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:
Causes of Toxic Algae Blooms
Use of algae as a source of biofuels
Identify the key terms in those sentences. These are the terms that will be searched in the indexes:
Causes of Toxic Algae Blooms
Use of algae as a source of biofuels
2. Identify related terms with similar meanings, if any.
Toxic = Harmful
3. Use quotation marks to search for phrases. Common and Scientific names of plants and animals should be searched as phrases.
“Algae Blooms"
4. Connect unrelated search terms using AND.
Toxic AND Algae AND Blooms
Algae AND Biofuels
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.
(Toxic OR Harmful) AND "Algae Blooms"
(Algae OR Algal) and Biofuels
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: Alga* Finds: Algae, Algal
Bloom* Finds: Bloom, Blooms, Blooming
? (Question Mark) – Used as a truncation symbol to replace only one character.
Examples: Alga? Finds: Algae, Algal
Bloom? Finds: Bloom, Blooms but not Blooming
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.
(Toxic OR Harmful) AND "Algae Blooms" NOT (Ocean* OR Estuar*)
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!