|
Capitalization
Capitalization does not matter: use upper, lower, or mixed case. For example:
AIDS, Aids, and aids
Boolean Search
Operators
The use of Booleans (AND, OR, NOT, and SAME) will vary in each search field.
For example, you can use AND in the Topic field, but not in the Publication Name
field.
Want to know more?
Wildcards
Wildcards (* ? $) are supported in most search queries; however, the rules
for using wildcards will vary.
Want to know more?
Phrase Searching
To search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks. For example,
the query "energy conservation" will retrieve records that contain
the exact phrase energy conservation. This applies only to Topic and Title
searches.
If the phrase contains a stopword, then the search
will find phrases that contain any word in the position of the stopword. For example,
"patient undergoing radiation" will find patient undergoing
radiation, patient receiving radiation, patient failing radiation,
and so on.
If you enter a phrase without quotation marks, the search engine will retrieve
records that contain all of the words you entered. The words may or may not appear
close together. For example, energy conservation retrieves records containing
the exact phrase energy conservation. It will also find records containing
the phrase conservation of energy.
If you enter two words separated by a hyphen, period, or comma, then the term
will be interpreted as an exact phrase. For example, the search term waste-water
will find records containing the exact phrase waste-water or the phrase
waste water. It will not match water waste, waste in drinking
water, or water extracted from waste.
More examples?
Parentheses
Use parentheses to group compound Boolean statements. For example:
Want to know more?
Apostrophes
Apostrophes are treated as spaces, not searchable characters. Be sure to search
for variants with no apostrophe. For example, Paget's OR Pagets finds records
containing Paget's and Pagets.
Hyphens
Search for hyphenated words and phrases by entering the terms with the hyphen.
For example, speech-impairment finds records containing speech-impairment
and speech impairment.
|
Warning
Do not use
field tags in search fields. The use of field tags is not supported and may
cause unpredictable retrieval of results. If you wish to use field tags in your
search, go to the Advanced Search page where field
tags are allowed.
|