To search for a phrase, use quotation marks. This tells the database to only show you results with those words in exactly the order you typed them.
Examples:
To search for words with the same root or trunk, use an asterisk * , which is called a truncation symbol
Good examples:
This won't be helpful with some roots, such as cult* if you're wanting cultural or related words, because many unrelated words begin with cult (cult, cultivation, cultivated, cultivate, cultic…). But, you could improve this search by using cultur* instead!
The three basic boolean operators, AND, OR, & NOT, are used to create relationships between your search terms to either narrow or broaden your search results.
AND - Narrows your results by finding records with all of your search terms. Use AND to connect two or more different concepts.
OR - Broadens your results by finding records with one term or the other, or both terms. Use OR to connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms).
NOT - Narrows results by finding records that include the first term, but not the second. Use NOT to ignore concepts that may be implied by your search terms, but are not what you are looking for.
A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary, full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, plus indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals.
Academic Search Complete is a general database provided by the vendor EBSCOhost. This database provides a lot of full text, and it is a good starting place for researching a variety of topics. The database covers both academic journals and popular magazines, books (good for finding book chapters), and newspapers.
During your time at Knox, you will notice that many databases we have are provided by the same vendor. Remember that while these databases my look similar, they each contain different content and provide slightly different search and limiting capabilities.
Academic Search Complete defaults to an advanced search, which allows you to search multiple keywords or to combine different types of search terms.
After entering your search terms, you can also choose to limit your search with various options. There are multiple limit options, including limiting to scholarly journals, a particular document or publication type, a date range, etc.
