Database search boxes and drop-down menus for specific fields: how do these work?
Answer
In the “Advanced” search screen in databases, there are several boxes to input your search terms.
A.) What you’ll also see is a drop-down menu that allows you to pick specific fields that will be searched when looking for your term(s). These specific fields include options such as Title, Abstract, Author, Keyword, Journal Title, Publication Date.
See below, a screen shot of the drop-down menu and a few of those specific fields that you can select, taken from the CINAHL Complete database:
B.) If you don’t select a specific field, the default is “All fields.” IMPORTANT: “All fields” will not search the full text of an article. See below, a screen shot of “All fields”:
“All fields” uses your search terms to search the article’s metadata (the information about the article: title, abstract, subject terms, keywords) from the bibliographic record.
See below, an article’s metadata (in bold) from the CINAHL Complete database:
C.) The “All Text” field searches the entire content of articles, including full text. This will retrieve a wider number of results, though they may be less relevant if your search terms appear frequently in the body of the text. See below, a screen shot of the “All Text” field:
For more precise results, start with “All fields.” If necessary, you can use “All Text” to retrieve additional articles that may have your search terms in the body of the text.
