Guidelines for Searching

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Follow these searching guidelines to get the most out of your STNEasy searches. Click the links for details.

• Use Truncation to broaden your search
• Use Browse Index to broaden your search or see if your term exists in the index of the database(s) you have chosen to search
• Use Boolean Operators to join search terms
• Place Quotation Marks around multiple-word terms to narrow your search
• Use Stop Words only as part of a phrase placed inside quotation marks
• Do not use STN command-line syntax
• Place Molecular Formulas in Hill System Order
• Use Patent Lookup Overview and Searching Patent with Patent Lookup for guidelines for entering patent search terms