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TALON MODULE 6: Finding Periodical Articles
Tips On Performing Effective Searches

Although databases can naturally differ widely in subject, scope, and methodology, most of them feature similar searching features that help you to retrieve relevant articles on your topic. (Check the database "help" screens for details.) Some of these features include:

Field Searching. Field searching limits your search to a particular field or fields, which can help eliminate irrelevant records. (Each field, remember, is designated for a particular type of data or text.) The most common example of field searching is searching by subject heading or descriptor. But you can also limit your search to just articles in a particular periodical, to works by a specific author, to a particular type of publication such as book reviews or dissertations, to articles published in a specific year or range of years, to just works published in English, or to works with certain keywords in their titles.

Truncation. Truncation allows you to broaden a search by finding all forms of a word, such as singular and plural forms, variant spellings, and words that begin with the same root. This is done by dropping the ending of a word and replacing it with a truncation symbol. (Each database has its own truncation symbol, so be sure to check the "help" guides.) Common truncation symbols include an asterisk (*), a dollar sign ($), the pound sign (#), and an exclamation point (!). Thus, environment* will locate records with the following words in them: environment, environments, environmental, environmentally, environmentalist, etc. Important: Just be sure not to truncate a word too short, or you will retrieve irrelevant items. For example, env* will find the aforementioned words, but also envy and envious.

Wildcards. Wildcards let you substitute symbols for one or more letters in a word. For example, wom*n will retrieve both women and woman.

Boolean Logic. We’ve already talked about combining multiple keywords to help narrow your search. This demonstrates the AND operator in Boolean logic. Boolean logic is the logical relationship among search terms and phrases, named for British mathematician George Boole. The other two Boolean operators are OR and NOT, and each one helps to either narrow or expand your search.

Placing an AND between terms will narrow your search results. For example, "lawyers and advertising" will retrieve only those items that have the words lawyers and advertising in them.

animation of Boolean AND using overlapping circles

Placing an OR between terms will broaden your search results. For example, "lawyers or attorneys" will retrieve those items that have either the word lawyers or the word attorneys in them.

animation of Boolean OR using overlapping circles

Placing a NOT between terms will also narrow your search results. For example, "advertising not television" will retrieve those items that have the word advertising in them, but not those that also mention television. Important: Be careful when using the NOT operator, as you may exclude significant items that are not retrieved simply because they contain the word you wish to avoid.

animation of Boolean NOT using overlapping circles

Be sure to read each database’s "help" screens for assistance in using Boolean operators. For instance, some databases automatically assume an AND relationship between two words if no operator is between them.

Nested Boolean Logic or Nesting. Sometimes you need to include multiple logical operators in the same search. By using parentheses you can separate and "nest" the parts of the search statement having these different connecting operators. For example, "advertising and (lawyers or attorneys)." The part of the search enclosed in parentheses, "lawyers or attorneys," will be performed first, followed by the AND operation. Thus, this search will retrieve items on advertising and lawyers as well as works on advertising and attorneys.

For more information on searching techniques, see the module Performing Effective Searches in Electronic Databases.

Concept & Design by Laurie Preston
Content Authored by
Laurie Preston & Jack Bales
Reviewed/Updated
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