Evidence Synthesis in the Social Sciences

Step 1: Select a database 

There are multiple database options, you can search "All Database".

Step 2: Enter your search terms 

Tip: Double check your Boolean operators.

Step 3 (optional): Refine your search 

Navigate the "refine results" section towards the left side of your screen and filter your options. 

A. Wildcards  represent unknown characters. 

• The asterisk (*) represents any group of characters, including no character.
• The question mark (?) represents any single character.
• The dollar sign ($) represents zero or one character.

1. Asterisk

s*food matches:

• seafood
• soyfood

2. Dollar Sign

The dollar sign ($) is useful for finding both the British and American spellings of the same word. For example, flavo$r finds flavor and flavour.

colo$r matches: 

• color 
• colour

3. Question Mark

The question mark (?) is useful for searching last names of authors where the last character is uncertain. For example, Barthold? finds Bartholdi and Bartholdy. It will not find Barthold.

wom?n matches:

• woman
• women

4. Using ? and *

Example: organi?ation* matches:

Results: organisation, organisations, organisational, organization, organizations and organizational

B. Hyphens and Apostrophes

The search engine treats hyphens (-) and apostrophes (') in names as spaces. For example:

AU=O Brien returns the same number of results as AU=O'Brien.

Try searching for names with and without a space. For example, AU=OBrien OR AU=O Brien returns both variants of the name.

When searching for hyphenated query terms, enter the term with and without wildcards. For example:

• TS=hydro-power returns records that contain the terms hydro-power and hydro power.
• TS=hydro*power returns records that contain the terms hydropower and hydroelectricpower.
• TS=hydro power returns records that contain the terms hydro and power anywhere in the record, such as hydro-power, hydro-electrical power, and hydro-mechanical power.