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SURP 812 Qualitative Methods in Planning

Summon

Boolean Search Operators

AND, OR, NOT

e.g. If you type Canada AND election, you will find documents that contain both keywords.


Quotation marks "____"   

 e.g. If you type "human rightsin quotation marks, you will find documents that contain this phrase.


Truncation *

e.g.   If you type Canad*, you will find documents that contain the words Canada, Canadian, canadienne...


Wildcard ?

e.g. If you type wom?n, you will find documents that contain the words woman and/or women.


***Operators may vary from database to database: consult specific database help pages for more information. 

Most databases ignore certain common words -- articles, conjunctions and prepositions -- such as the, a, of, for, but...***

Key Indexes

Multidisciplinary Social Sciences Indexes

Broad Multidisciplinary Indexes

Architecture & Design Indexes

Public Health & Urban Planning Indexes

Other Useful Subject-Oriented Indexes

Publication coverage: 1954 - present 
An essential index for American and Canadian history topics, including government, current affairs, and urban history.
Publication coverage: Varies with publication 
Indexes Canadian popular and academic journals as well as business and special interest journals.
Publication coverage: 1884 - present (updated weekly) 
Land use, environmental impact, transportation, public policy, mathematical modelling and simulation, economic and social effects. A primary database for engineering. Interdisciplinary and international.
Publication coverage: 1915 - present 
Public Affairs Information Service International covers political, social, public policy and urban planning issues.
Demographic and population literature, it presents an annotated bibliography of recently published books, journal articles, working papers, and other materials.
Publication coverage: 1952 - present 
Covers social planning policy and development, public policy, demography, environmental interactions, urban sociology, and community development.