This powerpoint describes how the order of precedence can interfere when searching for papers, conference proceedings, reviews, books or book chapters in Scopus, Web of Science and Medline. Advanced search techniques are provided to help find relevant citations in agriculture, engineering and the sciences (STEM).

1. Advanced
Search Skills
Finding
Literature for
ALES,
Engineering &
Sciences
Diane Clark, AFNS Librarian
diane.clark@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta Libraries

2. Outline
• controlled vocabulary
• natural language / keywords & phrases
• Boolean operators
• proximity locators
• highly cited papers
2

3. Why?
=
horse chestnut
playing conkers
chestnut
flower
conker moth
Under the
Chestnut tree
Horse chestnut
supplement
Chestnut horse

4. • Databases control how
your search terms are
performed
• There is no
interpretation of your
information need(s)
• Work with the database
syntax and structure

5. Order of Precedence:
No Boolean Operators
AND
OR
E.g.
stress and fracture
fracture
stress fields
stress
fracture gap
stress analysis
fracture surgery
AND
OR
AND NOT
E.g.
diabetes
childhood and
diabetes
type 2 diabetes
childhood diabetes
diabetes in children
childhood
diabetes mellitus
Exact match
from left to
right
E.g.
childhood diabetes

6. Controlled Vocabulary
• Metadata
• LCSH (Library of Congress
Subject Headings)
• MeSH (Medical Subject
Headings)
• Index terms
• Thesauri

7. Sub-headings &
number of citations
Tree or hierarchy
in MedLine
Scope Note =
More info

8. Scope Note – information about
subject headings

9. CABI in Web of Science use
CABICODES for controlled vocabulary

11. When to use
Controlled Vocabulary
• Established concepts
• Display relationships
between concepts
Keywords
• Newer concepts
• Interdisciplinary topics
• New articles (not indexed)
usually called “In process”
• Errors in spelling or indexing

12. Boolean Operators
Operators
• AND
• OR
• NOT
When ordering food AND gets you more

13. Boolean Operators
Operators
• AND
• OR
• NOT
When looking for articles in a database,
AND = less results

14. Boolean Operators
Operators
• AND
• OR
• NOT
When ordering food OR gives
you less

15. Boolean Operators
Operators
• AND
• OR
• NOT
When looking for articles in a database,
OR = more results

16. Boolean Operators
Operators
• AND
• OR
• NOT
When ordering food or searching for
citations, NOT = removes unwanted items
Lettuce, tomato but NOT turkey

17. Combining Boolean Operators
• AND = less
• OR = more
• NOT = remove
Combining operators
1. small AND poor grammar AND
green = Yoda
2. small OR green = Kermit, Hulk, Yoda, Gary
Coleman
3. green AND poor grammar = Kermit, Hulk,
Yoda

18. Order of Precedence:
With Boolean Operators
NEAR/#
SAME
NOT
AND
OR
OR
W/#
AND
AND NOT
Exact match
from left to
right
Note: Precedence can be controlled using nesting or brackets

19. calcifediol OR 25 hydroxy vitamin D OR 25(OH)D
OR 25-hydroxyvitamin D
child OR children OR teen OR adolescent OR
juvenile OR minor OR school aged OR teenager
= ?
= results are citations with any of the terms
above, with the only term that is narrowed is
25-hydroxyvitamin D with child
Order of Precedence: Without Nesting
Boolean Operators
Looking for citations on vitamin D levels in
children:
AND

20. (calcifediol OR 25 hydroxy vitamin D
OR 25(OH)D OR 25-hydroxyvitamin D)
(child OR children OR teen OR adolescent OR
juvenile OR minor OR school aged OR teenager)
= results vitamin D levels in a specific population
Order of Precedence: Using Nesting
Boolean Operators
Use brackets ( ) to determine order
Searched
1st
Searched
2nd
AND
Sets are
combined
last

21. Phrases & Adjacency
Phrase for an Exact Match
• MedLine
“horse chestnut”
• Scopus
{horse chestnut}
• Web of Science
“horse chestnut”
Adjacency/Proximity
• Medline
horse chestnut ADJ5 vitamin
• Scopus
horse-chestnut W/5 vitamin
• Web of Science
horse chestnut NEAR/5 vitamin

22. Highly Cited Articles
Web of Science
Looking for prion disease in chickens
Change “Sort by” to
A highly cited paper is a paper that belongs to the top
1% of papers in a research field published in a specified
year. The 1% is determined by the highly cited threshold
calculated for the research field in the specified year.

23. Highly Cited Articles
Web of Science
Note: There aren’t “highly cited” papers in all
topics

24. Summary
1. Become a registered user of
the databases to save
searches and get alerts
2. Search more than one
database and vary your terms
and strategies
3. Finding highly cited authors
and papers can be a challenge
4. Ask your librarian to help get
you started

25. Questions? Ask Your Librarian
• AFNS
diane.clark@ualberta.ca
• Biology & RenRes
christina.hwang@ualberta.ca
• Chemistry
elizabeth.wallace@ualberta.ca
• Chem Eng, Mat Eng, REES
randy.reicardt@ualberta.ca
• Civil Eng
jerry.kowalyk@ualberta.ca
• Computer Eng
sam.popowich@ualberta.ca
• EAS
jthorlak@ualberta.ca
• Human Ecology
angie.mandeville@ualberta.ca
• Maps
virginia.pow@ualberta.ca
• Math
tim.klassen@ualberta.ca