This handout summarises some of the tools covered by the Durham Researcher Development Programme's "Search Strategies: Effective Searching" workshop.

1. Finding Information: Effective Searching
Broaden your search
Problem Solution Example
Search results missing
alternative terms which
authors may have used.
Use an ‘OR’ connector
between terms where either
one or both should appear in
your results.
teenager OR adolescent
Search results missing
alternative spellings of
terms you wish to find.
Use a wildcard tool to
indicate where 1 or more
alternative or missing letters
might appear.
organi?ation
col?r
(NB – often a question mark
or asterisk, but varies
between databases)
Search results missing
alternative word endings
where an author has used a
different tense of the term
you had searched for
Use a truncation tool to
indicate there may be
alternative endings to a word
stem to search for.
negligen!
(NB – often an exclamation
mark or asterisk, but varies
between databases)
Narrow your search
Action required Solution Example
Filter out results which
aren’t discussing all of the
key concepts you are
interested in
Use an ‘AND’ connector
between terms where both
should appear in your results.
teenager AND “substance
abuse”
Filter out results which
might happen to mention
two terms you are
interested in, but where
they may be mentioned in
unrelated discussions
Use a proximity connector to
instruct the database to only
return results where term X
appears within so many
words of term Y.
teenager w/3 “substance
abuse”
(NB – what symbol is used /
how it used, varies a lot by
database)
Return results only where a
specific phrase appears
Include the phrase/name in
quotation marks.
“Duty of care”
“Truth and Reconciliation
Commission”
“Sports Direct”
Exclude results where a
certain term appears
Use a NOT indicator before a
term you wish to exclude
“Truth and Reconciliation
Commission” NOT “Chile”
Checklist

2. Wildcard (1
character)
Wildcard (other) Wildcard (other) Truncation Proximity (in order) NOT
connector
Proximity (any order)
Library Discover ? (organi?ation) * (colo*r)
(1 or more characters)
negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
Google Scholar * ((national * wage) - alternative or
missing terms (eg minimum, living))
Property
-Intellectual
Ebscohost ? (organi?ation) # (colo#r)
(0 or 1 character)
* ((national * wage) - alternative or
missing terms (eg minimum, living))
negligen* W5 (tax W5 reform) Property
NOT
Intellectual
N5 (tax N5 reform)
Proquest ? (organi?ation) * (colo*r)
(0 or 1 character)
$5 ((nutr$5) - truncation up to stated
number of missing characters (max
125))
negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
NEAR/5 (tax NEAR/5 reform)
JSTOR ? (organi?ation) * (int*net)
(0 or more characters)
negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
"tax reform"~5
Science Direct ? (organi?ation) * (int*net)
(0 or more characters)
negligen* PRE/5 (tax PRE/5 reform) Property
AND NOT
Intellectual
W/5 (tax W/5 reform)
Westlaw UK * (organi*ation) negligen! /5 (tax /5 reform) - also allows for /s (same sentence) and
/p (same paragraph)
Property
% Intellectual
LexisLibrary &
Nexis
* (organi*ation) negligen! W/5 (tax W/5 reform) - also allows for W/s (same
sentence) and W/p (same paragraph)
Property
AND NOT
Intellectual
HeinOnline
? (organi?ation) negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
"tax reform"~5
OVID # (organi#ation) ? (colo?r)
(0 or 1 character)
negligen$ Property
NOT
Intellectual
adj5 (tax adj5 reform)
PubMed (Native
interface)
negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
FirstSearch –
ArticleFirst
# (organi#ation) ? (int?net)
(0 or more characters)
negligen* W5 (tax W5 reform) N5 (tax N5 reform)
Web of Science ? (organi?ation) $ (colo$r)
(0 or 1 character)
* (int*net)
(0 or more characters)
negligen* Property
NOT
Intellectual
NEAR/5 (tax NEAR/5 reform)