6. Glossary

Database

A database is an organized collection of related information. It is made up of records, each of which represents a single unit of information, such as a bibliographic citation to an article, a book, or a chapter in a book. Each record is further divided into categories of information called fields, such as title, author, and publication year.
Some databases are bibliographic, providing citations to published documents. They may also include a summary or abstract of the document. Some databases provide the full text of documents while others contain biographies of newsmakers or authors.

Records

Each H.W. Wilson database is made up of units of information called records. Each record represents a single unit of information, such as a bibliographic citation to an article, book chapter, or complete book. The contents of the records depend upon the type of database—some databases provide only bibliographic information, and others provide abstracts, the full text of documents, or biographies of noteworthy persons.

Fields

Each record is further divided into fields, such as Author and Title.

Each record in a database consists of units of information called fields. Each field contains a specific kind of information, such as the name of an author, the text of an abstract a subject heading, keywords, or a special code. To see a list of fields for the database you are searching, refer to the Database Description.

Field Labels
Fields are identified by a field name and a label. Labels are two-to four-character abbreviations, such as TI for the Title field. You can use the field label to limit your search to a particular field.

Limit Fields
Some database fields are limit fields. These are fields that require specifying a field name. For example, Publication Year (PY).

Free Text Fields
Those fields that are not limit fields are known as free text fields. To search in all free text fields, enter the term in the text entry area of the Search page, and select All.

Links

There are two kinds of links: icons, and highlighted text underlined in blue.

Icons

Icons appear to the left of all records and indicate that a variety of choices are available. A legend of icons appears at the top of all Results pages, and may vary depending on the databases available and the local configuration of WilsonWeb.
For example, if a full text icon appears to the left of a record, click the icon to view the full text of the citation.

Text

Brief Display
The Search Summary in the upper right of the screen shows the total number of records available. Click the highlighted title of the record to view the Full Display. The searched term appears as black, bold text.
 
Full Display
The Search Summary in the upper right of the screen shows the total number of records available.
Click the author's name to view all records by that author in the database(s) you are searching.
Click the name of the journal to view all records available in the database(s) you are searching.
Click the source of a journal to view all the records in that unique issue in the database(s) you are searching.
Click any subject term to see related terms in the Thesaurus.

Operators

You can use more than 30 operators, in 7 categories, to construct specific search queries. See the online Help for a detailed list and examples of how to use operators in advanced searching. The operators and, or, not, and in do not require brackets when formulating a Boolean search. In all other cases, you must use brackets with an operator, for example <near>.

• Concept Operators
  These operators combine the meaning of elements in a query to identify a concept in a record.

• Proximity Operators
  These operators specify the relative location of words in a document. Specified words must be in the same phrase, paragraph, or sentence in a record. When you nest these operators, use the ones with the broadest scope first.

• Relational Operators
  These operators search document fields (such as Author) that have been defined in the database, but the results are not ranked for relevance. The fields can contain alphanumeric characters.

• Evidence Operators
  These operators perform either a basic word search or an intelligent word search.

• Score Operators
  These operators affect how retrieved records are ranked for relevance. They are not used with modifiers.

• Natural Language Operators
  These operators enable the search engine to resolve natural language syntax.

• Modifiers
  You can change the standard behavior of an operator by using these modifiers in conjunction with other operators.

Truncation and Wildcards

When using the All-Smart Search query do not use truncation symbols or other special characters. The Wilson All-Smart Search query will automatically search those options. Simply type the word or phrase that you are interested in and click Start.

Truncation Symbol
The truncation symbol (*) serves as a substitute for zero or a string of characters.
For example the search:
cat* retrieves catalyst, catatonic, as well as category
m*cdonald retrieves both mcdonald and macdonald.

Wildcards
The wildcard symbol (?) serves as a substitute for a single alphanumeric character. It is particularly useful when you are unsure of spelling.
For example, the search einst??n retrieves the correctly spelled einstein (albert einstein).
When searching for SIC codes, which are 4 digits, use the wildcard symbol (?) to search ranges.
For example, 12?? <in> sic retrieves all available codes between 1200 and 1300

Wildcard Operator
You can use the <wildcard> operator in a constructed search query to specify a pattern or range of characters. You must enclose the word that includes a range or pattern in apostrophes (' - single quotes). You must also enclose the pattern in brackets or braces, without spaces.
For example the searches:
<wildcard> 'bank{s,er,ing}' locates one of each pattern, as in banks, banker, and banking
<wildcard> 'c[auo]t' locates one of any character, as in cat, cut, cot

Relational Operators

You can use relational operators in a constructed search query to find a term (in context) or number (in a sequence).
For example, to locate a series of numbers within the Dewey Decimal Classification system the search ddc<starts>75 retrieves all headings between 750 and 759.
Relational operators are: <contains>, <ends>, <matches>, <starts>, <substring>.

Stemming

When you search on a single word the search engine will find documents that include that word as well as variations on the word as a root. For example, if you search for condition, the results will include documents with the words conditioning and conditioner. To restrict your search to the word itself, enclose it in quotation marks; "condition" will retrieve only those documents with that word.
If stemming is not desired for All-Smart Search queries, the feature must be turned off from the Administrator's Module.

In the Browse screen, you can look for variations of a name or term.