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	Phrase Searching	Truncation	Wildcards	Wildcards	Proximity Searching
Database	Uses quotation marks to find an exact phrase e.g. "data mining"	*Searches for the different endings of words e.g. comput will return computer, computers, computerize, computerization**	Replaces 1 character e.g. wome/an	Replaces 0 or 1 character e.g. behaviour/behavior	Search for terms within a specified number of words
ASTM Compass	Yes	*	*	*
Engineering Village (Check database help for exceptions) Includes Inspec	Yes "Northeast University" also uses { } e.g. {chemical physics}	*	?	#	The NEAR command is used for searching terms that are near to each other in any order. The ONEAR command is used for searching terms that are near to each in the order specified in the search query
IEEE	Yes e.g. "data mining"	* electro* finds electron, electrons, electronic, electronics, electromagnetic, etc. And at the beginning of a word *optic finds optic,fiber-optic, electrooptic, acoustooptic, etc.	* wom*n matches woman or women.	* me*n replaces one or more characters to find men, mean, median etc
Knovel	Yes e.g. "tool steels"	* bio* will find results for biomaterials, bioactive, bioeconomy, biomedical and more	Sm?th will find results for Smith and Smyth.
Lexis+ UK and Nexis	Yes	! e.g. contract! finds contract(s), contractual etc.	*	* Use one asterisk for each character to be replaced eg int**net for internet	w/n (within n words of) w/s (in same sentence as) w/p (in same paragraph as)
ProQuest Complete Collection and other Proquest Databases such as Advanced Technologies and Aerospace Electronics and Communications Abstracts Materials science and engineering SciTech collection	Yes e.g. “wireless sensor network	* e.g. architect* finds architect, architects, architectural, architecture	? computeri?e finds computerize or computerise	* behavio*r finds behaviour or behavior	Near/n
Science Direct (NB cannot use wildcards or proximity connectors along with boolean searches)	Yes	*	?	*	W/n
Scopus	Yes e.g. “wireless sensor networks"	* e.g. architect* finds architect, architects, architectural, architecture	? e.g. computeri?e finds computerize or computerise	* e.g. model*er finds modeller or modeler	W/n
EBSCO databases eg Art and Architecture Source, Art and Architecture Archive Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals	Yes	*	?	# e.g. synthesi#ing finds synthesising or synthesizing	Nn (within n words in any order) e.g. planning N4 "shopping centres" finds planning shopping centres as well as planning of regional shopping centres Wn (within n words, in the order written)
Springer Link	Yes	Automatic truncation eg type transp to return transport, transportation etc	? e.g. hea? will return only results that contain four-letter words starting with "hea", such as "head", "heat", "heal" etc.	* Replaces any number of letters e.g. hea* will return " "head", "heats", "health", "heated", "heating" etc.	The NEAR operator (case-insensitive) will return results where the search term on the left is within ten words of the word to the right of the NEAR operator. For example system NEAR testing will return results in which the word "system" is located within ten words of the word "testing", in either order. The ONEAR operator means the search terms on either side must both be near each other in the text and also appear in the order you’ve entered them in the search box.
USearch	Yes	*	?	#	Nn (within n words in any order) Wn (within n words, in the order written)
Web of Science	Yes e.g. “wireless sensor network”	* e.g. architect* finds architect, architects, architectural, architecture	? e.g. computeri?e finds computerize or computerise	$ e.g. program$ing finds programing or programming	NEAR/n (within n words of)