Web of Science - Search tips
(Core Collection, Biosis, Medline, Zoological Record and others)
Boolean Operators
OR (broaden your search)
Searching for: swine OR pigs retrieves references containing either the word swine or the word pigs (or both words).
AND (narrow your search)
Searching for: salmonella and cattle retrieves references containing both the word salmonella and the word cattle
NOT (narrow your search by excluding terms from your search)
pig NOT guinea pig retrieves references only with pig but the word guinea pig is excluded from the results.
Proximity operators
NEAR/n (Retrieves references that contain two search terms, in any order, within a specified number of words apart)
salmonella NEAR/2 cattle retrieves references containing salmonella within 2 words of attle (in any order).
salmonella NEAR/3 cattle retrieves references containing salmonella within 3 words of cattle (in any order).
OBS: the NEAR operator only works in the Topic field
Other expressions
Parentheses ( ) The expression inside the parentheses is executed first.
salmonella AND (cattle OR cows)
Phrases ” ”
Searching for: “food safety” retrieves references containing the words food and safety next to each other (as a phrase).
Truncation/Wildcards (replaces characters)
$ = 0-1 character: flavo$r retrieves references containing the word flavor or the word flavour.
pig$ retrieves references containing the word pig or the word pigs.
* = 0-many characters: pig* retrieves references containing the word pig, pigs, piggery, piggeries, piglet, piglets, pigeon, pigeons etc. Searching for “functional food*” will retrieve functional food, functional foods, functional foodstuff, functional foodstuffs.
? = any single character, searching for en?oblast retrieves references containing the word endoblast or the word entoblast. Searching for pig? retrieves references containing the word pigs, but not the word pig.
