The WIU Libraries subscribe to indexes to journal articles and other publications in many different fields. To search indexes a search strategy must be developed. The following steps can guide users through the process:
1. Identify search topics. This can be done by writing a sentence describing the topic of interest:
Genetic Testing Climate Change Evolution
Limb Regeneration Mass Extinction Water Quality
Identify the key terms in those sentences. These are the terms that will be searched in the indexes:
Sex Determination Climate Change Evolution
Limb Regeneration Mass Extinction Water Quality
2. Identify related terms with similar meanings, if any.
Climate Change = Global Warming
Monarch Butterfly = Danaus plexippus
3. Use quotation marks to search for phrases. Common and Scientific names of plants and animals should be searched as phrases.
“Climate Change" "Global Warming" "Monarch Butterfly" "Danaus plexippus"
4. Connect unrelated search terms using AND.
"Climate Change" AND Glaciers
Limb AND Regeneration
"Water Quality" AND Algae AND Bloom
5. Combine similar terms using OR. If other terms can be used to describe a concept, search them as well, but combine them using OR instead of AND. For example, genetic mappping could also be called genetic testing or genetic sequencing.
("Climate Change" OR "Global Warming") AND Glaciers
("Monarch Butterfly" OR "Danaus plexippus") AND Migration
(Limb OR Appendage) AND Regeneration
5. Use parentheses to group parts of searches together. Terms in parentheses are searched before the rest of the terms. See examples above.
6. To search various forms of a word, use Wildcards and Truncation Symbols. The truncation symbol in Biological Abstracts and Science Citation Index is the asterisk (*). The ? (Question Mark) and $ (Dollar Sign) are used as wildcards.
* (Asterisk) – Used as a truncation symbol to search for all forms of a term.
Examples: Gen* Finds: Gene, Genes, Genetic, Genetically
Test* Finds: Test, Tests, Testing, etc.
? (Question Mark) – Used as a truncation symbol to replace only one character.
Examples: Gene? Finds: Gene and Genes but not Genetic or Genetically
Test? Finds: Test and Tests but not Testing
Wom?n Finds: Woman or Women
$ (Dollar Sign) – Used to replace zero or one character. Can be used to find different spellings of words.
Examples: Colo$r Finds: Color or Colour
Pal$ontology Finds: Paleontology or Palaeontology
NOTE: Truncation symbols vary by index vendor. See the Guide to Truncation Symbols or the table below.
| Vendor | Operators | Truncation | Wildcards |
| Ebsco | AND, OR, NOT | * (Asterisk | ? |
| ProQuest | AND, OR, NOT | * (Asterisk) |
? - 1 Character * - 0 or 1 Character |
| Web of Science | AND, OR, NOT | * (Asterisk) |
? - 1 Character $ - 0 or 1 Character |
7. Use NOT to eliminate terms that might not be appropriate for your research.
((Limb OR Appendage) AND Regeneration) NOT Salamanders
(("Climate Change" OR "Global Warming") AND Glaciers) NOT Alaska
8. Use the Find It button to see if a journal article is available in the WIU Libraries. All records in Biological Abstracts and Science Citation Index will have a button that looks like this:
NOTE: Many of these techniques work in Google too!