Phrase Searching

Enclose multi-word phrases in quotation marks. Either single or double quotes will work, as long as one matches the other. If no quote marks are used, Embase searches for all the words with the Boolean AND operator by default.

You can also bind multi-word phrases with hyphens.

heart attack retrieves heart AND attack (anywhere within an article)

‘heart attack’ retrieves heart attack (phrase)

heart-attack retrieves heart attack (phrase)

Notes

  • Alphanumeric terms and phrases (with spaces) can both be searched as single words or phrases.

“... IL2 ...? or “...IL 2 ...? search as IL2, ‘IL2’, IL-2 or ‘IL 2’

  • Proximity operators can be used within phrases: ‘drosophila *3 ecdysone’
  • Wildcards (truncation characters) are disabled within phrases (including mapped phrases):

‘heart infarction*’ yields 0 results

  • Special rules apply to phrases with non-alphanumeric characters (especially prevalent in drug names).
  • Hyphens are also interpreted as phrases, for example:

heart-infarction yields the same results as 'heart infarction'

  • If you do wish to include a hyphenated word in your search, then please use the + sign, as in:

pre+existing rather than pre-existing as pre-existing will be searched as 'preexisting'