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Scopus: Advanced Search

Search Tutorial

Advanced Search

An advanced search allows you to enter complex search queries using field codes, boolean, and proximity operators to narrow the scope of your search. See below for advanced search tips, or visit the Scopus site for detailed information.

Operators

Boolean operators to combine different search queries while Proximity operators find words near / within a specified distance of each other.

  • Boolean operators - OR, AND, AND NOT

  • Proximity operators - W/n, PRE/n

Field Codes

You can search for a term in a specific field by entering the field code in your advanced search. There are over 60 different field codes to search from. 

Find exact or approximate phrases and words

There are two ways of searching for phrases, an exact search and a loose/approximate phrase, depending on how exact a match you want to find. These include wild cards, brackets, quotation marks.

  • Loose/approximate phrases

  • Exact phrase

Exclude Medline records from search results

To exclude Medline records from your search results, include the following in your search on the Advanced search page:

AND NOT INDEX(medline)

Advanced search error messages

Error messages alert you to problems within your advanced search.