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Database Guides: JSTOR

Searching for an Exact Phrase

If you want to include more than one term in a field search, use parentheses () to enclose your search terms, or quotation marks (" ") to search for an exact phrase. The example above ("american revolution") searches for the exact phrase "american revolution" rather than treating it as a phrase search (american AND revolution).

Some other examples:

  • ti:cat dog will find the word cat in the item title field and the word dog in any field  
  • ti:(cat dog) will find the words cat and dog in the item title field in any order 
  • ti:"color purple" will find the exact phrase color purple in the item title field
  • ti:(peacekeeping AND "united nations") will find the word peacekeeping and the phrase united nations in the item title field

Searching for Multiple Spellings of a Word

Using the tilde symbol 
You can find words with spellings similar to your search term by using the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a search term. For example, ti:dostoyevsky~ helps find items with dostoyevsky in the item title field, as well as variant spellings like dostoevsky, dostoievski, dostoevsky, dostoyevski, dostoevskii, dostoevski, etc. Note: This way of searching encompasses a very large number of words. Narrowing this kind of search to the item title or another field is recommended. The first letter always remains the same.

Wildcards
​Wildcards take the place of one or more characters in a search term. A question mark is used for single character searching. An asterisk is used for multiple character searching. Wildcards are used to search for alternate spellings and variations on a root word. Wildcard characters cannot be used in place of the first letter of a word or within an exact phrase search. For example:

  • wom?n finds the words woman, women, womyn,​
  • bird* finds bird, birding, birdman, birds, and other words that start with bird
  • organi?ation finds organization or organisation
  • behavior* searches for behavior, behavioral, behaviorist, behaviorism, or behaviorally
  • You can combine search terms containing wild cards (wom?n AND "science education") and they may be used in a field search: au:sm?th or ti:shakespeare*