A truncation symbol allows you to search for a range of words with the same root in a search engine or database.

For example, the word bank can be a part of a number of other words:

Using a truncation symbol, a search can be designed to retrieve results which contain a range of words containing bank as the stem.

This is done as follows: bank*

Wildcards offer the ability to substitute a character as a stand-in for any word or letter in a keyword. This can be helpful in compensating for different spellings of words. For example, the word colour is spelled color in American English. By using a wildcard, you can ensure that your search result reflects this.

A wildcard is usually a question mark but this can vary from one database to another - check the help section of each individual database.

Certain keywords can be shortened into a set of capital letters, also referred to as an acronym. For example, the National Health Service is usually shortened to the NHS and Meticillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus is nearly always shortened to MRSA.

When you put your search strategy together, you must be aware of any acronyms that may represent your keywords. It may be helpful to include them in the following way:

SATS OR Standard Assessment Tests

Sometimes you might want to search for a phrase, rather than individual terms, especially if the terms are common words. This is known as phrase searching. For example, you might be looking for information on global warming. As separate words, "global" and "warming" have different meanings to global warning. For a search engine to understand this, you must put your phrase in inverted commas/quotation marks as shown below.

"global warming"

To make your search more precise, you can limit it in certain ways. The most commonly used are date limits. Most search engines and databases will give you the option to limit by date. You will usually need to select "Advanced Search" to find the limit options. As well as limiting your search by date, you may also be able to limit it by language or item type. So, for example, you could limit your search to journal articles published in since 2005.