Skip to Main Content
Research Guides Homepage

Opposing Viewpoints

The default search on the Opposing Viewpoints home page is a Basic Search:


 

In a Basic Search, you have just one search field. When performing a Basic Search, you need to combine keywords with Boolean operators like and, or, and not (see the "How to Search" tab for more information). 

In contrast, an Advanced Search has three search fields, with the option to add more fields. Each field is already connected with and, though you can change the drop down boxes to the other Boolean operators or and not:

 

 

Besides the number of search fields (one in Basic and three in Advanced), the main difference between Basic and Advanced Searches is where the databases look for your search terms: that is, in which parts of the article the database will look for a match to your search terms.

In a Basic Search, you don't specify in which parts of the article the database should look for your search terms. A Basic Search in Opposing Viewpoints will look for your search terms in every single word of every single article. 

Sometimes a Basic Search is not specific enough - the database is just blindly matching keywords to thousands and thousands of words, after all. The drawback of doing a Basic Search is that the database is indiscriminate. You could get a lot of "false positive" results, like this one:

 

 

An Advanced Search allows you to specify in which parts of the article you'd like the database to look for your search terms. You have many options here:

 

 

You may not use many of these options. Here are some of the more helpful ones:

Keyword - this is the default setting of the drop-down boxes. If you leave the drop-down box on Select a Field, it will do the same thing as a Basic Search, and look for your search terms anywhere in the article.

Document Title - this option will match your search terms to words in the title of an article. Chances are good that if the title of the article contains your search terms, the entire article will be more relevant to your topic.

You could also use this option if you need to look up an article you previously accessed in the database. Simply enter the exact title (without punctuation), and you'll find the article again faster than if you searched with keywords.

Publication Title - this option allows you to specify the name of the publication that published the article. So if you're looking for articles written by Paul Krugman and published in the New York Times, the most accurate way to search would be:

 

 

Author - if you know the author of an article, you can search just the author field by setting the drop-down box to this option. You can enter just the author's last name. If you know the author's first and last names, though, enter the last name first (Example: Friedman, Thomas). 

Entire Document - if you set the drop-down box to this option, it will look for your search terms in every single word of every single article. This would be a good option if you are looking for a very specific search term that isn't likely to appear in article description.

 

If you find that a Basic Search is giving you too many results, or a lot of results that aren't relevant to your research topic, try an Advanced Search!

If one of your search terms is a phrase, you might find that the database breaks the phrase up, and searches for the individual words. 

That can get frustrating, so use this simple tip: type phrases in quotation marks. This works for you in Google, too!

Let's say you're searching for articles about cap-and-trade programs that promise to combat climate change. If you just type in cap and trade, you get quite a few results:

 

 

However, if you type in "cap and trade," instead, the number of results is reduced greatly:

 

 

The only difference between the two searches is a pair of quotation marks! The results in my second list are going to be a lot more relevant to my topic, since those articles include the phrase "cap and trade," rather than articles with the individual words. 

Truncation is a way of expanding your search results by searching for multiple variations on a word at the same time. 

The Farmington State College Information Literacy Glossary defines truncation as "the ability to enter the first part of a keyword, insert a symbol (usually *), and accept any variant spellings or word endings, from the occurrence of the symbol forward."

So let's say you're doing some research on using cannabis for medical purposes. If you type cannabis into the database, these are your search results:

 

However, in addition to the word cannabis, there are similar words you could use as a keyword: cannabinoid, cannabinoids

To search for all  words at once, type the following: cannabi* 
The database will search for any words beginning with what comes before the *, and you'll get many more search results than when you searched with just cannabis:
 

Wild Card Searching

 
Searching with "wild cards" is similar to truncation, since you're replacing part of a word with a symbol in order to expand your search results. The main difference between truncation and wild cards, however, is that truncation happens at the end of a word, and wild cards can substitute letters in the middle of a word.

In this database, a question mark symbol (?) will give you variations on a word where one letter is difference.

For example:

wom?n = woman, women, womyn

gr?y = gray, grey

 

You could also use the pound sign (#), which will give you variations on a word where one or more letter may be different. This is especially helpful where you might have Anglicized variations:

colo#r = color, colour

https://www.sanjac.edu/library| Central Library: 281-476-1850 | Generation Park Campus: 281-998-6150 x8133 | North Library: 281-459-7116 | South Library: 281-998-6150 ext. 3306