InfoSkills for Humanities and Digital Sciences

Search rules

• Type your search terms into the Search Term box ❶.
  • By default, the system performs a Boolean AND search, meaning it looks for all the terms you enter. For example, searching for youth violence is treated the same as youth AND violence. You don’t need to include the AND operator within a single row, but you can if you prefer.
  • To broaden or narrow your search. When using truncation, be sure to place the asterisk (*) correctly to avoid irrelevant results. If you'd like a refresher on truncation and wildcards, you can review Module C, page 2.5).

    Symbols	Usage	Examples
    TRUNCATION *	Add an asterisk (*) to the end of a search term to find words with different endings. A search will return results that include zero or more characters in place of the truncation symbol. At least three characters must precede the truncation symbol.	connect* will return connect, connection, connectivity, etc. individual* will return individual, individuals, individualism, individuality
    WILDCARDS # and ?	The number sign (#) replaces a single character within or at the end of a search term. At least three characters must precede the wildcard.	photograph# will return photograph, photographs (but not photographer) wom#n will return woman, women
    	The question mark (?) replaces 0 to 9 unknown characters within a search term.	lab?r will return labor, labour encyclop?dia will return encyclopedia, encyclopaedia

  • To search for an exact phrase, enclose your search terms in quotation marks: "youth violence".
  • For more controlled searching, enclose terms in parentheses: prevent* ("youth violence" OR "juvenile delinquen*").

• Select the field(s) you want to search in the Search Index box ➋. For general searches, the Keyword field is usually the most effective. Other options in the drop-down menu include Title, Author, Abstract, Subject, and Source Title (which often refers to a journal title).
• To add additional search terms – such as a specific author – select the appropriate operator from the Operator box ➌.
• If you need additional search boxes, click Add row ➍.

Within Advanced Search, options to limit your search are available under 'Search Tools' at the bottom of the screen ➎. 

Limiters are displayed in the following order:

• Only return peer-reviewed articles
• Open Access
• Format (e.g., book, e-book, article, etc.)
• Language
• Audience (juvenile or not juvenile)
• Publication year
• Content Type (Biography, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Thesis/dissertations)
• Library holdings: Libraries Worldwide, Libraries in the Netherlands, Tilburg University Library