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TRUNCATION:
Asterisk (*)— The asterisk can stand in for any number of
characters. For example:
■
scien*
This will return results with words like science, scientist, sci-
entific. Note: you must have at least two characters preced-
ing the asterisk (Al* Einstein not A* Einstein).
Question Mark (?)— This is used to replace exactly one
character within a word. For example:
■
p??t
The question mark is useful when you are not sure about
spelling. In this example, the results list will include essays
with the word poet in the text.
Exclamation Point (!)—stands for one or no characters. For
example:
■
e.g. poet!
This will return results with either the word poet or poets
included.
Note: *You cannot use the asterisk (*) or the question mark
(?) in date fields.
**You cannot use the truncation characters in Basic
Search; only use in Advance Search.
If, for example, you were searching for astronaut Neil
Armstrong, and were not sure if his first name is spelled with
an “a” or an “i,” use the question mark in its place. A search
for Ne?l Armstrong returned the name Neil Armstrong;
whereas if you had misspelled the name as Neal Armstrong,
the system would have returned a “sorry” message.
BOOLEAN SEARCH OPERATORS:
Boolean operators used in Science Resource Center are
applied in the order in which they appear.
AND—both terms must appear in the essay. For example:
■
electricity AND magnetism
This search will find essays that include both electricity
and magnetism somewhere in the essay but not necessarily
together.
OR—broadens the search because only one of the terms
must appear in the essay. For example:
■
electricity OR magnetism
This search will find essays that include either electricity or
magnetism, but not necessarily both. OR can be used to find
plural or other word endings, like scientist or scientists or
scientific. OR can also be used with searches involving syn-
onyms, like doctor or physician.
NOT—the term following not will not be found in the essay.
For example:
■
electricity NOT magnetism
This search will find essays that include electricity but does
not include the word magnetism.
PROXIMITY OPERATORS:
The W operator finds essays containing the specified words
in the specific order within the number of words you indi-
cate. For example:
■
scientific w2 nature
This search will find the word scientific within 2 words of
nature, but nature must follow scientific.
The N operator locates essays containing the words you
specify within the number of words you indicate, but the
words can be in ANY order. For example:
■
stem cell n2 research
This search will find the words stem cell within 2 words of
research in any direction.