Chalmer Davee Library - Research Guides - Truncation and Wildcard Symbols

TRUNCATION AND WILDCARD SYMBOLS
USED IN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL DATABASES

When searching electronic journal databases, truncation and wildcard symbols allow you to expand your search. This guide is designed to allow you to easily determine the correct truncation and wildcard symbols used in the Library's databases. Please see a Reference Librarian if you need additional help.

What is Truncation?

Truncation allows a searcher to place a symbol at the end of a term's root. The search will then retrieve all words sharing the same root. For example, a search such as child* will retrieve entries that contain the words child, childhood, children, childlike, etc.

What is a Wildcard?

A wildcard is used to replace one or more characters within a word in order to retrieve various forms of that word. For example, a search such as wom?n retrieves entries that contain either woman or women.

How will this guide help me?

Electronic databases differ in their use of truncation and wildcard symbols, making it time consuming to search their help screens for the correct symbols. This guide is designed to help you quickly and easily determine the correct symbols.

DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
ABI/Inform Global	?	truncation	child?
	*	wildcard	wom*n
Academic Search Premier	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Agricola	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Alt-Health Watch	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
America: History and Life	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
American Chemistry Society Publications		automatically truncates terms
Applied Science and Technology Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Art Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science)	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Associations Unlimited	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Alt-Press Watch	*	truncation	child*

B
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Biography and Genealogy Master Index	$	truncation	child$
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Biological Abstracts (Biosis)	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Biological and Agricultural Index Plus	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
BioOne	%	truncation	child%
Black Drama – 1850 to Present	*	truncation	child*
	.	wildcard	wom.n
British and Irish Women's Letter and Diaries	*	truncation	child*
	.	wildcard	wom.n

C
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Catalog of US Government Publications 1994-	*	truncation	child*
Catalog of US Government Publications July 1976-	*	truncation	child*
Child Abuse, Child Welfare & Adoption Database	*	truncation	child*
CINAHL	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Clinical Pharmacology	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Clinical Reference Systems	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Contemporary Authors	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
CQ Researcher	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Criminal Justice Periodical Index (CJPI)	?	truncation	child?
	*	wildcard	wom*n

E
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures and the Environment	*	truncation	child*
	.	wildcard	wom.n
EBSCO Animals	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Education Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
eHRAF Archaeology	*	truncation	child*
eHRAF Ethnography	*	truncation	child*
Encyclopedia Britannica Online	*	truncation	child*
Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management	*	truncation	child*
	*	wildcard	wom*n
ERIC	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Ethnic Newswatch	*	truncation	child*

F
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n

G
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
GenderWatch	*	truncation	child*
General Science Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
GeoRef	*	truncation	child*
	*	wildcard	wom*n

H
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Health Source: Consumer Edition	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
HealthSource: Nursing/Academic Edition	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Humanities Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n

I
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Ingenta (Uncover/Reveal)	*	truncation	child*
Institute of Physics Publications	*	truncation	child*

J
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
JSTOR	+	plurals	dog+

L
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
LexisNexis products	!	truncation	child!
	*	wildcard	wom*n

M
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
MathSciNet	*	wildcard	wom*n
		automatically searches for plurals and singulars
Medline	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Middle Search Plus	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
MLA Bibliography	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Masterfile Premier	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n

N
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
National Criminal Justice Reference Service	*	truncation	child*
North American Women's Letter and Diaries	*	truncation	child*
	.	wildcard	wom.n

O
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Omnifile Full Text Mega	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Oxford English Dictionary	*	truncation	child*
P
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Primary Search	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Project Muse	*	truncation	child*
ProQuest Newspapers	?	truncation	child?
	*	wildcard	wom*n
ProQuest Nursing Journals	?	truncation	child?
	*	wildcard	wom*n
PsycInfo	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
PubMed	*	truncation	child*

R
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Readers Guide Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n

S
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science)	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Science Online	*	truncation	child*
Social Science Citation Index (Web of Science)	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Social Sciences Full Text	*	truncation	child*
	?	wildcard	wom?n
Social Services Abstracts	*	truncation	child*
	*	wildcard	wom*n
Sociological Abstracts	*	truncation	child*
	*	wildcard	wom*n
Star Tribune	?	truncation	child?
	*	wildcard	wom*n

T
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)	$	truncation	child$

W
DATABASE	SYM.	USED FOR	EXAMPLE
Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated

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