Textword searching means using terms you choose yourself to search the "record" of a database. The record DOES NOT include the full-text article. It mainly includes the TITLE, ABSTRACT, and AUTHOR-PROVIDED KEYWORDS. Textwords are often referred to as keywords.

Subject heading searching means using preassigned terms to search for articles labelled with that term. Each database uses its own subject headings - MEDLINE's are called MeSH.

EXAMPLE:

Subject Databases use "controlled vocabularies" made up of subject headings, organized hierarchically. Subject headings solve 2 major problems we encounter when relying solely on textword searching: Synonyms and Ambiguity. 

Synonyms:

Pet Therapy = animal assisted therapy, therapy dog, therapy dogs, equine-assisted therapy, therapy animals, etc. 

If you only searched for 'pet therapy', you'd miss all articles that use 'therapy dog' to describe that concept. It's very difficult to think of all the potential ways of expressing a concept. 

Ambiguity: 

Pet therapy = animal assisted therapy, Positron emission tomography

If you searched for 'pet therapy', thinking you'd retrieve only articles about therapy animals, you'd have to sift through quite a bit of literature on PET imaging. 

So, to solve these problems, you could search the subject heading for the concept of pet therapy. In Medline, the Mesh is Animal Assisted Therapy. In CINAHL it's Pet Therapy. 

Search strategies MUST be customized for each database:

• databases use different subject headings to describe the same concept
• a database can't be searched effectively unless the correct subject headings are used
• each database requires it's own, unique search strategy 

Super precise textword search:

• Treatment goal setting.tw – 9 hits

Balanced textword search:

• ((goal* OR priorit*) ADJ3 (set* OR plan* OR establish*)).tw – 11914 hits

Sensitive textword search:

• ((goal* or priorit* or target*) ADJ3 (agree* or negotiate* or convers* or discuss* or propos* or develop* or formulat* or elaborate* or establish* or identif* or write or written or state* or specif* or construct* or manag* or direct* or orient* or cent?red or achiev* or evaluat* or attain* or facilitat* or misalign* or align* or care or outcome* or plan* or set* or health or select*)).tw.– 274896 hits

It is relatively common to encounter errors when searching databases on the ProQuest interface (eg. Sociological Abstracts, ERIC, Phys Ed Index, etc). Troubleshoot your search by following these important tips: 

1. Make sure you are only searching 1 database at a time. You should see the name of your database at the top of the page. 
   
    
2. If searching TI,AB [eg. TI,AB((chronic OR traumatic) NEAR/2 ("brain injur*"))] doesn't work, you can search your textwords separately in TI or AB, or use the code NOFT (Anywhere but Full Text):
   
   For example, in Sociological Abstracts: 
   
   Option A: TI((chronic OR traumatic) NEAR/2 ("brain injur*")) OR AB((chronic OR traumatic) NEAR/2 ("brain injur*")) = 114 results
   
   Option B: NOFT((chronic OR traumatic) NEAR/2 ("brain injur*")) = 123 results
   
   Option A will retrieve the same results as TI,AB, is likely more precise, and potentially less redundant than NOFT. Option B is quicker to create, but since it includes additional search fields, will be less precise and potentially introduce redundancies into your search strategy. 
    
3. Do not truncate words <3 letters. Consider using defined truncation (eg. NOFT(disabilit[*3]) but it’s not necessary.
    
4. Use quotation marks around phrases. Make sure to account for word endings, as the use of quotation marks turns off stemming and you will increase risk of missing things. 
   
   For example, in the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS): 
   
   TI,AB("financial institution") = 589 articles  
   
   TI,AB("financ* institution*") = 5,684 articles     
   
   Note: Consider using a proximity operator instead of searching a phrase. 
    
5. Avoid using the Combine Searches function (eg. S1 and S2) to combine your search sets. For long queries, it can cause time-outs. Combine sets in the Command Line or Advanced Search instead. Ensure correct use of parentheses. 
   
   
    
6. If you are still encountering errors in ProQuest for your systematic or scoping review search, contact ask.gerstein@utoronto.ca.

This work is openly licensed via CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. For information on this guide contact Erica Nekolaichuk, Faculty Liaison & Instruction Librarian at the Gerstein Science Information Centre.