in any order. The operator pre/# defines a particular word order. The number (#) you fill in determines how far apart the terms can be.

For Example, w/1 and pre/1 require that the words be adjacent. Using w/3 and pre/3 allows up to two words to come between the terms you are searching for. See the examples below:

• medical w/1 diagnosis -- searches for the term "medical" adjacent to the term "diagnosis." Items retrieved would include phrases such as "medical diagnosis" and "diagnosis, medical."
• american w/3 association -- searches for "american" used within three or fewer words of "association." Items retrieved would include phrases such as "Association of American Medical Colleges" and "American Defense Preparedness Association."
  
• medical pre/1 services -- searches for the exact phrase "medical services." (This generates the same results as typing "medical services" enclosed in quotation marks.)
• medical pre/4 services -- searches for "medical" four or fewer words before "services." Items retrieved would include phrases such as "medical, health, and financial services."
• Note: stop words are included in determining proximity.

When using more than one proximity operator, you must use parentheses.

• (american w/1 psychological) w/1 association -- searches for "american" within one word of "psychological" within one word of "association." Items retrieved would include the phrase "American Psychological Association."
• american w/1 (psychological w/1 association) -- searches for the same records as the previous example.
• american w/1 psychological w/1 association retrieves no records.

VII. Precedence

You can tell the search engine to execute search commands in a particular order by using parentheses. This works like the rules for math problems. For example, in the equation (4+3) x 2, you first add 4 and 3 to get 7, and then multiply 7 by 2.

• Example: ((aids or hiv) and microbiology) not tropical -- will search for records with either "aids" or "hiv" and containing the term "microbiology," and then will limit this set of records to those that do not contain the term "tropical."

Nested parenthesis can be used as long as all parentheses occur in matched pairs.

• Example: ((corn or maize) and (soil or nutr*)) not pesticide -- searches for records containing either "corn" or "maize" and also "soil" or the root word "nutr," but will exclude any records containing the term "pesticide."

Page Created: 5/99 ; Last Updated: 6/99 ; URL : http://fundedresearch.cos.com/helpdocs/rules.shtml

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