42 Truncation - Search Tactics (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
42 Truncation - Search Tactics (Information Research)
Some search engines don't allow searches for text fragments, and you
must explain your intention by adding a truncation mark (usually * or
?) to the ends of words. For most professional researchable databases,
alga? will include both algae and algal (as in algal bloom). I was once
badly lost because of the spelling difference between aging and ageing.
There are a number of improvements on this concept to. Sometimes there
are special symbols for a non-space character car?a, sometimes there is
automatic awareness of multiple spellings (colour & color). Sometimes
there is even automatic awareness of synonyms. Often you are initially
unaware important information is indexed under slightly different
spelling, so truncation is strongly suggested for most searching.
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