Nursing: Evidence-Informed Practice Search Module - Basic

ASTERISK

Use before, within or after word or string to replace multiple characters (note: do not separate a * from a word with a hyphen as then * will be dropped: eg. *-attack will be searched as attack, but *attack will find heart-attack etc.)

e.g. computer* retrieves  computer,  computers, computerised,  etc.

QUESTION MARK

Depending on database, use before, within or after word or string to replace zero or one character

e.g. colo?r retrieves  color,  colour

DOUBLE QUOTES

Use to find loose phrases

e.g TITLE-ABS-KEY( "heart attack") searches for documents where heart attack appear together in the title, abstract, or keywords, with or without a hyphen in between. Without the quotes this would search for heart and attack together or separately in the title, abstract or keywords.

BRACES

To find documents that contain an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in braces.

e.g. {heart-attack} and {heart attack} will return different results because the dash is included.