Truncation, also known as derivation or wildcard search, is a technique used to broaden the search to include multiple word endings and spellings. To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end. This allows different forms of a word to be searched simultaneously and will increase the number of search results found. Truncation is a useful tool when you know that one of your search terms has multiple endings, but all variations represent basically the same idea.
It is important to note that although lemmatization and lemmatization expand your net results a little, they are not the same as truncation. To truncate a search term, do a keyword search in a database, but remove the end of the word and add an asterisk (*) to the end of the word. Different databases use different truncation symbols, so it is important to consult the “Help” information in the database or the “Tips of search” for details on which symbol to use. BE CAREFUL not to truncate a keyword too early, otherwise you will receive a lot of unwanted results.
The truncated toxin* returns toxins and toxins, as well as toxinemia, toxinogenic, toxinogenic, toxinotyping, toxinotypes, toxin-3α-glycoside, toxinogenesis, etc. If it doesn't work for you, verify that you are using the correct truncation symbol for that database. However, if you understand the limitations of these algorithms and can take matters into your own hands by truncating terms or using wildcards, you can significantly improve your searches.
