4. Introduction to Search Operators and Punctuation
Start by by reviewing the drug information resources covered up to this point in the course.
Use the letters corresponding to the resources in the list below to answer the review questions.
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Objectives:
- Students will know the implications of joining search terms with AND, OR or NOT.⭐
- Students will understand the effects asterisks *, quotation marks “__”, and parentheses () have on retrieval of search results.⭐
Most of the resources we’ve covered up to this point in the course will work best with single word searches. Some of the resources covered during the next two chapters can handle more complex searches. So it’s important to make sure that everyone is ready to use search operators (AND, OR, NOT) and search punctuation (parentheses, asterisks, and quotation marks). You can use these tools to make your searches both more thorough and more focused on the information you need.
Introduction to the exercises below:
Pretend that each of the items in the images below is accompanied by a description. Which item descriptions would be retrieved by the search strategies in each of the exercises below? Click on the items. A gold star will appear when you have selected all the correct answers.
1. Start with a one word search. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following one-word search strategy?
blue
Click on the item/s.
Let’s move on to a two-term search that uses AND.
AND tells the search engine that you want both of the adjacent things to be present.
Example:
The search strategy —
dog AND bite
— would retrieve anything that contains both terms, regardless of their relationship. Examples of sentences that would be retrieved include:
A dog bite received the previous year ….
A cat attacked the dog resulting in multiple injuries including a bite through the left rear paw.
2. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
yellow AND eye
Click on the item/s.
“–” (quotation marks) — Sometimes you will want to find things that contain a multi-word phrase. When you want the words you enter to be adjacent to each other and in the order shown, enclose the phrase in quotes.
Example:
The search —
“dog bite”
— would retrieve the sentence —
A dog bite received the previous year ….
— but would not retrieve —
A cat attacked the dog resulting in multiple injuries including a bite through the left rear paw.
3. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
“yellow eye”
Click on the item/s.
What if you enter the phrase without quotes? This depends on the search engine. A literature database like PubMed or Toxnet will usually treat a search composed of two words separated by a space just like the two words joined by AND. So, usually, a search for —
cat bite
— would produce the same results as the search —
cat AND bite
4.
Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
yellow eye
Click on the item/s.
OR — Sometimes you will want to include more than one word for a concept. OR tells the search engine that you don’t care which of the adjacent terms is present and is usually used to join terms for a single search concept.
For example a search for :
bite OR bites OR attack OR maul
will retrieve all the items that contain one of the listed words.
5. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
yellow OR blue
Click on the item/s.
() — Parentheses are used in search strategies in the same way they are used in algebra. The parentheses tell the search engine that it should do the operations inside the parentheses before it does any adjacent operations . Parentheses are used most often to surround OR’d terms.
For example, when responding to a search for —
(dog OR pet OR cat) AND (bite OR bites OR attack OR maul)
— the search engine will find the set of results that contain dog, pet, or cat. It will then find the set of results that contain bite, bites, attack, or maul. Finally, it will perform the AND operation and find the results that are shared by the two sets.
6. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
balloons AND (yellow OR blue)
Click on the item/s.
When no parentheses are present, the search engine reads from left to right.
7. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
balloons AND yellow OR blue
Click on the item/s.
When humans are asked to find all items that meet a certain criteria, they think about the concepts designated by the criteria. When search engines are asked to look for a word or group of words, they see the exact characters in the word, not the concept.
8. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
flags
Click on the item/s.
(A single “flag” is pictured not plural “flags”. )
* (asterisk) — Most literature databases, and some other resources make finding different forms of a word easier by allowing you to use a wildcard character after a word’s trunk. The character used as a wildcard is usually an asterisk.
For example, a search for —
injur*
will retrieve items containing any of the following words —
injure
injuries
injury
injured
injuring
9. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
flag*
Click on the item/s.
NOT tells the search engine that you want all items that meet criteria stated before the NOT with the exception of the items that meet criteria following the NOT. In other words, items meeting criteria that follow the NOT should be removed from the search results.
For example, if you search for —
(pet OR pets)
–you will find that some of the articles (perhaps most) concern “positron emission tomography” (which is often abbreviated PET).
Revising the search as shown below would take care of most of this problem —
(pet OR pets) NOT “positron emission tomography”
10. Which of the descriptions for the items below might be retrieved by the following search strategy?
“flip flops” NOT yellow
Click on the item/s.
Images used in the exercises above are in the public domain and are available from:
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=322489&picture=flip-flops-blue-clipart
https://www.goodfreephotos.com/vector-images/blue-snooker-ball-vector-clipart.png.php
https://www.goodfreephotos.com/vector-images/flying-saucer-ufo-vector-clipart.png.php
https://www.needpix.com/photo/1361279/balloons-balloon-bunch-colorful-red-blue-green-orange-pink
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Svensk_flagg_1815.svg
https://www.goodfreephotos.com/vector-images/yellow-fish-vector-clipart.png.php
Questions, Problems, Text Errors?
Before you leave, …
- Do you have any questions or do you feel that clarification of some aspect of the materials would be helpful?
- Have you noticed any errors or problems with course materials that you’d like to report?
- Do you have any other comments?
If so, you can submit questions, comments, corrections, and concerns anonymously — or with your e-mail (your choice) — through this online form . Alternatively, you’re always welcome to contact Cindy Schmidt directly 402-650-5056, cmschmidt@unmc.edu, or by making an appointment to meet with Cindy via Zoom.
Answers to questions or requests for clarification that are submitted anonymously will be answered in Canvas on the “Discussions” page for this course.
