Study of strategies used in online searching: 4. Acronyms — the missing element in your search?

Abstract

When a term can be represented by an acronym, searches using both controlled terms and free text terms do not always retrieve all relevant items. It is necessary to add the acronym to the search strategy to ensure full coverage. Considerable differences exist between databases and searchers should evaluate the percentage of extra items that this technique will retrieve in the databases that they habitually use.

Citation

Schröder, J.J. (1983), "Study of strategies used in online searching: 4. Acronyms — the missing element in your search?", Online Review, Vol. 7 No. 6, pp. 475-484. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024143