Which of the words in a topic description should be included as search terms (keywords)?
Only words describing the main concepts of a topic should be included as search terms (keywords). See the example in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Starting your search: Developing keywords from a topic
Why shouldn't common words such as effect, role, impact, etc., be included as search terms?
These common words occur in almost every scientific article. Including them won't narrow down your search to the articles that are most relevant to your topic.
How should I truncate my search terms?
Truncation instructs the database to search for all records containing the string of characters up to the wildcard symbol, and any characters afterwards. To see how search terms should be truncated, please see the example in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Truncation.
Where should I place the wildcard symbol when truncating a search term?
In BIOSIS Previews and other Web of Science databases the wildcard symbol is an asterisk or star, usually inserted by holding down the Shift key and typing the number 8: *. To decide where to place the wildcard symbol, please see the example in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Truncation.
I've truncated my search terms properly but don't understand why my answers are getting marked as incorrect.
Be sure that you've included the wildcard symbol after the last common letter in all the different forms of each search term. Please see the example in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Truncation.
When I try to access BIOSIS Previews I get a sign-in screen.
You'll find a link to BIOSIS Previews under Key databases on the Bioscience Library homepage, or in A-Z Databases.
Alternatively, install the EZproxy bookmarklet. When you see the sign-in screen, click the bookmarklet:
You will see links to authenticate as a UC Berkeley student. Click on the UC Berkeley CalNet Login link:
Which terms should be combined with AND, and which with OR?
A search will retrieve results that include ALL of the terms joined by AND; it is typically used to combine terms describing different concepts.
A search will retrieve results that include ANY of the terms joined by OR; it is typically used to join terms describing related concepts or synonyms.
See the examples in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Building your search using AND, OR, and parentheses
Which terms should be included in parentheses?
If you're using both AND and OR in your search, use parentheses to group together terms connected with OR. This instructs the database that the terms grouped by parentheses are the ones to which OR applies. See the examples in the Bio 1B Library Help Guide: Building your search using AND, OR, and parentheses
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