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Guide to using UK and Ireland Reference Centre

Search Tips

Use the search tips below to help improve your searching. 

 By using these advanced search techniques, you can increase, reduce or improve the relevancy of your search results, making it easier to find the right materials. 

Operator Example Finds articles with...
AND badgers AND tuberculosis both the word badgers and the word tuberculosis
OR badgers  AND  (tuberculosis OR TB) either the word tuberculosis or the word TB and the word badgers 
NOT badgers AND Tuberculosis AND vaccination NOT oral the words badgers, tuberculosis and vaccination but not the word oral
Proximity badgers N8 tuberculosis the words badgers and tuberculosis within 8 words of each other, in any order
Within badgers W8 tuberculosis the words badgers and tuberculosis within 8 words of each other, but badgers comes first followed by tuberculosis
Phrase "badger control" the words in the exact order - e.g. badger control but not control of badgers
* (wildcard) vaccin*

vaccine, vaccinated, vaccines

The * wildcard is generally used to find different word endings.  It works best when there are at least three letters before it.
? (Wildcard) ne?t

next, neat and nest

The ? wildcard is used to replace an unknown character
# (Wildcard) Col#r

colour and color (American spelling)

The # wildcard is generally used to find words with alternative spellings, where the alternative spelling might contain an extra character

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.