University of New South Wales - Library - Database Truncation and wildcards

Truncation is used to find alternative endings to a search term. To truncate is to substitute a symbol for the last part of a word. Truncation lets you search for words containing a common word root, with any number of characters following the root. Usually, it is either an asterisk (*), a question mark (?), or an exclamation mark (!). Be careful not to shorten the word too much, or you might get lots of words you're not interested in. For example, cat? will find cat, cats, catalog, cataclysm, catamaran, catastrophe, catch, cataract, and lots more.

Wildcards are used to replace a letter or letters within a word. Usually, one wildcard symbol takes the place of one letter.

Databases vary in how truncation and wildcards work. Different databases use different truncation and wildcard symbols, so be sure to consult the table below, look at the database's online HELP or ask a librarian if you have problems. Unfortunately there is no standard. This chart shows the truncation and wildcard symbols used by databases at the UNSW Library.

ABC-CLIO
Libraries Australia/Kinetica
UNSW Catalogue
BiblioLine
MathSciNet
Butterworths
Ovid
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) [includes many Materials Science Databases]
ProQuest
Ergonomics Abstracts
Project MUSE
Eureka [includes Architecture & Art Databases]
RIBA Catalogue/Architectural Publications Index
ScienceDirect/Elsevier [includes Compendex, Geobase]
IEEE Xplore
SciFinder Scholar
Sirius - UNSW Library Gateway to Electronic Resources
InfoTrac
WebSPIRS
ISI/Web Of Science [includes Current Contents, INSPEC, JCR, Web of Science]
WilsonWeb

Database or Vendor/Name	Truncation or Wildcard	Examples	Finds
ABC-CLIO	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	*	post*modernism	postmodernism, post modernism, post-modernism
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	?	creat??	creator, created (not creation)

BiblioLine	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
BiblioLine	?	wom?n	woman, women

Butterworths	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	?	promis??	promisee, promisor, promises, promised (not promising)

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	*	behavi*r	behaviour, behavior
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	?	fib??	fibre, fiber (not fibres, fibers)
Elsevier/ ScienceDirect	!	prevent!	prevent, prevents, prevention
	*	wom*n	woman, women
		Bernst**n	Bernstein, Bernstien
		transplant**	transplant, transplanted (not transplantation


Ergonomic Abstracts	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
Ergonomic Abstracts	*	wom*n	woman, women

Eureka	?	prevent?	prevent, prevents, prevention
Eureka	?	wom?n	woman, women

IEEE Xplore	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	*	*mos	MOs, cmos, bicmos
	?	Bernst??n	Bernstein, Bernstien
	?	wom?n	woman, women

InfoTrac	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	!	colo!r	color, colour
	!	product!	product, products, (not production)
	?	wom?n	woman, women
		fib??	fibre, fiber (not fibres, fibers)
		psych????y	psychiatry, psychology, (not psychotherapy)

ISI Current Contents INSPEC Journal Citation Reports (JCR) Web of Science Arts & Humanities Citation Index Science Citation Index Social Sciences Citation Index	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	*	sul*ur	sulphur, sulfur
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	?	Bernst??n	Bernstein, Bernstien
	? and *	ch?mi*	chemist, chemists, chemistry, chimia, chimica, chemie

Libraries Australia/Kinetica	?	prevent?	prevent, prevents, prevention
	! use for one word titles	science!	Science (not Science Weekly)
UNSW Catalogue	The ? character or * character (asterisk) can be placed at the left, right or middle of a portion of a word, but it can never be used more than once in a text string. The # symbol can be used to find variant spellings in cases where one version of the word has one more chararacter than another version. For example, colo#r finds both color and colour; and arch#eology finds both archaeology and archeology. The ! character can be used to find variant spellings in cases where a single character can vary. For example, wom!n retrieves both woman and women. The % symbol, followed by a number, can be placed between two words to indicate that you want the words to appear within a particular distance from each other. For example, ballads %3 england retrieves Ballads of England , Ballads of Merry Olde England and England and Her Ballads. The ! character, followed by a number, can be placed between two words to indicate that you want the words to appear within a particular distance from each other, and in the same order in which you type the words. In this case, ballads !3 england retrieves Ballads of England and Ballads of Merry Olde England but not England and Her Ballads.

American Mathematical Society MathSciNet	*	math*	math, mathematics, mathematical

OVID	$	prevent$	prevent, prevents, prevention
	#	wom#n	woman, women
	#	pattern#	patterns, (not pattern)
	?	colo?r	color, colour
		behavio?r	behavior, behaviour
		alumin?um	aluminum, aluminium

ProQuest	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	?	creat??	creator, created, (not creating)

Project MUSE	+ forces word stem/truncation if search stemming is on	prevent+	prevent, prevents, prevention
	?	wom?n	woman, women
	#	run#	run (not runs, running)
	@ thesaurus operator - finds synonyms	satellite@	satellite, satellites, spacecraft

Riba Library Architectural Periodicals Index	$	architect$	architect, architects, architecture, architectural
Riba Library Architectural Periodicals Index	$	wom$n	women, woman

SciFinder Scholar (Chemical Abstracts)	SciFinder Scholar automatically applies truncation, singular/plurals and synonyms including common abbreviations and CAS abbreviations.


Sirius	?	prevent?	prevent, prevents, prevention

WebSPIRS	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	?	behavio?r	behaviour, behavior
	?	wom?n	women, woman

WilsonWeb	*	prevent*	prevent, prevents, prevention
	?	wom?n	women, woman
		behavio?r	behaviour, behavior
		sup??ur	sulfur, sulphur