Boolean Searching, Truncation, and Phrase Searching
| This ... |
Finds records with ... |
| sleep AND grades |
both terms |
| coffee OR caffeine |
either term |
| diet* |
diet, diets, dietary, etc. (truncation) |
| "college students" |
the words together |
| students NOT college |
the 1st term but not the 2nd (use sparingly) [Scopus uses AND NOT] |
These can be combined in search boxes as follows:
| |
"college student*" |
| AND |
sleep |
| AND |
grades OR "academic achievement" |
Proximity Searching (can vary significantly across databases)
|
Scopus: W/5
Ebsco: N5
ProQuest: N/5
|
Finds the two search terms within 5 words of each other, in any order |
|
Scopus: PRE/5
ProQuest: P/5
Ebsco: W5
|
Finds results in which the first search term appears with 5 words before the second search term |
Note: Proximity searching in PubMed is rather different. For information on this, see the PubMed help page.
Other tips:
- Limit results by year of publication.
- Sort by relevance (default in most databases, but not in Scopus).
- In the results list, look for subject terms of keywords that can help you fine-tune your search.
