NZCER Publications Database: Basic Search Help

Finding keywords and key phrases


To find keywords, you need to type an ampersand (&) between each word

      school & transition
      cathy & wylie

To find phrases (several words in order), just type them
(you don’t need speech marks around them)

      bulk funding
      child care

To find synonyms, you need to type a forward slash (/) between each one

      early childhood/preschool/pre-school/kindergarten/day care/daycare

Group synonyms with brackets if you’re adding another search term

      (early childhood/preschool/pre-school) & professional development

To find plurals, alternative spellings, etc, truncate with an asterisk (*)

      child* (finds child, children, child’s etc)
      playcent* (finds playcentre, playcenter, playcentres etc)

To find one term but exclude another term, type an exclamation mark (!) between the terms (a term is a key word or key phrase)

      disadvantage* !disadvantaged (finds disadvantage, disadvantages, but not disadvantaged)

Tip: For best results use more than one keyword or phrase.

 

Finding titles of books, articles, papers etc


You don’t need to type the whole title. To find the report titled: The socialisation of teachers into the culture of assessment you can...

You can type a phrase (several words in order)

      socialisation of teachers

Or you can type keywords (several words, not necessarily in order)

      socialisation & teachers
      teachers & culture & assessment

 

Finding authors


Type the author's surname first
Optional: follow their surname with their first name or truncated initials

      wylie
      wylie cathy
      wylie c*

Or use the ampersand (&) between the author’s first and last names

      wylie & cathy

 

Finding full text only


To restrict your search to full text only

Click the ‘I only want full text’ box  (under the Keywords box)

NZCER Library

If you don’t find what you’re looking for

Email the library for help library@nzcer.org.nz or phone +64 4 802 1446