For the most effective search results, look for and make use of the following search features. Not all search features are available in all databases, but make use of the ones that are available in order to produce the most useful search results.

• Boolean Operators*
  • and -- anorexia and bulimia
    • BearCat Example -- keyword search: anorexia and bulimia
  • or -- anorexia or bulimia
    • BearCat Example -- keyword search: anorexia or bulimia
  • not -- anorexia not bulimia
    • BearCat Example -- keyword search: anorexia and not bulimia
  
  
• Field Searching* -- Search By
  • Author
    • BearCat Example -- author: bruch, hilde
  • Title
    • BearCat Example -- title: body image, eating disorders, and obesity
  • Journal Title
    • BearCat Example -- title: journal of abnormal psychology
  • Subject Heading
    • BearCat Example -- subject: anorexia nervosa
  • etc.
  
  
• Controlled Vocabulary*
  • Thesaurus of Lanugage Used in that Resource
  • Subject Headings, Descriptors
  
  
• Truncation or Wildcards*
  • Usually a symbol like: * or ! or ?
  • Used at the end of a word to find word variants
    • judg* --> judge, judges, judged, judging, judgmental, etc.
  • Used in the middle of a word to find variant spellings
    • wom?n --> woman or women

• Levels of Searches
  • Simple
  • Advanced
  
  

• Proximity or Adjacency Operators
  • Methods Vary from Database to Database
    • with
    • near
    • pre
    • w
    • n
  • Specify How Close Together Words Must Be
    • confidentiality pre/2 therapy
    • confidentiality w/s therapy
    • confidentiality w/p therapy
  • Specify the Order in Which the Words Must Appear
    • confidentiality w/2 therapy
  • Especially Good for Full Text Databases
    

• Use of Previous Search Sets



• Saved Search Strategies



• Export Search Results to RefWorks or other bibliographic manager
  
  
• Set search alerts and table of contents alerts
  
  
• Set RSS feed alerts

*Features available in most databases.