BIO 302: Searching for Articles & Books

If you’re coming up with too few or too many results, try these tips!

Broaden your search

• Shorten a word to its root (truncate it) and add an asterisk (*)
   ◦ A search for pollut* would include the words pollute, pollution, pollutant, pollutants...
• Use OR instead of AND between keywords

Narrow your search

• Use AND between keywords
• Use NOT to exclude keywords

AND only returns search results that contain both keywords

- A search for "amphibian" AND "pollution" includes only results that contain both keywords

OR returns results that include either keyword

- A search for "amphibian" OR "pollution" includes results with either of those keywords

NOT excludes one or more of your keywords

- A search for "amphibian" NOT "pollution" will include results that contain the keyword “amphibian” but not "pollution"

It can also be helpful to combine Boolean Operators while searching. By using two Boolean operators in a search, it is possible to do a broad search for one set of terms and a narrow search for another at the same time to get more specific results. 

A few sample searches for this would be: 

(Dog OR Canine) AND (Origins AND Ancestry)

(Dog OR Canine) will search for the terms "dog", "canine", and "dog or canine", which makes it a broad search. (Origins AND Ancestry) will search "origins and ancestry" together, but not each on their own. By searching these together, the results will include anything about dogs, canines, dogs and canines in the context of origins and ancestry.

(Avian OR Bird) AND (Climate And Environment)

(Avian OR Bird) AND (Climate AND Environment) will select articles about "avians", "birds", and "avians or birds", which is the broad search. (Climate AND Environment) will select articles about "climate and environment" together, but not on their own as well. By searching these together, the results will include anything about birds, avians, avians or birds, but only those articles which also include climate and environment as other topics/keywords. 

Web of Science Core Collection has a lot of features to make narrowing your search and finding similar documents easier for you.  Here are a few of them:

 On the main search page

• Under Timespan, narrow the date range
• Add another search term

 On the results page

• On the left side of the screen, narrow your results by CATEGORY, DOCUMENT TYPE, AUTHOR, etc.

 On an individual record page

• View the Author-supplied Keywords or Keyword Plus - use those terms in your search
• Click on View Related Records
• View Cited References and to read abstracts or download articles from the bibliography
• View Times Cited to read abstracts or download articles that cited the article of interest

*And remember: You can save marked records and email them to yourself or upload them directly to Endnote.*

There are two ways to access journals at the University of Kentucky; some journals are in print, while others are electronic.  To find print journals, search InfoKat Discovery by title, much like you would for a book.  For electronic journals, use E-Journals A-Z.  Once at E-Journals A-Z, search by the journal title.

When searching for journal articles, you will notice the View Now button on many of your search results. Clicking on the View Now button will lead you to links for the full-text of the article or let you know that we do not have electronic full-text for that article.

If the full-text is not available, you can search InfoKat Discovery for a hardcopy of the article or request an interlibrary loan (ILL), if needed.

Frequently Asked Questions about View Now

Having trouble? Ask Us for help.

- To find an e-journal by title, search the  E-JOURNALS tab on the UK Libraries' hompage.  To find an e-book by title, search InfoKat Discovery

- For a print copy, search InfoKat Discovery.  

We don't have it??

Don't worry! You can request a copy through Interlibrary Loan.