Proximity operators

Proximity operators give you maximum control over how close you want two search keywords to be in the text, or how many characters after truncation you want to search for.

Example: body ADJn temperature. Here, n stands for the maximum number of words you want between 'body' and 'temperature' in the text. A search on body ADJ3 temperature will give you all references where the word 'body' is at most 2 words before or after 'temperature', in the search field you choose (for example in the title, abstract, keywords, etc.)

Note: Proximity operators vary from database to database. In Ovid's interface (Ovid Medline, Ovid Embase, and Ovid PsycINFO), ADJ is used, while in Web of Science NEAR is used, and in Cochrane NEXT is used. Check the help function in each database if you are unsure.