Advanced One Search Tips: Wildcards and Proximity Operators


Searches within the Summon service can be performed using two wildcards: the question mark (?)  and the asterisk (*). 

(?) replaces a single character, so organi?ation will search for organisation and organization (and organination oddly enough)

(*) matches zero to any of number characters of within or at the end of a word. So cat* will include cat, cataclysm, catastrophe and catechism. But ca*t will include cat, catalyst and catchment.

Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search, nor should a wildcard be used within double quotes (phrase searching).

One Search will include most common plurals automatically, even women/woman, man/men, mice/mouse.

(~) is a 'proximity operator' - use it to return results that have two words close together in any order so "radiation skin"~3 will return results that include these phrases:

  • Radiation-induced skin injuries
  • Managing radiation skin injury
  • Sarcoma and skin radiation oncology
  • Cutaneous radiation syndrome after accidental skin exposure to ionizing radiation
Proximity operators are great when you have keywords that are common, and have many meanings, but when used with each other in a sentence are more likely to refer to a unique meaning. 

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