Library Database Searchers' Cheat Sheet
| Cambridge Scientific Abstracts | EBSCO Host Web |
FirstSearch | Gale Group InfoTrac | JSTOR | LexisNexis Academic | PCI/ LION |
ProQuest | Web of Science / Knowledge | WilsonWeb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| truncation | * | * | * + (plurals only) |
* | * (any) &(plurals only) | ! | * | * | * (anywhere) | * |
| wildcard | *(any) or ? (single char) | ? | # (1 char) ? (0 to 9) |
? | * (any) ?(single char) | * (single char) | ? | ? | ? (1 char) $ (0 or 1) |
? |
| phrase | "..." | use button | w | "..." | "..." | [default] | [default] | [default] | "..." | "..." |
| and | and | and | and | and | AND | AND | and | and | and | and |
| or | or | or | or | or | OR | OR | or | or | or | or |
| not | not | not | not | not | NOT | AND NOT | not | and not | not | not |
| proximity | near (within 10) |
Nn near, any order |
wn in order |
wn in order |
~n within n |
w/n | near.n max of n words between |
w/n | same in same field |
<near> ranked |
| proximity | within n | Wn within, in order |
n +/- one word |
nn any order |
^n relevance boost |
w/sent sentence w/para paragraph |
pre/ n | <near/n> | ||
| proximity | before / after | nn +/- n words |
term~ fuzzy search |
pre/n specify order |
<order> | |||||
| print records? | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | browser print | yes | yes | yes |
| e-mail records? | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| download records? | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| format options when downloading? | RefWorks & download filters* | yes - export | yes - export | html or tagged | yes - export | yes - includes RefWorks | yes | yes - export | export - may need plug-in* | yes - exporting |
| links to other resources? |  |
|
|
|
no | no | |
|
|
|
| limit to full text? | no | yes | some | yes | all fulltext | all fulltext | no | yes | no | yes |
| limit to peer-reviewed? | no | yes | some | yes | no | no | no | yes | no | yes |
note: [default] means the software will assume (by default) you mean to search for a bound phrase when you string words together.
note: n means "substitute any number". Some systems may have an upper limit, such as 10 or 25. In most cases, when you're searching for keywords in proximity to each other, you'll be using a small number. When you're interested in either "water pollution" or "pollution of the water", you may search some form of "water within 3 words of pollution".
notes: format options when downloading records:
*ISI/WoS/WoK* Export Plug-In at http://thomsonresearchsoft.com/support/
*CSA* download filters from http://www.csa.com/help/Bibliographic_Managers/bibmanagers.html
Use *RefWorks* to manage your records. Details at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/refworksufpage.html
