Default Fields ...... Which fields are they?

The 'default fields' for each database are found in the 'Searchable Fields' document linked to 'More Information' and 'Database Help'. The 'Default Fields' will vary across the databases.

Limiters

Limiters let you narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved from the databases you search is limited according to the values you select. You can use more than one limiter if more than one is available.

Common limiters that may appear below the Refine Search tab include:

• Full Text - Click to limit results to articles with full text.
• Cover Story - Click to limit results to articles that were featured as cover stories.
• Journal/Magazine - Enter a journal/magazine name in this field to limit results to articles only from that title.
• Peer Reviewed - Limits search results to articles from peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed journals are publications that include only those articles that have been reviewed and/or qualified by a selected panel of acknowledged experts in the field of study covered by the journal.
• Date Published - Use this option to search for articles within a specified date range. Create a range by using the drop-down lists to specify the months of the range and enter the last two digits of the year in the entry fields to specify the years of the range.
• Number of Pages - Enter a number in this field to limit results to a specific number of pages in length. Place the < (less than) or > (greater than) symbol before the number to search for articles with a specific page length range.
  • For example: to search for articles that are greater than three pages in length, enter >3 in this field. You can also use a dash to enter a range of pages.
  • For example, to find articles between five and ten pages long, enter 5 - 10.
    

Limiters do limit one another. If you select both Full Text and Cover Story limiters, the results that are retrieved include only Full Text items that are Cover Story items. The exception to this rule is the use of Full Text and Local Titles limiters. In this situation, use of these limiters produces a list of results that has Full Text or is part of a local collection.

(The use of limiters may also vary by database. For example, MEDLINE may handle limiters differently than Academic Search Complete.)

Limiters and Search History

Advanced searches from your current session are saved and numbered, starting with S1. You can combine saved searches by entering them in the Find field - for example, S1 and S2. When you do, the limiters from each search are applied to the new search.

• If S1 is a search for heart and (PT Case Studies or PT Practice Guideline) and S2 is a search for liver and kidney and FT Y, a search that combines S1 and S2 searches:
• S1 and S2: ((heart) and (PT Case Studies or PT Practice Guideline)) and ((liver and kidney) and (FT Y))
• S1 or S2: ((heart) and (PT Case Studies or PT Practice Guideline)) or ((liver and kidney (and FT Y))
• In either case, the limiters from both searches are included.

Searches run from the Basic Search Screen are not saved to the History File used by the Advanced Search Screen. Lateral searches and searches launched from a record (via a link) are recorded to search history if the Advanced Search Screen is your starting point.

Expanders

Expanders let you broaden the scope of your search. They do this by widening your search to include words related to your keywords or including the actual text of the full text results in your search.

Common expanders that can appear below the Refine Search sub-tab include:

• Also Search for related words - Select this option to expand results to include the synonyms and plurals of your terms.
• Search within full text articles - Select this option to search for your keywords within the full text of articles, as well as abstract and citation information. This applies only to words not qualified by a field code.
• Include all search terms by default - Select this option to search for all terms you entered, in any order within the text. Your terms are automatically "anded" together. If you surround terms with quotation marks, the phrase within the quotation marks is treated as one term.

Boolean Operators (And, Or, Not)

Boolean logic defines logical relationships between terms in a search. The Boolean search operators are and, or and not. You can use these operators to create a very broad or very narrow search.

And combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, travel and Europe finds articles that contain both travel and Europe.

Or combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, college or university finds results that contain either college or university.

Not excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, television not cable finds results that contain television but not cable.

The following table illustrates the operation of Boolean terms:

Parentheses

If you use parentheses with the Boolean operators, the terms inside the parentheses are processed first.

Including Phrases in a Search - Stopwords, Quotation Marks, Punctuation

Using Stop Words

• EBSCOhost treats certain words as "stop words"--for example, and, or and not. Stop words are always ignored, even if they are enclosed in quotation marks.
• Stop words are commonly used words such as articles, pronouns and prepositions. Stop words are not added to the search dictionary, since their relevance is minimal, but they are counted as words for proximity (the distance between words). Ignoring stop words allows EBSCOhost to retrieve a more precise Result List, especially for a relevancy ranked search.
• EBSCOhost ignores stop words (such as the, for, of and after), finding any single word in its place. For example, if you entered company of America, EBSCOhost would find company of America, company in America, or company for America. It would not find company of the America, because the search engine retains a word distance.
• The stop word or will be replaced with any word. For example if you searched for sink "or" swim, the results could include sink don't swim.
• If you enter two stop words, EBSCOhost will find any two words in the place of the stop words. For example, if you searched for company of the America, EBSCOhost finds any two words in the place of the stop words.
• EBSCOhost has two primary lists of stop words, separate for Boolean and Natural Language searching. Additionally, several databases have their own list of stop words. All of these lists were created based upon The Library of Congress' suggestions on stop words, as well as our own statistical analysis.

• If you enter the search phrase "sink or swim" in double quotation marks EBSCOhost still considers or a search operator, and finds results with either "sink" or "swim."
• Typically, when a phrase is enclosed by double quotations marks, the exact phrase is searched. This is not true of phrases containing stop words. A stop word will never be searched for in an EBSCOhost database, even if it is enclosed in double quotation marks. A search query with stop words only (i.e. no other terms) yields no results.
• If you enter phrases with punctuation, EBSCOhost searches for the term both with and without the punctuation. For example, if you enter television: talk show, EBSCOhost finds results with television talk-show, television talk show, and if synonyms have been activated, TV talkshow.
• If you enter hyphenated words in a search, EBSCOhost automatically searches for the word in both hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms. For example, entering coca-cola will find both Coca Cola and Coca-Cola.

• Use the wildcard and truncation symbols to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings. Neither the wildcard nor the truncation symbol can be used as the first character in a search term.
• The wildcard is represented by a question mark (?). To use the wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?. EBSCOhost finds all citations of that word with the ? replaced by a letter.
• For example, type NE?t to find all citations containing neat, nest or next. EBSCOhost does not find net because the wildcard replaces a single character.
• Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an *. EBSCOhost finds all forms of that word.
• For example, type comput* to find the words computer or computing.

You can use a proximity search to search for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other in the databases. Proximity searching is used with a keyword or Boolean search.

The proximity operators are composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words). The proximity operator is placed between the words that are to be searched, as follows:

• Near Operator (N) - N5 finds the words if they are within five words of one another regardless of the order in which they appear.

For example, type tax N5 reform to find results that would match tax reform as well as reform of income tax.

• Within Operator (W) - In the following example, W8 finds the words if they are within eight words of one another and in the order in which you entered them.

For example, type tax W8 reform to find results that would match tax reform but would not match reform of income tax.

You can use field codes to create a search using indexed fields referenced in either the citation or full display (or full text, if available). EBSCOhost uses two-character abbreviations for field codes such as SU-Subject, AU-Author or TI-Article Title.

Field codes are database specific. For more information on which searchable fields are available for a database, on the Choose Database Screen, click the More Information link for the database. From the Basic Search or Advanced Search screen, click the Database Help link.

1. At the Search Screen, type one of the two-letter codes before your search terms in the text entry field. For example, to search for articles that include the subject sports injuries and the term hockey, type: SU Sports Injuries and Hockey.
2. Click Search. The Result List appears.

(From EBSCOhost Online Help - 3/29/04)