Close
Close
This guide © 2024 by UCL - Library Skills is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
Adjacency (or proximity) operators allow you to search for two word appearing close to each other, but not necessarily next to each other as a phrase. For example:
The words alcohol and abuse are present in the same sentence but not necessarily next to each other.
Using an adjacency operator:
alcohol ADJn abuse
The word alcohol within n words of the word abuse in either direction
alcohol ADJ3 abuse
The word alcohol within 3 words of the word abuse in either direction
Adjacency searching can be useful when searching for phrase variations:
(alcohol OR substance*) ADJ3 (abuse OR misuse)
This search would retrieve phrases which incude the words alcohol or substance within three words of the words abuse or misuse. For example: misuse of alcohol, substance abuse, misuse of banned substances.
In this example, ADJ is the syntax used. Note that the syntax is different for different databases. Check the help pages for the resource you are using to find out whether adjacency searching is available, and if so what the syntax is, and what search rules apply. In Ovid databases and the Cochrane Library, the number applied to the adjacency operator indicates within how many words the search terms must appear, but in other major platforms (e.g. ACM Digital Library, EBSCOHost, ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science) the number applied to the adjacency operator indicates how many words may appear between the search terms.
The syntax used for proximity searching varies depending on which database interface you are using.
ACM Digital Library uses ~N as a suffix to a phrase search, e.g. "alcohol abuse"~3
Cochrane Library uses NEAR/X
EBSCOHost databases use NX
Ovid databases use adjn
Proquest databases use NEAR/X
Scopus uses W/x
Web of Science uses NEAR/X
Always check the database help pages to ensure you are using the correct syntax.
