Search tips

Search operators can help narrow your search. Many of these can be used by selecting options on the Advanced Search page, but using the operators directly in the search box may give you additional flexibility. Some operators allow you to be more precise in your search parameters - for instance, you may specify that results do not contain certain words. Some operators can also allow you to be more vague in your search parameters - for instance by specifying that all matching documents must contain a certain number of some given words.

The operators must be typed into the usual search box (the simple search box or top search box in the advanced search), and most of them can be combined with other search operators.

Search operators

note: Due to @ being an operator character, if you wish to search for an email address, or anything else that uses the @ symbol, you will need to put it in quotation marks eg "[email protected]" to search for documents including this email address

• Search all terms: The search will automatically yield results containing all words entered in the search box, unless the query is expressly limited by other operators. Terms will also automatically be matched with their stemmed keyword. For instance, entering

  elected official

  test query

  will match both pages containing the word elected and the word official, as well as pages with words such as elect or electing along with the word official.

• Search for a phrase: Putting quotation marks around a phrase will search for the words in sequence. For instance, entering

  "International Criminal Court"

  test query

  will yield results which contain the words international criminal court in sequence.

• OR operator: To search for pages with either one of two keywords, use a pipe between the keywords. For instance, entering

  ECHR | "European Court of Human Rights"

• NOT operator: Add an exclamation mark or minus sign to exclude results containing a certain word. For instance, entering

  Egypt !Mubarak

  test query

  will yield all pages that contain the keyword Egypt somewhere on the page and also do not contain the keyword Mubarak. Similarly, you could enter

  Egypt -Mubarak

  test query
• field search operator: To search for words that are in the title only or in the page content only, indicate @title and @content before each respective keyword. For instance, entering

  @title Haiti @content Martelly

  test query

  will yield all pages with the keyword Haiti in the title as well as the keyword Martelly in the page body.

  
  note: Due to @ being an operator character, if you wish to search for an email address, or anything else that uses the @ symbol, you will need to put it in quotation marks eg "[email protected]" to search for documents including this email address
• field position limit modifier: To search for a word that appears within only a certain number of words in the page content, specify the number of words you wish you search in brackets. For instance, entering

  @content[50] JSOC

  test query

  will yield all pages that contain the keyword JSOC before the 51st word in the page body.

  
  note: Due to @ being an operator character, if you wish to search for an email address, or anything else that uses the @ symbol, you will need to put it in quotation marks eg "[email protected]" to search for documents including this email address
• ignore field search operator: If you would like the search to ignore words in the title or content fields, indicate !@title or !@content before the words you choose to ignore:

  Syria sanctions !@title China

  test query

  will search for the terms Syria and sanctions, but ignore any matches with China in the title, and entering

  surveillance !@content military

  test query

  will search for the term surveillance but ignore any matches with military in the content body. Note that this operator will only ignore matches for one word unless multiple words are put in quotes, as in, for example: surveillance !@content "military satellite"

  
  note: Due to @ being an operator character, if you wish to search for an email address, or anything else that uses the @ symbol, you will need to put it in quotation marks eg "[email protected]" to search for documents including this email address
• proximity search operator:

  "Australia trade"~10

  test query

  will yield results which contain both the words Australia and trade in any span of less than 10 words within the page.

• quorum matching operator: To obtain results that contain some portion of a given phrase, type a forward slash and a number following the phrase. For instance, entering

  "Pakistan toxic chemicals US drone strikes"/5

  test query

  will yield results which contain at least 5 of the 6 words within the quotation marks. You may change the number to be up to 255. Changing the number to a decimal between 0 and 1 signifies a percentage, and results will match documents with at least a certain percentage of the given words.

• strict order operator (aka operator "before"):

  Bhopal << tragedy

  test query

  will yield only results which contain Bhopal before tragedy. The order operator can be applied to more complex epressions, such as:

  Bhopal << "Union Carbide Company" | Dow

  test query

  The above will yield results which contain Bhopal before either the phrase "Union Carbide Company" or the word Dow.

• field-start and field-end modifier: To search for title or content that starts with a specific word, place a ^ in front of the word. For instance, entering

  ^Tunisia

  test query

  will yield pages whose titles or content body begin with the word Tunisia. To search for title or content that ends with a specific word, place a $ at the end of the word. For instance, entering

  Assange$

  test query

  will yield pages with titles or content ending with the word Assange.

• SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH operator: matches the document when both its arguments are within the same sentence or the same paragraph of text, respectively. The arguments can be either keywords, or phrases, or the instances of the same operator. For example:

  Oakland SENTENCE port SENTENCE "Occupy Wall Street"

  test query

  yields results with Oakland, port, and the phrase "Occupy Wall Street" all within the same sentence, and

  scientology PARAGRAPH international

  test query

  yields results with the words scientology and international within the same paragraph.

• Combination of multiple operators: It is possible to combine multiple operators and to use parentheses to indicate the order in which you'd like operators to be executed. Below are some examples:

  "UK Ambassador" @content Egypt "democracy accountability"~5

  test query

  The above search will return results that: contain the phrase "UK Ambassador"; contain the word Egypt in the content body; contain the words democracy and accountability within some 5 word span of the document.

  @title "climate change" @content 2011 -(policy|practice)

  test query

  The above search will return results that: contain the phrase "climate change" within the title; contains 2011 within the content; does not contain the word policy or practice within the content.

  
  note: Due to @ being an operator character, if you wish to search for an email address, or anything else that uses the @ symbol, you will need to put it in quotation marks eg "[email protected]" to search for documents including this email address