How does proximity searching work? What is the optimal number to enter when doing proximity searching?
Answer
Most databases allow you to do proximity searching, which means that the database looks for words that are close to each other. You get to determine the number of words that the databases searches within.
Proximity searching looks and works differently depending on the database and the interface, but there will always be a number present.
Here is what the syntax looks like in different databases, with # representing the number of words:
- Ovid databases (Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, etc.): adj#
- Ebsco databases (CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, ERIC, etc.) n#
- Proquest databases (Sports Medicine & Education Index, Dissertations & Theses, etc.): NEAR/#
- Web of Science: NEAR/#
- Scopus: W/#
You can enter whatever number you think is necessary. Try to think of how your keywords or terms would be written to determine the number you input.
For example, you might want to choose the number 2 if you think that breast cancer will be referred to as cancer of the breast. In this case, there are 2 words separating the term cancer and the term breast.
It's important to note that some databases include the terms entered as one of the words. In Ovid databases, we would need to enter 3 instead of 2 because our entered keywords count in the total.
Read the explanation from Ovid:
This is what our example would look like in various databases:
- Ovid: cancer adj3 breast
- Ebsco: cancer n2 breast
- Proquest & Web of Science: cancer NEAR/2 breast
- Scopus: cancer W/2 breast
Remember that the higher the number you enter, the more results the database will retrieve. If you are going over 5-6, you should consider swapping the proximity search with an AND.