The Advanced Search Screen offers keyword searching, search history and limiters to help you focus your search. Some databases provide a suggest subject terms feature you can use to map your search terms to appropriate terms in a thesaurus.
If provided by your library administrator, either additional guided search fields or a search builder may also be available.
If you are searching multiple databases, special limiters may be available.
On the Tabbed Toolbar, click Advanced Search. The Advanced Search Screen appears.
Enter your search terms in the Find field. Your search terms can be keywords or selections from search history. Boolean operators (And, Or, Not) can also be included in your search. You can also use field codes with your search terms.
Click Field Codes to display a list of field codes available with the databases you are using. Type the field code before you search terms to limit those words to the field you entered. For example, AU Smith will find records that contain Smith in the Author field.
And - combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, travel AND Europe finds articles that contain both travel AND Europe.
Or - combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, college OR university finds results that contain either college OR university.
Not - excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, television NOT cable finds results that contain television but NOT cable.
Add limiters or expanders from the Refine Search sub-tab. To select multiple values from a list, press the Ctrl key (or Command key) and click the left mouse button. (If you change expanders while searching, this may affect your search history.)
Click Search. Your search results are displayed below the Results sub-tab.
You can save searches and later retrieve them for reuse on the Advanced Search Screen. For more information, see Saving Searches and Alerts. Before you can save searches, you must set up a personal account in EBSCOhost. For more information, see Setting Up a Personal Account.
If you are searching more than one database, on the Refine Search sub-tab the limiters common to the databases appear under the Limit your results heading. If you select any of the common limiters, they are applied to all databases you are searching. A limiter will appear in the common limiters section only if it is available in all the databases you selected. If a limiter is available in three of four databases you selected, it will be displayed in the special limiters sections for those three databases.
The database-specific limiters appear under the heading Special limiters for: Database Name. (e.g., Special limiters for: Academic Search Premier.) If you select a special limiter, it is applied only to the database under which it appears. For example, you might select the Publication type limiter below Academic Search Premier, and need to select it again below Newspaper Source.
Some databases offer the Suggest subject terms search feature on Advanced Search. For a single database, you can enter search terms and mark the Suggest subject terms check box. When you click Search, the corresponding thesaurus is searched and the most appropriate terms are displayed. If you search using only limiters, "Suggest" is ignored. If you conduct a fielded search at the command line (e.g., AU Smith) “Suggest” is ignored.
If the guided search fields are displayed, you can enter text on all three lines, select field codes from the drop-down list, and select Boolean operators to connect search terms. After you click Search, the input from all three lines is joined together. And takes precedence over or when grouping items together. Parentheses are assigned based on this logic. To force grouping, you can enter the parentheses or place "grouped" expressions together in a single input field.
Database-specific help provides more information on which default fields and/or searchable fields are available with a database. From any of the Search Screens, click the Database Help link.
If the search builder feature is displayed, you can enter search terms in the Find field, and enter additional terms in the Terms field, select a field code from drop-down list, then select the Boolean operator (and, or, not) you want to "join" the term to the search you are building in the Find field. Each time you click Add to Search, the added terms are surrounded by parentheses. You can also group terms together by entering a Boolean search string in the search builder Add field. You can also combine searches available in your search history with search builder to retrieve a search and then refine it again.