The following tools are available to specify your search:

• Exact Phrase - Double quotes
• Wildcards - The following wildcards can be used:

  • * - Zero or more additional characters
  • ? - Only one additional character
• Boolean Operators – Use AND, OR, or AND NOT

Answer

Find some exapmples below on how to use the three tools described above: 

Exact Phrase

Search for exact phrases from either the Quick or Advanced search forms. Use the Search drop-down menu to access these forms.

Please note: When using the Advanced Search form, you can only use the following method in the second and third search boxes; it will not work in the first search box of the Advanced search form.

Search for an exact phrase by surrounding the terms with double quotation marks. This means that the exact text between the quotes is found. For Example: If you enter "lung cancer", you retrieve the exact term. If you run the same search without the quotation marks, the search will be interpreted as an OR search.

Double quotes can also be used to search specifically for special characters which would otherwise be ignored.

Wildcards

The use of wildcard characters can broaden your search.

• Use a question mark (?) to replace a single character. Example: analy?e finds analyse or analyze.
• Use an asterisk (*) as a multi-character wildcard to replace characters anywhere in a word. Example: behav* will find behave, behavior, behaviour, behavioural, behaviourism, etc.

The asterisk replaces 0 or more characters, so it can be used to find any number, or to indicate a character that may or may not be present.

Example: h*emoglobin will find both hemoglobin and haemoglobin.

It would also find hemidemiphosphorylmontotremoglobin, if the word is used within a document.

Please note: There are some limitations to the use of wildcards:

• Only one wildcard can be included in a single term.
• Placing wildcards (? or *) inside quotation marks will not broaden your search. You will only retrieve the results for the exact text terms.

Boolean Operators

Boolean search terms can be used when performing a Quick Search to specify more than one constraint at a time.

Please refer to How do I use Boolean Terms (AND, OR, NOT) in Searches? for more information.