Tips for Better Searching These search techniques are available in BASIC and ADVANCED searching Under click on for more information and ready access to search tools such as wildcard and truncation characters, Boolean and other search operators, and index fields. Under click on to access the structured list of subject headings used in the database.   Boolean searching Combine your keywords using the "Boolean operators", AND, OR, AND NOT AND/OR/AND NOT option searches only for words which occur within the same paragraph. To search for words within whole document use "w/doc", in full text articles only. Searching for a phrase When using 3 words or more to search, And is automatically added between words. To search for a phrase use quotation marks (""). Truncation Character ProQuest's default search preferences will automatically search for singular and plural forms of a word, and for English and American spellings, e.g. school/schools, behavior/behaviour. Use the * character to search for words with a common word root, with any number of letters following. For example, operat* will find articles containing operat ions , operat ional , or operat or  Wildcard Character Use the ? character to search for a single character, within a word or at the end of a word. For example, wom?n will find wom a n or wom e n. Educat?? will find educat ed or educat or