Search tips

From National Research Council Canada

Keywords

Entering keywords into the default search box (Basic Search) will result in a search for those terms within a record. The search will retrieve items that contain all of the terms entered.

Example:

water vapor

Searches for items that contain the word water and also the word vapor. The words do not have to be side-by-side.

Phrases

A phrase search will retrieve items that contain the words side-by-side. To submit a phrase search, enclose your search terms in quotation marks.

Example:

"water vapor"

Searches for items that contain the phrase water vapor.

Hint:

Looking for a specific article title or journal title? Use a phrase search.

Truncation

One character may be truncated inside or at the end of a term using a question mark (?). The search results will contain all terms that match the un-truncated part(s) of the term and one additional character at point of truncation.

Example:

med?cine

Searches for items that contain the words medicine or médecine.

Example:

climat?

Searches for items that contain the words climat or climate.

Any number of characters can be truncated inside or at the end of a term using an asterisk (*). The search results will contain all terms that match the un-truncated part(s) of the term and any number of additional characters at point of truncation.

Example:

climat*

Searches for items that contain words beginning with climat (e.g., climat, climate, climatologie, climatology).

Example:

*second

Searches for items that contain words ending with second (e.g., nanosecond, femtosecond).

Example:

r*nforc*

Searches for items that contain words with any number of characters in place of the asterisk (e.g., reinforced, renforcé).

Searching by author

An author's name may be indexed many ways.

To retrieve the most search results, search against the author's last name. If several authors have the same name in the system, this search will retrieve publications from all similarly-named authors. To get fewer results, search against the author's last name and first name or initial.

Example:

Fletcher J

Fletcher John

Fletcher M

Fletcher Murray

Browse by NRC author

To view all of an NRC-affiliated author's publications, use the Browse by NRC author tool. This will help avoid the ambiguity that can occur with keyword searches.

Advanced Search Form

The Advanced Search form provides different search boxes to separate the entered search terms into three different Boolean operator categories.

All of these words

Using the All of these words search box will return search results that contain all of the terms or phrases entered, using a Boolean AND operator.

Example:

reinforced concrete

Searches for items that contain the word reinforced and the word concrete. The words do not have to be side-by-side or in the same field in the record.

Hint:

The All of these words search box can be used to combine an author's last name and subject, search for two phrases, or combine a journal title and subject.

Fletcher protein*

"water treatment" "pollution control"

"journal of molecular spectroscopy" nitric

Any of these words

Using the Any of these words search box will return results that contain any of the terms or phrases entered, using a Boolean OR operator.

Example:

eau? water glace ice

Searches for items that contain words starting with eau or the word water or the word glace or the word ice.

Hint:

The Any of these words search box can be used to search for multiple variations of an author's name.

"Fletcher J*" "Fletcher M*"

None of these words

Using the None of these words search box will return search results that must not contain any of the terms or phrases entered, using a Boolean NOT operator.

Example:

*second nano*

Searches for items that do not contain words ending with second and do not contain words starting with nano.

Combining search boxes

The three search boxes can be used individually or in combination.

Example:

reinforced concrete in All of these words
fib* rebar? ?FRP in Any of these words
fire in None of these words

Searches for items that contain the words reinforced or concrete and either words starting with fib or rebar or words ending in FRP but not the word fire.

Year

Entering values in the Year search boxes will search for records with dates matching the year(s) entered. If values are entered in both from and to search boxes, the search results returned will only fall within that range. Entering a value in only the from search box will return search results which are newer or match the year entered. Entering a value in only the to search box will return search results which are older or match the year entered.

Full text

You can limit the results of a search to records for which the full text is available. On the search results page, the "Filter your results" feature offers various ways to limit your search. To limit your search to citation records with attachments, scroll to the "Content available" section, check the option "yes", scroll down and click on "Apply filters". New results will appear that include only records with attachments.

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