How to Use Academic Search Complete: Advanced Search

The new EBSCOhost UI allows you to conduct advanced searches using Guided-Style Find fields. Guided-Style Find fields assist you in creating a more targeted search.

For example, you can enter your search terms into the search boxes and have EBSCOhost search for your terms in only specific citation search fields, such as the Title or Subject terms fields.

To create an Advanced Search:

1. Click the Advanced Search link above the search box on the Basic search screen.  Advanced Search as the default search screen for VVC. 

   

2. Enter your search terms in the first search box on the Advanced Search screen.

   

3. Choose a citation search field from the All fields drop-down list (for example, search in only the Title field of the citation).

   

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the second set of search boxes.

5. Click the Boolean operator drop-down menu to combine the search box entries with AND, OR, NOT. (Default is AND)

   

6. You can select another Boolean operator, keyword, and search field in the third search box set.

7. Click the Add fields link below the search boxes if you would like to add more lines of search to your advanced search.

8. Under Filters, apply any desired limiters to your search. For example, you may want to limit results to items with full text available online and published within a custom date range you select. 

   To add a Custom date range, select Custom range and click the fields to select start and end dates from the date picker.

   Depending on the database being searched, other available filters may include Publication Type, Document Type, Language, etc. When searching multiple databases, you can click the expand arrows to apply filters specific to each database. 

   Note: Any limiters that were selected on the Basic Search screen before accessing Advanced search are applied to searches conducted with Advanced Search.

   

9. When applying database specific filters with a drop-down menu, you can select one or multiple options.

   

10. If desired, click the Search options tab to change the search mode or apply expanders. 

    

11. Click the Search button. The Result List displays.

    

Boolean logic defines logical relationships between terms in a search. The Boolean search operators are AND, OR and NOT. You can use these operators to create a very broad or very narrow search.

• AND combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, travel AND Europe finds articles that contain both travel and Europe.
• OR combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, college OR university finds results that contain either college or university.
• NOT excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, television NOT cable finds results that contain television but not cable.

Notes:

• When executing a search, AND takes precedence over OR.
• Your library administrator may require Boolean Operators to be capitalized (AND, OR, NOT). When this setting is enabled, the search engine will only interpret the words AND, OR, and NOT as Boolean operators when they are capitalized. Otherwise, they are treated as regular words.  

The following table illustrates the operation of Boolean terms:

When a single Search box is displayed, you can enter search terms, and combine with AND, OR, and NOT. (For example, Roosevelt NOT Franklin.)

When Guided-Style Search boxes are displayed, you can enter search terms in each Search box, and select AND, OR, and NOT from the Boolean drop-down lists.

With longer search strings, you can combine many terms in a search with the AND operator, which will narrow your search results. For example, heart AND lung AND bypass AND artery will provide a more focused search than heart AND lung OR bypass OR artery.

To make even better use of Boolean operators, you can enclose search terms and their operators in parentheses to specify the order in which they are interpreted. Information within parentheses is read first, and then information outside parentheses is read next. For example, (heart OR lung) AND bypass will return different results than heart OR lung AND bypass.

Using Booleans and Parentheses

To make even better use of Boolean operators, you can use parentheses to nest query terms within other query terms.

You can enclose search terms and their operators in parentheses to specify the order in which they are interpreted. Information within parentheses is read first, then information outside parentheses is read next. For example,

When you enter (mouse OR rat) AND trap, the search engine retrieves results containing the word mouse or the word rat together with the word trap in the fields searched by default.

If there are nested parentheses, the search engine processes the innermost parenthetical expression first, then the next, and so on until the entire query has been interpreted. For example,

((mouse OR rat) AND trap) OR mousetrap

If the Boolean queries do not include parentheses, mouse OR rat AND trap NOT mousetrap, the search engine will follow an order of operations like in math where AND and NOT are considered multiplication and are processed first, followed by the OR clause which is addition. Effectively, the search engine processes mouse OR rat AND trap NOT mousetrap as though the query has parentheses in the following places: mouse OR ((rat AND trap) NOT mousetrap)

Using Booleans When Phrase Searching

When Boolean operators are contained within a phrase that is enclosed in quotation marks, the operator is treated as a stop word. When this is the case, any single word will be searched for in its place.

You can use wildcard and truncation symbols to create searches with unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.

• The asterisk (*) matches multiple characters.
• The hash sign (#) matches one optional character.
• The question mark (?) matches exactly one character.

The examples below show the behaviors and restrictions on using wildcard and truncation operators. When a wildcard operator is used within quotes, it will expand regardless of the quotes.

1. Asterisk Wildcard

The asterisk (*) wildcard, also known as the truncation wildcard, is generally used to find word endings. Enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with the asterisk (*). For example, type comput* to find the words computer, computers, computing, computation.

The asterisk can be used within words to find multiple characters. For example, a search for hea*one will match words beginning with “hea” and ending with “one.” For example, headphone, headstone, hearthstone.

The asterisk wildcard is best used with at least three leading characters. When at least three characters are used before the asterisk, characters after the asterisk are included in the search.

The asterisk (*) can be used between words to match any single word. For example, a search for midsummer * dream will match the phrases midsummer night’s dream and midsummer day’s dream.

2. Hash Wildcard

To use the # wildcard, enter your search terms and place # where an alternate spelling might contain an extra character. For example, type colo#r to find all records containing color or colour. Type p#ediatric to find all records with pediatric or paediatric.

3. Question-Mark Wildcard

To use the ? wildcard, enter your search terms and replace the unknown character with a ?. For example, type ne?t to find all records containing neat, nest or next.

Question marks at the end of words or character strings are not treated as wildcards. They are automatically removed from a query. For example, the question marks in the search terms below are ignored when searched:

To use a question mark as a wildcard at the end of a word, you need to put a # before the ? character. The hash before the trailing question mark indicates that the question mark should be treated as a wildcard to find exactly one character at the end a word. For example, a search for Monday#? will match Mondays but not Monday.

4. Combining Wildcards

Wildcards can be combined in a search term. For example, the following searches are allowed.

5. Restrictions When Using Wildcards

• Wildcards are not allowed as the first character in a search term.
• If there is only one leading character before a wildcard then, there must be at least one additional literal character within the first four characters.
  • f#r* (allowed because two literal characters are within the first four characters)
  • f??* (not allowed because only one leading character within the first four characters)
• When using a wildcard in a search term, the plural or possessive forms and any synonyms for the word are not searched.
  • For example, when searching for colo#r, the plural words "colors" and "colours" are not searched.
• When using truncation, alternate forms and synonyms are not searched.
  • For example, when searching for pediatric*, the alternate form paediatric is not searched. When searching for tumor*, the alternate term neoplasm is not searched.
• When using truncation, the Apply Equivalent Subjects option is still in effect for a root term that matches a concept, (a PREF term in mapped, controlled, subject vocabularies). The query will expand to the equivalent PREF term used in the subject field for the database searched.
  • For example, a search for education* is expanded to the equivalent subjects "teaching," "teaching methods," "instruction," in databases that use these PREF terms for the concept "education."
  • Turn off the Apply Equivalent Subjects option in the UI to prevent possible expansion of root terms to equivalent subjects when using truncation.
• Wildcards do not work with Chinese (中文), Japanese (日本語), and Korean (한국어) languages.
• The use of the truncation wildcard character (*) expands a term in a query up to a limit of 2000 terms.
• Do not use the truncation wildcard character (*) in the second position with letters that follow it, like this, f*tal. All letters following the leading character will be ignored. Instead, use # or ? in the second position, such as f#tal or f?tal.