Search Basics

Cheat sheet for phrase, stemming, and wildcard searching for a variety of library research databases

Phrase, truncator, and wildcard search tips cheat sheet

Database

Truncator

Wildcard

Exact Phrase

ACM Digital Library none none "double quotes"
Calhoun *

? single character
* multiple characters

"double quotes"
Credo Reference * ? "double quotes"
DTIC Online (public version) * ? "double quotes"
DTIC R&E Gateway (access controlled) none none "double quotes"
Ebook Central n/a n/a "double quotes"
EBSCO * ? or # "double quotes"
Engineering Village * n/a [braces] or "double quotes"
IEEE Xplore *

? single character
* multiple characters

"double quotes"
Jane's IHS Markit * ? "double quotes"
JSTOR * n/a "double quotes"
Knovel * n/a "double quotes"
LexisNexis Academic ! * "double quotes"
LexisNexis nexis.com ! * "double quotes"
Library Search * ? single character
* multiple characters
"double quotes"
Project Muse * n/a  "double quotes" 
ProQuest * ? "double quotes"
ProQuest Congressional

? replaces one letter at the end of a search term

* replaces more than one letter at the end of a search term

n/a "double quotes"
ScienceDirect * ? exactly one character
* zero or more characters
{brackets}
Taylor & Francis n/a *  
Web of Science * ? single character
$ zero or one character
"double quotes"
Wiley * ? single character
* multiple characters
"double quotes"
WorldCat * # single character
? zero to nine characters
"double quotes"