Search help

Basic searching
Advanced searching
- Using limiters
- Using wildcard and truncation symbols
Search tips
- Broadening your search
- Narrowing your search
Display options

Basic searching

To create a basic search:

Enter your search terms in the first Search box. The search results will return more refined results from several words than from a single word. For example, typing 'health service' will return more relevant results than typing only 'service'. (View Search tips for additional suggestions).
Choose a search field from the drop-down list. Selecting 'Any field' will find your search terms in all fields of the reference and is most useful for general subject searches. If you are searching for a specific publication or are aware of bibliographic details, such as an author, choose one of the search fields listed. Search fields available include:
- Any field
- Title
- Journal title
- Author
- Year of publication
- Keywords
- Volume
- Issue
- ISBN
- Edition
- Editor

Click Search. Your results are displayed. Click on the highlighted title of a reference to display full details.

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Advanced searching

To create an advanced search:

As for a Basic search, enter your search terms in the first Search box and choose a search field from the drop-down list.
Repeat step 1 for the second Search box
Select a Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT) to combine the two sets of search terms:

AND combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, 'injury' AND 'disability' finds all references that contain both 'injury' and 'disability'.
OR combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, 'mental health' OR 'drug use' finds results that contain 'mental health' and/or 'drug use'.
NOT excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, 'heart' NOT 'lung' finds items that contain 'heart' but do not contain 'lung'.

If required, enter additional search terms in the third Search box, choose a search field from the drop-down list, and select a Boolean operator to combine all three sets of search terms.
Click Search. Your results are displayed. Click on the highlighted title of a reference to display full details.

Using limiters

Use limiters to narrow your search further:

Publication Year: limit the date range of your search by ticking the Publication Year box and enter the year range required. If you only want to search for references published in a specific year, enter the same year in both boxes (eg. '1999' to '1999').

Document Type: limit your search to a specific document type by ticking the Document Type box and choosing a document type. For example, if you only want to search journal articles, select Journal Article and Online Journal Article. Press CTRL to select multiple options. Document types available include:
- Journal article
- Book
- Book section
- Edited book
- Conference proceedings
- Thesis
- Report
- Electronic source
- Online journal article
- Online book
- Online book section

Using the wildcard (?) and truncation symbols (*)

Wildcard and truncation symbols can be used to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.

The wildcard is represented by a question mark (?). To use the wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?. For example, the search 'te?t' will return matching pages with the words 'test' or 'tent' or 'text'.

Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an *.For example, type 'adolescen*' to find the words 'adolescents' or 'adolescence'.

(Note: Neither the wildcard nor the truncation symbol can be used as the first character in a search term.)

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