Search operators
You can make your searches more specific by using search operators. These are words and symbols which change how the search engine handles the terms you enter.
Boolean operators
Also known as Logical Operators, Boolean Operators determine the relationship between multiple search terms. There are three Boolean Operators; AND, OR and NOT:
AND operator – An AND operator between two words tells the search engine to return only documents containing both words. Note that on JustCite the AND operator will always be implied between two or more words unless you either:
- Use a different operator; or
- Enclose the words in double quotation marks (see below).
Therefore a search for medical negligence is equivalent to medical AND negligence.
If you wish JustCite to treat the word and as a search term rather than an operator, you must enclose it, or the phrase containing it, within quotation marks.
OR operator – using the OR operator between your search terms returns results containing any or all of the words you have typed in. This will broaden the scope of your search but will not always provide the most relevant results to your query.
NOT operator – use this operator to narrow a search to omit any documents that contain a certain word. The NOT operator between two words tells the search engine to return any documents that contain the first word unless they also contain the second word. For example, negligence not clinical will return any entries containing the word negligence, unless they also contain the word clinical.
Note that Boolean operators are not case sensitive; or will be treated exactly the same as OR.
Wild Cards
Asterisk (*) – this will match any word beginning with a particular set of letters, and is of particular use in matching words with related meanings which share a common stem. For example, typing child* will match both child and children.
Question Mark (?) – this operator substitutes one or more letters in the middle of a word. For example, compl??ent finds complacent, complement and compliment.
Proximity operators
Proximity operators allow you to search for one term within a certain number of words of another term. Proximity operators are similar to AND operators but are capable of greater precision. If a simple AND search returns too many results, try the same keywords with a proximity operator.
Proximity operators are especially useful when searching for phrases because they will return not only product liability, for instance, but also liability for the product.
The basic structure of a proximity operator is:
A within x of B
For example, smuggling within 20 of tobacco will return any entries where the term smuggling appears within 20 words either side of the word tobacco.
You can also use a shorthand form of proximity operator as follows:
w/x B
For example, children w/5 safeguarding will return any entries where the term children appears within 5 words either side of the word safeguarding.
On JustCite, the word near is predefined as meaning within 10 of. This is a useful shortcut for quick proximity searches.
Date ranges
Most JustCite data sources contain date information in a format that allows you to search for a range of years.
The basic DATE operators are BEFORE, AFTER, and FROM / TO.
Date operators are perhaps most useful in the Advanced Search, but you can also make use of them in the main Search box by using the following structure:
Year [operator date]
For example, year [after 2005] will restrict results to those documents published/reported after 2005, and year[from 1995 to 1997] will restrict results to just those documents published/reported between 1995 and 1997 inclusive.
Date searches are most effective when combined with other search terms. For example, try negligence year [before 1932] to get an overview of that tort pre-Donoghue.
In the Advanced Search date range boxes, the year [ ] structure is not required and you can simply enter date searches in the form before 1995 or after 2008.
Phrase Searching
Phrase Searching - By enclosing two or more words in double quotation marks, JustCite will treat those words as a phrase and will only return results where those words appear together in the exact order specified. It will also treat words that would otherwise be treated as search operators as search terms. Phrase searches can greatly reduce the number of returned documents; for example compare control order with “control order”.