General Search Tips

To perform a search with Scirus, enter your keyword(s) in the box provided and click on the Search button.

When searching using multiple keywords you can narrow your search by using the + and - characters:

•	+keyword(s) - all of your search results will contain this word
•	-keyword(s) - none of your search results will contain this word

For example:

•	diabetes +obesity will return results where both terms diabetes and obesity appear in the text
•	nanotechnology -nanotubes will return results containing the term nanotechnology in the text and exclude those also containing the term nanotubes

Both the + and - characters can only be used on the second and subsequent keywords (and not on the first keyword). Be aware that you need to enter a space after the first keyword, but not immediately after the + or the - characters.

If you are using abbreviated field terms (see Abbreviations below), make sure to put the + or the - before the abbreviations. For example:

•

health -au:smith where "au:" searches the author field, will return results with the term health in the text but not those that have authors with the name smith.

Boolean operators

Scirus also supports the Boolean operators AND, OR and ANDNOT, where:

•	AND - your search results will contain all of your keywords. For example, a search on women AND health will return results that contain the words women and health in the text
•	OR - your search results will contain at least one of your keywords. For example, a search on algebra OR trigonometry will return results that either contain the word algebra or the word trigonometry in the text
•	ANDNOT - ANDNOT - your search results will contain one of your keywords but not the other. For example, a search on gas ANDNOT helium will return results that contain the word gas in the text but not the word helium

Exact phrase:

You can use quotation marks ( “ ” ) to search for an exact phrase. For example:

•

"groundwater pollution" will return results where the exact term "groundwater pollution" appears in the text

Wildcarding

Scirus supports the use of wildcard characters when conducting a search:

•

Use a question mark ( ? ) to replace a single character anywhere in a word:

te?t finds test and text

?-phenyl finds o-phenyl and p-phenyl

•

Use an asterisk ( * ) to replace multiple characters anywhere in a word. It replaces 0 or more characters in the word (i.e. a search for car* will return car as well as carbon, etc.):

parasit* finds parasite, parasitic, parasitology, parasitemia

Abbreviations

You can run fielded searches using abbreviated field terms. You may find the following abbreviations useful:

•	author - au:
•	Title - ti:
•	Journal - jo:
•	keywords - ke:
•	URL - url:
•	domain name - dom:
•	author affiliation(s) -af:

These fields are also available in the dropdown menu on the Advanced Search Page.

When using these abbreviations, enter a colon “:” between the abbreviation and your search query. For example, au:smith will search for authors named Smith. Do not use any spaces between the abbreviation, the colon and the keyword.

If you are using the + or - characters in combination with abbreviations, make sure to put the + or the - before the abbreviation. For example:

•

health -au:smith where "au:"; searches the author field, will return results with the term health in the text but not those that have authors with the name smith

Be aware that both the + and - characters can only be used on the second and subsequent keywords (and not on the first keyword).

Spellchecking

Scirus has a spellchecker which automatically suggests alternatives to your query should it appear to be misspelt. For example:

•

anniline will bring back results for this keyword and suggest an alternative: "did you mean aniline?"

You can rerun your query using the proposed spelling.