How to search: EbscoHost Databases

The EbscoHost database collection is a multidisciplinary database with academic, peer-reviewed articles, company profiles, images and e-books.

View EbscoHost Advanced Search guided tutorial (power point presentation) 

The Advanced Searching option is the default option when opening any EbscoHost database

1. To use Basic Search option, click the Basic Search link above the first search box.
2. Should the Basic Search option be displayed (displaying only one search box), click on the Advanced Search link above the search box

Using quotation marks ('' '') in searches

When a user types in search terms using quotation marks, EBSCOhost looks for those terms as they are entered. EBSCOhost will assume adjacency searching, meaning words are searched in that exact order.

If your search does not use quotation marks and contains any Boolean operators (‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘not’), those words will not be searched as a single phrase. Instead EBSCO will search for the individual keywords and phrases around Boolean operators appropriately.

If one of the words in your search term is also a searchable field code, that word will not be treated as a searchable field code as long as it is entered in lower case letters.

 

Proximity Searches

You can use a proximity search to search for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other in the databases. Proximity searching is used with a Keyword or Boolean search.

The proximity operators are composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words). The proximity operator is placed between the words that are to be searched, as follows:

Near Operator (N) - N5 finds the words if they are within five wordsof one another regardless of the 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 finds the words if they are within eight words of one another 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.

In addition, multiple terms can be used on either side of the operator. See the following examples:

• • (baseball or football or basketball) N5 (teams or players)

• oil W3 (disaster OR clean-up OR contamination)

 

Wildcard and Truncation 

Use the wildcard and truncation symbols to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings. Neither the wildcard nor the truncation symbol can be used as the first character in a search term.

 

Wildcards

The wildcard is represented by a question mark ? or a pound sign #.

To use the ? wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?. EBSCOhost finds all citations of that word with the ? replaced by a letter. 

For example, type ne?t to find all citations containing neat, nest or next. EBSCOhost does not find net because the wildcard replaces a single character.  

Note: When searching for a title that ends in a question mark, the symbol should be removed from the search in order to ensure results will be returned.

To use the # wildcard, enter your search terms, adding the # in places where an alternate spelling may contain an extra character. EBSCOhost finds all citations of the word that appear with or without the extra character.

For example, type colo#r to find all citations containing color or colour.

Note: Searching the U.S. spelling of words will also include some spelling variations (i.e. colour or odour) but not all spelling variations.

When using the pound/hash (#) wildcard, plurals and possessives of that term are not searched. For example, when running a search for the term colo#r, the terms "colors" and "colours" will not be searched (which they are by default when using the singular "color" or "colour" without a wildcard operator).

 

Truncation

Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an *. EBSCOhost finds all forms of that word.

For example, type comput* to find the words computer or computing.

Note: The Truncation symbol (*) may also be used between words to match any word.

For example, a midsummer * dream will return results that contain the exact phrase, a midsummer night’s dream.

Note: Wildcards and Truncation can not be combined for a term in a search. For example, a search for p#ediatric* would be the same as a search for P*.

 

Single vs. Plural Searching

In order to provide the most comprehensive search results, when EBSCOhost conducts a search, it may return results that include both the single and plural versions of your search terms.

Searching for Singular, Plural, and Possessive Words

When a singular word is searched, the plural and possessive forms of that word will also be searched. However, if the word is enclosed in quotation marks, plural and possessive forms will not be searched.

For example, a search for the phrase alley cat without quotation marks could also search for all of the following:
alley cat, alley cat’s, alley cats, alley's cat, alley’s cat’s, alley’s cats, alleys cat, alleys cat's, alleys cats

However, when a plural is searched, the search engine will automatically search for the singular version of the term. If the plural is spelled differently, (e.g. child, children), a search is not expanded unless the "Apply additional terms to query" expander is checked. EBSCOhost may also return results with regional spellings (e.g., color, colour), acronyms (e.g., TV, T.V.) as well as a limited number of synonyms.

 

Adapted from: EbscoHost Help, Searching Tips and Top Five Searching Strategies