Help: Boolean, proximity and truncation searching

Boolean operators

You can combine your search terms using the following special words, called Boolean operators:

AND

The AND operator retrieves all records that contain the search terms it separates. However, this type of search normally retrieves fewer results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.

If you have entered search terms in more than one search box, British Periodicals treats them as if they were combined using the AND operator.

Note that if you want to search for the word 'and' in a phrase, such as 'rhetoric and ideology', you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotes; for example, "rhetoric and ideology".

OR

The OR operator retrieves all records that contain either or both of the search terms it separates. This type of search retrieves more results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.

If you select more than one search term from a list, British Periodicals automatically combines them in the search box using this operator.

Note that if you want to search for the word 'or' in a phrase, such as 'rhetoric or ideology', you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotes; for example, "rhetoric or ideology".

NOT

The NOT operator retrieves all works that contain the first search term but not the second.

Note that if you want to search for the word 'not' in a phrase, such as 'rhetoric not ideology', you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotes; for example, "rhetoric not ideology".

Proximity operators

British Periodicals allows you to use proximity operators to look for words that are close to each other:

NEAR
FBY (Followed BY)

To use proximity operators:

Enter your first search term.
Enter a proximity operator.
Enter a full stop followed by the required number of words you want to allow between search terms; for example, near.6.
If no maximum is set, British Periodicals will list all items that contain the selected search terms within four words of each other.

If you are performing a phrase proximity search, British Periodicals counts the number of words between the first word of the first phrase and the first word of the second phrase.

NEAR operator

Allows you to search for terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in any order. For example:

Keyword(s): mouse near hole
Keyword(s): gentleman near.6 dandy
Keyword(s): "rape of lucrece" near.10 "venus and adonis"

FBY operator

Allows you to search for terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in a specified order. For example:

Keyword(s): mouse fby hole
Keyword(s): gentleman fby.6 dandy

Wildcard characters

British Periodicals allows you to list documents containing variations on a search term by using the * (asterisk) character. The * character can represent one or more characters in a search term.

Important note: wildcard searching is not currently supported for the following search fields: Journal Editor, Journal Subject, Place of Publication.

To perform a wildcard search:

Enter the first few letters (or stem) of your search term followed by the * character.

If you are performing a phrase search, you can only use wildcard operators in the final word in the phrase.

Examples

econom*

Will retrieve entries for all records containing the words: economics, economic, economy, economist etc.

Parentheses

You can use parentheses ( ) to group search terms and influence the way your search is processed. For example, a search on (british or english) and music will retrieve articles containing the words 'British' or 'English' and the word 'Music' . A search on british or english and music will retrieve articles containing the word 'British' or articles containing the words 'English' and 'Music'.

Note: if you combine parentheses with the proximity operators NEAR or FBY in your search query, you must put the proximity operators inside the parentheses. For example, to retrieve articles containing the words 'British' or 'English' within 6 words of music, type (british near.6 music) or (english.near.6 music); the syntax (british or english) near.6 music will not work.