Get closer - use proximity operators!
Although databases usually offer sophisticated indexing to help accurate searching, you often need to use free text terms too.
Two of our most popular and useful databses: Factiva and Business Source Complete allow you to search for words as phrases (you can put them in double quotes to be sure.) But did you realise that you can search for words that are close to one another although they can be separated by several words. Alter the number to indicate how many words apart you think might apply.
If you want to find:
- market share or
- share of the organic food market or
- share of the disposable paper products market
Use -Business Source Complete: market n5 share . The words can be up to five words apart and in any order. To keep the words in the given order use: w5 instead
In Factiva use: market near5 share to operate in the same way and w/5 to keep the order entered.
You may also know that the truncation device is an asterisk. So invest* will get investment, investments, investing, investor etc.
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Picture: Creative Commons:Flickr, Caro's Lines
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