Lesson 6-4 Searching Free-text for a Subject: Searching DialogWeb for the Patent Researcher

Conducting a Subject Search (continued)

Step 3: Using Proximity Connectors to search phrases

Notice some of my search terms are two-word phrases. Dialog provides many different proximity connectors for searching words that are adjacent to or near each other. This technique is called proximity searching. Proximity searching specifies the relative nearness of search terms to each other.

We use proximity connectors most commonly in the following situations:

Searching an exact phrase appearing anywhere in a record.

Searching phrases that contain stop words, punctuation, hyphens, or other special characters. Tip 6-2

Narrowing a search to increase the precision of a search. Tip 6-3

See Learn More for a list of the most commonly used proximity connectors.

Quick Check 2: Look at the search terms we just identified in Step 2 to see where proximity connectors should be inserted.

Check yourself
Add the connectors to your search sheet, and click the Check Yourself Icon to see the answers.

6-4

Search Tip 6-2:

A word containing punctuation — such as a hyphen or apostrophe — cannot be SELECTed with the punctuation intact; punctuation must be replaced with the (W) connector.

Example:

non(w)stick

Retrieves:

non stick
non-stick

Search Tip 6-3:

The (S) proximity connector is especially good to use when searching complete-text records.

Since the Dialog system searches every word of the text, using the (S) connector requires words to be in one paragraph where the subject discussed is usually similar.

Learn More #3: Proximity Connectors:

1. (N) Connector: To search a phrase without regard to the order of the words, we use the (N) connector between words. For example, game?(n)board? retrieves records with the phrases: game boards or board games.

Example:	Retrieves:
game?(n)board?	game boards board games

2. (W) Connector: To search an exact phrase, we use the (W) connector between words in the phrase. For example, indoor(w)game? retrieves records where the two words appear next to each other and in this exact order.

Example:	Retrieves:
indoor(w)game?	indoor game indoor games

3. (#N, #W) Connectors: Both the (W) and (N) connectors may have a number inserted — for example, (2w), (3n), etc. — which specifies a maximum number of intervening words that are allowed. It is almost always better to use (N) with a number: (1N), (2N), etc.

Example:	Retrieves:
game(2n)board game(5w)board	the board for the game is missing the game is played on a board

4. (S) Connector: Using the (S) connector between terms requires that they be in the same paragraph.

Example:	Retrieves:
game(s)board	game somewhere in the same paragraph with board

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