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There are a lot of great Advanced Search options in OneSearch, but they can be hard to find. You can go directly to an Advanced Search by clicking the Advanced Search link under the search box on the library homepage. If you're already in OneSearch, look to the right of the search bar. You'll see an Advanced Search link.
Advanced Search allows you to limit your search before you start. There are many different limiting options.
You can search by:
You can also specify whether you want results that exactly match the terms you entered, that start with the terms you entered, or that only contain the terms or an exact phrase.
You can also limit your search by material type, language, or publication date.
You can limit the material type to
You can limit to materials in
And you can search only for things published in the last year, last 2 years, last 5 years, last 10 years, or last 20 years. You can also set a specific date range.
|
Boolean Operator |
OR |
AND |
NOT |
| Why you do it |
Link keywords related to a single concept |
Link different concepts | Exclude certain search terms |
| What it does | Linking with OR broadens a search (increases the number of results) by searching for any of the alternative keywords | Linking with AND narrows a search (reduces the number of results) by retrieving only those records that include all of your specified keywords | Using NOT narrows a search by excluding certain search terms |
| Example | chocolate OR cacao | chocolate AND health | chocolate NOT candy |
For phrase searching, place two or more words in "inverted commas" or "quote marks".
Example: “chocolate chip cookies”
In some databases, words may be searched separately if the quote marks are not used. In other databases, word order may be maintained without the need for quote marks.
| Symbol |
* |
? |
| What it does | An asterisk applied to the root of a word (truncation) captures other endings to that root word. | A question mark applied in a word (wildcard) replaces one or more characters in the middle of a word. |
| Why you use it | Useful for retrieving singular, plural and other variations of a keyword. | Useful if word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning. |
| Example |
child* will give you:
|
wom?n will give you:
|
Many databases provide many different types of articles. You can narrow your search with limits. Adding a limit to a search will exclude certain material not relevant to your research question, and therefore reduce the number of results.
Examples include:
The use of limits should be justified by the focus of your research and any constraints.
Many databases use subject headings to organize content. These are generally selected from a controlled list by experienced people and describe what the article is about.
A comprehensive search strategy is often best achieved by using a combination of keywords and subject headings where possible.
In-depth knowledge of subject headings is not required for users to benefit from improved search performance using them in their searches.
Advantages of subject searching:
Note: Subject headings are often unique to a particular database, so you will need to look for appropriate subject headings in each database you intend to use.
Subject headings are not available for every topic, and it is best to only select them if they relate closely to your area of interest.
Expert searchers use boolean logic to craft very specific searches to help them pinpoint exactly what they're looking for.
