Phrases

When conducting searches, you may need to look for search terms that are more than a single word, for example a search on food waste. In some databases, if you type food waste, the database will read it as food AND waste, which may bring back results that aren't relevant. To avoid this, you can use quotation marks. Searching "food waste" will only return results that include those two words next to each other and in that order. 

Truncation

Some databases allow you to search for variants of a word using truncation. Truncation symbols vary between databases, but the asterisk is most common in UNT's databases

Examples

sustainab* = sustainable, sustainability

consumer* = consumer, consumers, consumerism

behavio* = behavior, behaviour, behaviors, behavioral

Filters

Many databases have filters or facets to help you narrow your search results. Possible filters include:

Publication date: allows you to specify a publication date range

Document type: allows your to specify the type of resource you are looking for, including scholarly articles, newspapers, and trade publications.

Subject: allows you to limit your results to those with a selected subject