Dictionary

Boolean operators Boolean operators, AND, OR, and NOT, are used to
combine or exclude entities, e.g. words or phrases,
in a search.
Citation A citation is a reference to a published or
unpublished source. A citation is an abbreviated
alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of
an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the
bibliographic references section of the work. The
purpose of the citation is to acknowledge the
relevance of the works of others. Generally, the
combination of both the in-text citation and the
bibliographic entry constitutes what is commonly
thought of as a citation.
Classification system Classification is used to organize or categorize
things. In a library catalog or a database,
classification systems are used to group items or
documents according to e.g. subject matter. Some
classification systems (e.g. Dewey Decimal
Classification system, DDC) apply numbers to
represent the order or hierarchy of the topics
covered and these are typically arranged in tree
structures. E.g.:
551 Geology, hydrology, meteorology
551.6 Climatology and weather
551.601 Philosophy and Theory
551.609 Historical, geographic, person treatment
Conference Proceedings Proceedings are the collection of academic
papers published in the context of an academic
conference.
Field search When you limit your search to a specific part of the
bibliographic reference - e.g. the title, author
name, ISBN, or keyword. As opposed to searching
across all sections of the reference (or indeed the
entire full text).
Homonyms Words that have the same pronunciation and
spelling but have different meanings.
Masking or wildcard- Masking or wildcard search is a search technique
search that allows you to substitute one or more
characters inside a search term, thereby retrieving
different spelling variations in one search.
A wildcard typically consists of signs such as? or #.
Searching for colo? r will retrieve documents
containing both color and color.
Metadata Data that provides context or additional
information about other data, i.e. information
about the title, author, subject, or DOI.
Open access Open access (OA) means free access to scientific
literature.
Peer-reviewed article An article that has undergone peer review has been
scrutinized by experts in the same subject field as
the author (i.e. “peers”). These experts evaluate
the quality and relevance of the article and if they
endorse it, the article may be published.
Postprint A post-print article is a journal article that has been
peer-reviewed. It is ready to be published in a
scientific journal at this stage but is without a
journal layout.
Preprint A pre-print article is an article in manuscript form.
It has not yet been peer-reviewed or indeed
accepted for publication.
Reports Reports typically provide detailed analyses of topics
or issues. Reports are often commissioned by
someone e.g. a public authority, an organization,
or a company, and are thus written with a
particular audience in mind. Moreover, reports tend
to provide answers or solutions to specific
questions or problems and often include a list of
recommendations.
Synonyms Words that have identical or very similar meanings
- e.g. car/vehicle/automobile.
Textbooks Books that introduce their readers to a particular
topic or field of research. Many textbooks are used
as teaching resources and as such may support
certain learning objectives and may even be
perceived as standard works within a given field of
study.
Thesaurus A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words
grouped according to similarity of meaning,
including broader, narrower, and related terms. A
hierarchy of subject headings.
Thesis A thesis is a document submitted in support of
candidature for an academic degree presenting the
author's research and findings.
Truncation Truncation is a search technique that broadens the
search by incorporating various word endings and
spelling varieties. When you truncate, you search
for the shortest form of a word and add a
truncation sign – e.g. *.
Searching for computer* - will retrieve documents
that contain variations such as: compute,
computer, computers, computing, and
computational.