Prevention News: Search Tips

This section provides tips on performing effective searches. If you are unfamiliar with searching, these step-by-step instructions and tips will help you obtain relevant results. For descriptions of the fields, see the Field Help Text. For more assistance with searching, read the the Frequently Asked Questions.

• Performing a Simple Search
• Truncation
• Punctuation
• Operator to Connect Terms Within Fields
• Operators to Connect the Fields
• Refining Your Search
• Interpreting Your Search Results
• Stopwords
• Frequently Asked Questions

1. Decide on a single word or concept that describes your topic.
2. Enter word(s) in the appropriate field(s). For example, if you are searching for summaries that mention the pharmaceutical company Glaxo, enter "glaxo" in the Search all Text field.
3. Click on Search.

Right-hand truncation is available in this database by using an asterisk. Using truncation enables you to search for more than one form of a word by entering a root word and placing an asterisk at the end of it.

For example, if you enter the term "africa*" in the Title field, the database will search for all summaries with the root "africa" in their title.

Your results will include these titles:

• AIDS Epidemic Likely to Hit African Copper Supplies
• Conference: AIDS in Africa
• Africa's Death Sentence

The system does not understand most punctuation. If you are using any form of punctuation in your search and get an error message or no results, remove the punctuation and try your search again.

If you select "and," the database will search for summaries that have all of the words you enter.

Example:
To find summaries that have both the words "azt" and "ddc" in the title, enter the following:

Your results will include these titles:

• AZT Used With Experimental ddC Is More Effective AIDS Treatment
• AIDS Drug DDC Inferior to AZT, Study Determines
• Study Combining AZT, ddC, Shows Promising Result

If you select "or," the database will search for occurrences of any of the terms you enter. Use this operator if you are searching for synonyms, such as AZT and Zidovudine.

Example:
To find summaries that have AZT or Ziduvodine in the title, enter the following:

Your results will include these titles:

• HIV-1 Sensitivity to Zidovudine and Clinical Outcome
• In-Vitro Activity of Zidovudine Against Mycoplasma
• AIDS Drug DDC Inferior to AZT, Study Determines
• Study Finds Drug AZT Slows Onset of AIDS

If you select "and," the database will link all fields for which you have entered information.

Example:
To find summaries from the New York Times with the term "women" in the title (between the dates January 1, 2000, to January 1, 2001), enter the following:

If you select "or," the database will search for all occurrences of terms in any of the fields.

Example:
To find summaries with the term "women" in Title or Descriptor field, enter the following:

If You Find Too Little:
If you find that you are not getting any summaries, or not getting as many as you would like, you need to broaden your search. Here are a few options:

1. Remove one of the terms from your search. If you are using too many terms, you might be restricting the search too much.
2. Look for misspellings in the terms you have entered.
3. Change one of the terms to a broader term. For example, replace "peer counseling" with "counseling."
4. Change an acronym to the full name of an organization. For example, replace "NAPWA" with "National Association of People With AIDS."
5. See the Frequently Asked Questions.

If You Find Too Much:
If you get too many summaries, you need to narrow your search. Here are a few options:

1. Make your wording more specific. For example, use "syphilis" instead of "sexually transmitted diseases."
2. Add another word into a field. If you are searching for the word "health," you are likely to find too many records. Limit the search by entering another word to the same field, such as "mental." Also, add a term to the Source, Descriptor, or Date fields.
3. See the Frequently Asked Questions.

When you select Search, the database runs your search, and the results will appear on your screen.

The database displays the maximum number of summaries you specified on the Search page. Summaries are displayed by number, date, and title; they are ordered by date. Click on a summary link to review its contents. Click on the check boxes in front of several summaries, then click on Display Documents to view the contents of multiple summaries on one page. To view the contents of all the listed summaries, click on the check box for Select All Listed Documents, then click on Display Documents.

A stopword is a word that you cannot use to retrieve documents. The three operators and, or and not are stopwords. The system will give you an error message if you search any of the stopwords.

Included here is a list of frequently asked questions about the Prevention News Update Database. If you would like to suggest a FAQ for this list, send a message to us.

Question: Why doesn't the Prevention News Update Database retrieve any records on my topic?

Answer: It is possible that the database may not find any records for the topic you request. This might happen for several reasons:

• You may be searching on a subject outside the scope of this database.
• The words you used may be misspelled.
• Your search may be too specific. You do not need to use every line on the search form. Each line adds another restriction to the search.

Question: My search results gave me too many records. How can I narrow my search?

Answer: To narrow your results, enter another term. You may enter this term either in the same field or in another field.

Question: Does it matter if I use upper or lower case letters?

Answer: No, the database does not recognize the difference between upper and lower case letters.

Question: How do I know what words to use?

Answer: If you think the database should have information on your topic but you are not finding any records, you may be using a term that is different from the one the database uses. Try to think of another way to phrase the concept you're looking for. Also see Refining Your Search.

Question: Why don't all the fields show up for each summary?

Answer: Fields that do not show up do not have data. For some summaries, the Author field does not show up because there is no author attributed to the information. The Descriptor field does not show up for summaries before May 20, 1994, because we did not assign descriptors until that time.

Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention