Truncating words
TRUNCATION, also called stemming, is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end.
The truncation symbol is * (asterisk).
The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
- For example: child* gives you child, children, childhood etc.
Pay attention to the spot where you place the truncation mark. If you truncate too early, there will be false hits due to non-relevant terms fulfilling the condition. If you truncate too late, something remains undiscovered.
Wildcards replace letters
A bit similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one or one/zero letter of a word.
- A wildcard replacing one character is usually ? (Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest)
For example: organi?ation - A wildcard replacing zero or one character is for instance $ (Web of Science) – not every database offer this possibility
For example: colo$r
Replacing a character is useful for instance if you are not sure about the spelling:
- eri?son retrieves ericson and erikson
- hof$man retrieves hofman and hoffman
Wildcard is also useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning.
- advis?r retrieves adviser and advisor
Notice, that colo?r does not find color, since there must be one character replacing ‘?’. A better solution could be a truncation mark: colo*r.
On the other hand, using truncation within a word might be tricky, if there are other possible matches for the truncated term, for instance gauge/gage: if you use ga*ge, you will get also garbage and garage.
Watch a video ‘Search techniques: Truncation & Wildcards’ (1:09) by QUT Library. The link in the picture will take you to YouTube.
Stemming and lemmatisation usually helps
Many databases can automatically recall some inflected forms of words, typically singulars/plurals and sometimes conjugations too. Also American-British spelling variations are taken care of by the system.
- color might retrieve also color, colors, colour, colours, and in some cases even coloring, colouring
Notice 1. If you use phrases in your queries, this automatism won’t work!
- “level of organization” won’t find “level of organisation” or “levels of organization”
- instead you can use: ” level* of organi*ation “
Notice 2. If you are interested for instance in cycling (riding a bike) and want to avoid other, wrong forms like cycle, you can either use truncation: cycling* or a phrase: “cycling”.
To Do:
- See your search terms and think about if they need truncation. Place the truncation mark to a right spot.
- Notice especially phrases and a need of truncation there.
- Notice also, if the truncation might lead to possible “wrong” results. This is usually not a problem, if you use several search terms together.
Next page: Operators connecting words