Scopus
General Rules
- Not case sensitive
- Entering singular nouns will also search for plural nouns and possessives (with some exceptions)
- Entering either variation of Greek letters (a OR alpha, b OR beta,) will search for both variations
- Entering either British or American spellings (colour, color, or tyre, tire) will search for both variations
Phrase Search
To search as a phrase, enclose it in double quote marks or curly brackets:
- Double quotes “ “ will search for fuzzy phrases. It will also search for both singular and plurals (with some exceptions). Symbols are ignored. Wildcards can be used. “heart-attack” will search for heart-attack, heart attack, heart attacks, and so on
- Curly brackets { } will search for a specific phrase. It limits the search to only the specified character string, and symbols can be used. {heart-attack} will only search for heart-attack
Wildcards
- * replaces any number of characters toxi* will search for toxin, toxic, toxicity, toxicology, and so on
- ? replaces only one character sawt??th will search for sawtooth and sawteeth
Logical operators and proximity operators
- AND Searches for articles containing both words food AND poison
- OR Searches for articles containing either or both words weather OR climate
- AND NOT Searches for articles that do not contain the following words tumor AND NOT malignant
- W/n Restricts to n words between the two words, the word order is not set Pain W/5 morphine
- PRE/n Restricts to n words between the two words, the word order is as set newborn PRE/3 screening
- Operator priority order (it is possible to change the priority order by using parentheses) 1. OR 2. W/n or PRE/n 3. AND 4. AND NOT