Many article databases have advanced search commands buried in their help manuals. Here are a few advanced tips for specific products that can help make searching more effective.*
Proximity:
near/# OR n/# will look for documents that contain two search terms, in any order, within a specified number of words apart. Replace # with a number. You can go up to 100 words but stay within 2-20 for better results.
PRE/# or P/# will look for documents that contain one search term that appears within a specified number of words before a second term.
Quotation Marks
Surround your words with quotation marks—to force ProQuest to look for your words as a phrase only, rather than finding each word separately.
Proximity:
Near Operator (N): N5 finds the words if they are a maximum of five words apart from one another, regardless of the order in which they appear.
Within Operator (W): W8 finds the words if they are within eight words of one another, in the order in which you entered them.
Quotation Marks:
When a user encloses search terms with double quotation marks (i.e. "global warming") the search engine looks for words in the exact order in any field in the metadata and full text (when applicable).
Proximity
Use the near/# connector to find documents with search words that appear within n words of each other. Use near/n to join words and phrases that express parts of a single idea or to join closely associated ideas.
Use the w/# connector to find documents in which the first word appears within n words of the second one.
Use the pre/# connector to find documents in which the first word precedes the second by not more than n words.
Question Marks
Proximity is a command to find words close to each other. This is helpful to find words close to each other buried in the full-text. For example if you want to find the words coffee close to the word forecast you would use a proximity command.
Boolean commands are linkage words that help you find or eliminate specific words in a title, abstract or full-text search. Common examples are AND, OR, NOT. In many academic databases use upper case Boolean commands to distinguish them as a command.
*Keep in mind product programming can change so consult help manuals within each product to confirm you are using the most up to date commands. Most databases with have a HELP or ? link at the top right when you are in the product.
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