This means: searching for keywords and variations which occur within the text of the articles and other items indexed in the database.

See also the following Library Guides for help on this and other aspects of searching:

To carry out effective free text searches in the databases you choose, it will help to know some basic search techniques.

Now read each section below:

Truncation:

Searches for variations on core letters or a stem
Usually an asterisk sign *
Right-hand truncation - to search for variations on the letters before the truncation sign: it is the most common form of truncation
Left-hand truncation - to search for variations to the left of the letters entered: it is used in Web of Science but not all databases

For example:

Wildcards:

Within a word, the Wildcard feature allows for different spellings or irregular plural forms
This can allow for more than one character - useful with unusual plural forms or for differences in UK and US English spellings, for example

Examples using dollar sign ($) for Wildcard searching (Web of Science):

This forces the databases to search for your words together and in that order:

Phrase searching can be combined with other techniques, such as wildcard or truncation. For example:

"women of colo$r"
- NB: only one use of the wildcard is possible in this context
"wom* of colo$r"
- Uses truncation, wildcard and phrase search together

Once you have identified keywords, you will need to connect these in your search.

AND:

Both terms have to be present in the articles retrieved:
- Stonehenge AND Avebury will only find articles where both of these sites are present in the article

OR:

Use this to find articles with either one or both of the terms involved.
- Sparrowhawk OR kestrel will find articles where either one of the birds is mentioned singly, or both of them

NOT:

Use 'not' when you want to exclude articles where an unwanted term is often used with another
- Surgery NOT keyhole will find articles about surgery, but should exclude those referring to specifically keyhole surgery

Notes:

See Effective Search Techniques: Using Boolean and other search operators.

Material above is partly from Canvas course 'Systematic Literature Searching'.

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