Explore advanced search techniques that are useful across a wide range of platforms.
Advanced searching describes a variety of techniques that are useful for getting the best results in research platforms.
Advanced searching involves using boolean and wildcard operators, specialized syntax, multiple terms, and filters or limiters to capture as many relevant results as possible, and to narrow results to those truly relevant.
The most common boolean operators are OR, AND, and NOT.
The OR operator returns results that match either term.
The AND (or ampersand [&], on some platforms) operator limits results to those which match both terms.
The NOT operator (or the minus sign [-], on some platforms) excludes results that match the immediately following term.
A nuanced search with boolean operators might look like:
plate* AND (continental OR tectonic) NOT "continental breakfast"
Note: Implementation varies across databases; to increase your chances of success, capitalize the above boolean operators—it isn't always necessary, but it won't hurt.
Enclosure methods includes double quote [""], parenthetical [()], and brace [{}] enclosure.
Double quote [""] enclosure allows you to require matching for an exact word or phrase.
A search for "bull horn" will return very different results than a search for bull horn.
Note: Many platforms include variant (e.g., allowing a search for color to match the spelling variant colour) and lemmatization (e.g., allowing a search for color to match colorful) features. Double quote enclosure will often disable these features.
Parenthetical [()] enclosure allows you to specify the order of operations:
A search for continental AND plate OR shelf may return very different results than a search for continental AND (plate OR shelf).
Brace or curly bracket [{}] enclosure is available on some platforms, often when double quote enclosure is set up to disable variant and lemmatization features. When it is available, brace [{}] enclosure will allow for exact phrase searching with variant and lemmatization features enabled.
A search for "{petit chien}" may be able to match petits chiens, petite chienne, and/or petites chiennes.
Note: Not all search platforms include variant and lemmatization features; on such platforms, brace enclosure would be irrelevant.
The asterisk [*] and question mark [?] serve as a wildcard operators.
The question mark [?] allows for one variable character.
A search for b?ll should return results that include the strings ball, bell, bill, boll, and bull—but not baall.
The asterisk [*] allows for any number of variable characters, or no variable characters at all.
A search for continen* should return results that include the strings continence, continent, continental, and continents.
Note: On some platforms, the asterisk [*] may be used to indicated a limited number of following characters; on such platforms, double asterisks [**] are often used to denote an unconstrained— or at least longer— string of following characters.
Proximity searches return results where one term appears relatively close to another term. There is no truly standard syntax for proximity searching, but a few examples are listed below:
In Summon, the syntax for proximity is "[term] [term]"~[#]. In Summon:
A title search for "chevalier roman"~10 will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the word roman.
The EBSCOhost syntax for proximity searches is [term] N[#] [term], or [term] W[#] [term]; in EBSCOhost databases:
A search for chevalier N10 roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the term roman; the terms may appear in any order (i.e., chevalier may precede roman, or roman may precede chevalier).
A search for chevalier W10 roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the term roman; the terms must appear in the order in which you entered them (i.e., chevalier must precede roman, with no more than ten words intervening).
The ProQuest syntax for proximity searches is [term] NEAR/[#] [term], or [term] PRE/[#] [term]. In ProQuest databases:
A search for chevalier NEAR/10 roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the term roman; the terms may appear in any order (i.e., chevalier may precede roman, or roman may precede chevalier).
A search for chevalier PRE/10 roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the term roman; the terms must appear in the order in which you entered them (i.e., chevalier must precede roman, with no more than ten words intervening).
Note: ProQuest permits the shorthand notations N/[#] for NEAR/[#], and P/[#] for PRE/[#].
Note: Proximity search does not function in OBIS at this time.
In OBIS, the syntax for proximity within 10 words is [term] near [term]; to specify the proximity, use the syntax [term] within [#] [term]. In OBIS:
A search for chevalier near roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within ten words or less of the term roman.
A search for chevalier within 5 roman will return results where the term chevalier appears within five words or less of the term roman.