Education: postgraduate studies guide: Articles and Journals

1. Basic Search:

• Use the search bar at the top of any page.

• Enter keywords, article or journal titles, author names, or DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

• Click the search icon to see results, and you can refine them further on the results page.

2. Filtering Search Results:

• On the results page, click "Refine your search" to add filters, like subject, publication name, author, keyword, or date range.

• Click the + icon to view more options and check boxes to add filters. The page will refresh with updated results after each filter.

• Literal Phrases: Use quotes for exact matches (e.g., "blue moon").

• Multilingual Search: Supports searches in multiple languages.

• Fuzzy Search: To construct a query that includes a term for which multiple spellings may exist, use the fuzzy search feature by appending a tilde (~). For example, entering the term dostoyevsky~ returns documents containing the variants dostoevsky, dostoievski, etc.
  

3. Advanced Search Options:

• Boolean Operators:

  • AND: Finds results with both terms (e.g., "cat AND dog").

  • OR: Finds results with either term (e.g., "cat OR dog").

  • NOT: Excludes a term (e.g., "cat NOT dog").

• Wildcards:

  • Use ? to replace a single letter (e.g., "l?st" finds "last", "list").

  • Use * to replace multiple letters (e.g., "p*diatric" finds "pediatric", "paediatric").

• Parentheses: Group terms for better searches (e.g., "care AND (cat OR dog)").

• Proximity Search: Use quotation marks and a tilde (e.g., "debt forgiveness"~10) to find terms within a certain number of words.

4. Search Results:

• Results show a brief snippet or summary from the article.

• Sort results by relevance, title, date, or author.

5. Errors & Automatic Fixes:

• If you make a mistake (e.g., mismatched quotation marks or incorrect Boolean terms), the system automatically fixes it or shows an error.(Taken from T&F website: 2025).

Whether you're searching the library catalog or a specialized database, it's good to keep these tips and tricks in mind for better results.

Searching Tips

• Less is more!  If you don't find enough results on the cycling of nitrates, instead try nitrogen.
• Expand time or geography. If you don't find enough results on Pre-Eocene San Joaquin-Tulare Basins, instead try (mesozioc or paleozoic or Precambrian) AND San Joaquin.
• Limit with caution. Certain features may limit your retrieval in ways you don't expect. Some recommended limits are Source Type, Date, and Limiting to “Peer-reviewed” (in Basic and Advanced Search).
• GeoRef search tip: The truncation symbol is an asterisk (*) and the wildcard is a question mark (?). Using the * on a word will look for ALL possible variations for that word:
  • environment* will search for environment, environmental, environments …
  • [*3]magnet* will search for magnetic, demagnetization, geomagnetic, geomagnetism …
  • geolog*  will search for geology, geologic, and geological
• Remember to use Boolean logic. Use the OR search connector to search for different phrasings. If you use AND and OR search commands in the same search, put parentheses around the OR terms: try (mesozoic or paleozoic or precambrian) AND San Joaquin.
• To specify a location, consider your site at different scales. For information about Lake Tahoe, use terms like:

• • Lake Tahoe
  • Northern Sierra Nevada
  • State names (California and Nevada); County names
• Also add geologically-related terms:
  • tectonics
  • stratigraphy
  • paleogeography
  • mines and mining
• And consider both time periods and rock formations:
  • Cambrian, Pleistocene, etc.
  • Navajo Sandstone

Subject Searching

For a more directed search, do a subject search. In a subject search, you need to use official Library of Congress terminology. This type of language might not seem natural to you, but if you are not having any luck with keywords, it can be quite useful. For example, to find a guide for the Lake Tahoe region, you would type:

• Geology--California--Guidebooks
• Geology--Tahoe, Lake, Region (Calif. and Nev.)--Guidebooks
• Geology--Nevada--Reno Region--Guidebooks

Other "official" subject terms include:

• Geology, Structural
• Faults (Geology)
• Geology, Stratigraphic
• Geology, Stratigraphic--Pleistocene
• Plate tectonics

Subject Terms

For the subject Geochemistry:

• search also under the broader term Chemistry
• search also under the broader term Earth sciences
• search also under the narrower term Analytical geochemistry
• search also under the narrower term Biogeochemistry

Boolean Operators

AND, OR, and NOT

You can use the search operators AND, OR and NOT to combine search terms. These are the most commonly known and used boolean operators Truncation

The operators AND and NOT limit the number of results from a search. The operator OR does the opposite; it increases the number of results.

Examples:

• Endangered AND birds: searches for sources that have both these two words.
• Endangered OR birds: searches for sources with the word 'endangered' OR the word 'birds'. This search will produce more results. (Tip: the operator “OR” can also be used to include different spellings and translations or synonyms in the search).
• Endangered NOT birds: searches for the word ‘endangered’ and excludes any sources that also have the word ‘birds’.h.

You can also combine more than two search terms. Use brackets to indicate the priority. For example (Money OR inflation) AND banking

Truncation

Truncation lets you search for a word that could have multiple endings. The symbol for truncation is usually an * at the point where the spelling of the word could change, to use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. The truncation symbol is * (asterisk).

example 

1. Type "social network" into the first search box.
2. Take note of how many search results are retrieved.
3. Now use the asterisk as your truncation command symbol. Type in "social network*" into the first search box.
4. Did you see how the number of search results increased by including the variant endings for the word network?

Truncation is therefore an excellent way to retrieve all the various endings of a word's root or stem!