Help with using the intermediate search
Use the intermediate search if you want to find more exact results.
The intermediate search function can be used to construct a query using words from a title, author name, topic or free text - or a combination of them all. Search (Boolean) operators are used to construct relationships between different search terms.
Help with truncating terms
Help with entering terms
If you use and between your terms, the search will only generate results that include all the search terms you are using in each record. Using and will reduce the number of search results.
Example one: Search for records that are written by Enid Levin and Peter Beresford
The authors may also be typed as: levin e* and moriarty j*
Results include:
Note: A person's surname is listed before their first name. You must search this way or you will not get any results.
If you use or between your terms, the search will find records containing either one or both of the search terms and will remove duplicate records . Using or will increase the number of search results.
Example two: Search for resources that have been written by Enid Levin or Peter Beresford
Results include:
and
If you use not between your search terms, this will exclude results containing this term. It is particularly useful if your term is associated with another common term. It is important here to ensure you enter your terms in the correct order.
Example three: Search for results about autism but not in relation to children.
Results include:
Help with truncating terms
The Intermediate search option allows you to search for variations of words with a common stem or prefix. It works by searching for the prefix of a word and generating a list of results that include all variants of the word with that prefix.
This is sometimes called 'stem search' or wild card searching. For example if you searched for educat*, the search will generate results that include educate, educating, education, educational, educator, educators, etc.
Note : It is easy to generate unwanted records, or miss records if the truncate symbol (asterisk) is wrongly placed. E.g. a search on pol* will produce results which refer to policy, police, politics
Example five: Search for educat* in title
Results include:
Title: An educational response to deliberate self-harm: training, support and school-agency links.
Title: Mapping of education and training for mental health practitioners in the South West.
Title: More than a piece of paper? Personal education plans and 'looked after' children in England.
Help with entering terms
When entering words in the fields in the intermediate search box:
Author: Type in an author name, with their surname before their first name.
No punctuation is required. Example: levin enid
Topic: Type in a topic. You should use a topic that is included in the Social Care Online topic tree.
The topic tree is available for reference, in hierarchical and alphabetical formats, as a PDF file.
- Download the hierarchical topic tree (122kb PDF file)
- Download the alphabetical topic tree (541kb PDF file)
Title: Type in any word, phrase or whole title.
Example: Involving service users and carers in social work education
involving service users
users and carers
user*
Free text: Type in any word or phrase. This will search the whole record, including author, topic, title, publisher, abstract index etc. for the phrase including author, topic, title, publisher, abstract index etc. for the phrase you are looking for.
Social Care Online is not case sensitive. Example: the author Enid Levin can be typed as Levin Enid or levin enid.
Searching by date range
Select a Date from: year and Date to: year from the drop down menus. This will return a result search for publication dates based on the range of years you have chosen.
