General/keyword search

How to perform general citation or literature searches with Publish or Perish

Anne-Wil Harzing - Tue 20 Dec 2016 16:32 (updated Sat 15 Apr 2023 07:37)

For important background information, see:

Looking for an example?

Here are two videos showing you how to do these type of searches:

How to perform a general/keyword search

To perform a basic keyword search:

Enter the keywords that must appear in the title, abstract, or body text of the returned results in either the title words field or the keywords field.
You may use AND, OR (using the vertical bar, a.k.a. pipe, symbol "|" has the same effect), and NOT (using a minus symbol "-" has the same effect) operators to create more complex searches.
You may use "quotes" to search for an exact phrase, e.g. expatriate failure would provide results that match these words in any order and in any place in the title, abstract or body text, "expatriate failure" would only provide results in which these words appear together.
Click Search or press the Enter key.

The program will now contact the data source in question to obtain the citations, process the list, and calculate the Citation metrics, which are then displayed in the Results list. The full list of results is also available for inspection or modifications and can be exported in a variety of formats.

Note: different data sources may have different syntax options. For an overview, please refer to the table below.

General/keyword search syntax across databases

Every data source has its own unique syntax that – oftentimes – is not fully documented. Below you will find the most important tips and problems, but to get the best out of the different data sources you need to be prepared to experiment with different search strategies. If you find that some things are not working as you expect, please share your findings by sending me an email, so that, collectively, we can improve these instructions.

Please note: The search syntax below refers to what works best when you search the data source through Publish or Perish. This is not always identical to the most effective search syntax in the web interfaces of the respective databases as these might be structured differently.

Data source	Preferred search syntax	Most common problems
Crossref	Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for Title words, which matches words in title only Words will be matched in any order	Cannot search for all of the words, when using AND Crossref reverts to OR Cannot restrict search, when using NOT Crossref reverts to OR Cannot do an exact phrase search Cannot search for keywords in abstract or full-text of articles Exact match only, expatriate doesn't match expatriates
Google Scholar (GS)	Can search for all of the words by using AND [not essential as GS uses an implicit AND] Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for an exact phrase by putting the phrase in "quotes" Can restrict search by using NOT Can search for title words only or for matches anywhere in the article by using keywords	Full text search can lead to many irrelevant results Cannot search for keywords in title and abstract combined Exact match only, expatriate doesn't match expatriates
Google Scholar Profile	N/A only author searches	N/A only author searches
Microsoft Academic (MA)	Can search for all of the words by using AND [not essential as MA uses an implicit AND] Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for title words only or for matches in the abstract Words will be matched in any order in the title only, regardless of whether the title field or keywords field is used. However title field requires the complete title, keywords field can process individual words	Cannot restrict search by using NOT, using NOT provides an error message Cannot do an "exact phrase" search Cannot handle hyphens e.g. COVID-19; remove the hyphen from your search, e.g. COVID 19 Cannot search for keywords in full-text of articles Cannot search for keywords in title and abstract combined Exact match only, expatriate doesn't match expatriates
PubMed	Can search for all of the words by using AND [not essential as PubMed uses an implicit AND] Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for an exact phrase by putting the phrase in "quotes" Can search for title words only or for matches in title and abstract (and other PubMed key field, see PubMed [text words] search)	Exact match only, vaccine doesn't match vaccines Cannot restrict search, when using NOT PubMed reverts to AND Cannot search for keywords in full-text of articles Limits results for some keywords to a max of 199 or 398 results
Scopus	Can search for all of the words by using AND [not essential as Scopus uses an implicit AND] Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for an exact phrase by putting the phrase in "quotes" Can restrict search by using NOT Can search for title words only or for matches in title and abstract Uses stemming, expatriate also matches expatriates	Cannot use NOT as the first operator in the field, e.g. "NOT expatriate" will give an error message, but "language NOT expatriate" is fine. Cannot search for keywords in full-text of articles
Web of Science	Can search for all of the words by using AND [not essential as WoS uses an implicit AND] Can search for any of the words by using OR Can search for an exact phrase by putting the phrase in "quotes" Can restrict search by using NOT Can search for title words only or for matches in title and abstract Uses stemming, expatriate also matches expatriates Allows wildcards (e.g. global*) for easier searches	Cannot use NOT as the first operator in the field, e.g. "NOT expatriate" will give an error message, but "language NOT expatriate" is fine. Cannot search for keywords in full-text of articles

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Anne-Wil Harzing is Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London and visiting professor of International Management at Tilburg University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.

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