Database quick guides: Scopus

* replaces 0...n characters anywhere in a word
 

? replaces a single character anywhere in a word

- can be used to search the alternative spellings of the same word

product*
> products, production, producting, producted, productive

*behavio*
> neurobehavior, biobehavioural

organi?ation = organisation = organization

anesthesia = anaesthesia

The singular form of a word finds also the plural form and possessive forms of most words.

Any form finds other forms.

steel
> steel, steels

child
> child, child's, children, children's

children's
> child, child's, children, children's

foot
> foot, feet

Hyphenated form finds hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms.

Non-hyphenated form is treated as separate words.

Some hyphenated words are also written combined. With these you must use OR operator.

talk-show
> talk-show, talk show, talk-shows, talk shows

talk-show 
= talk-show OR "talk show" OR "talk shows" 

non-formal OR nonformal

1) double quotation marks

- wildcards can be used

- the singular form of a word finds also the plural form of most words

"criminal* insan*"

"financial technology" 
> financial technology, financial technologies

2) braces = exact search

- find documents that contain exactly that enclosed in braces

- wildcards are searched as actual characters: * is searched as asterisk, not as a truncation

- the singular form of a word does not retrieve the plural form

{out-of-hospital}
> out-of-hospital

{out of hospital}
> out of hospital

{to be or not to be?}
> to be or not to be?

Boolean operators
AND, OR, AND NOT

- are not case sensitive

Without parentheses operator precedence is:

1. OR
2. W/n, PRE/n
3. AND
4. AND NOT

finland or finnish and pisa 
= (finland or finnish) and pisa

(wind AND power) OR (solar AND energy)  

Proximity operators

- for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other

- truncation is possible

- you can use parentheses to multiply terms

W/n regardless of the order, n ≥ 0

energy w/2 polic*

robot* w/1 (hand OR arm)

(distan* OR online OR virtual* OR remote*) w/5 (education OR learn* OR teach*)

heart PRE/0 attack = "heart attack"

cable pre/1 television

(robot* w/2 hand) OR (robot* pre/3 arm)