Central Oregon
Community College
LIBRARY 127
 

ADVANCED SEARCHING IN EBSCO DATABASES
 

PROXIMITY COMMANDS: EbscoHost databases will allow you to use proximity commands as well.  A Proximity search is a way of searching for two or more words that appear a specified number of words (or fewer) apart in the database(s). The proximity operators are composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words) AND ARE USED IN PLACE OF THE AND COMMAND.  The proximity operator is placed between the words that are to be searched, as follows:

Near Operator (N) - N5 will find the words if they are within 5 words of one another regardless ofthe order in which they appear.

For example: type

tax N5 reform

to find results that would match "tax reform" as well as "reform of income tax".

Within Operator (W) In the following example, W8 will find the words if they are within 8 words of each other and in the order in which you entered them. 

For example, type

tax W8 reform

to find results that would match "tax reform" but would not match "reform of income tax".

NOTE: on Ebsco databases, proximity commands do not work so well in conjunction with OR commands.  For example: (adolescen* OR teen*) N8 learn* WILL NOT work as well as (adolescen* OR teen*) and learn*. 

Use proximity commands to focus parts of your searches that do not involve synonyms. 

Example: (adolescen* OR teen*) and learn* n4 disabilit*

Need a review?  Here is a quick survey of EbscoHost search commands.

LIMITING YOUR SEARCH: If you scroll down the search screen, you will see some boxes that allow you to limit your search results to fulltext and peer reviewed results.

The fulltext option limits your search to articles that can be viewed and printed entirely from your computer (ie. there is no additional step of locating the article within the library stacks).

If you click on 'peer reviewed' you are limiting your results to those articles published in journals whose contents are reviewed by scholars in the field.

You may also limit your search to articles appearing within a particular periodical by typing its name in the blank provided. Of course, EbscoHost does not (can not!) provide access to all journals. Click on the icon towards the top of the screen to make sure EbscoHost has the journal title you need.

EbscoHost also allows you to limit your search by date. Choose the month and type the year within the forms provided.

ADVANCED SEARCHING: The default search form for Ebsco is now the advanced search form--(that means you do not have to do anything special to see the advance form!)  The advanced search form provides several boxes in which you may type keywords.

A pull down menu to the right of each keyword box allows you to limit the location of that keyword. The pull down menus (click on the little down arrow) lets you limit each keyword to title, author, subject, abstract, journal title, etc.

A pull down menu to the left of each keyword allows you to identify boolean and proximity commands between the words.

By using these pull down menus, you can perform a search that looks for the word autis* in article titles and the word educat* in article titles.

Or...you can perform a search that looks for the word autis* in article titles and the words Educational Psychology in journal titles.

Limiting your search words to particular areas of an article (this is called field searching), will narrow and focus your search results.

You can limit your search to articles by a particular author by choosing AU author from the right hand pull down menu.

You can limit your search by journal title by choosing SO Journal Name from the right hand pull down menu.

You can limit your search to a specific date or date-range by scrolling down a bit, and looking for the light yellow Limit your results section.  Insert your dates into the form that looks like this:

PRINTING/E-MAIL:
Once you get to your results list (or to an article) click on the or button.  Fill in your e-mail address or click on the button again.  You will be prompted to use your browser's print capacity.