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Nesting is the use of parentheses to organize a search string that uses more than one kind of operator (AND, OR, NOT).
Phrase searching is the use of quotation marks to enclose words and instruct the database to locate that exact phrase.
Truncation allows you to search for a word and all variant endings.
A wildcard is the use of a symbol to stand for a character or string of characters in a search.
When phrase searching keep in mind:
Some databases automatically assume that words typed next to each other should be searched as a phrase, but other databases require that all the search terms be present in an article, but not necessary next to each other.
Using quotation marks (or parentheses) around search words is a common way to do phrase searching, but not all databases or search engines use them. Check the help section of the database to find out.
Use phrase searching thoughtfully! For example, "river pollution" will miss any articles containing the phrase polluted rivers.
Truncation broadens your search to include various word endings.
To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. (For example, searching child* will locate child, child's, children, children's, and childhood.)
Truncation symbols may vary by database. Common ones include *, !, ?, or #. Check the database help section to find out which one to use.
Wildcard searching substitutes a symbol for a letter within a word.
This is useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning. (For example, a search for wom*n will locate woman and women.
Wildcard symbols may vary by database. Common ones include *, !, ?, or #. Check the database help section to find out which one to us