As translators, we often need to sift through humongous amounts of online information to find the term or expression that most accurately fits our target text.
Discerning pertinent credible information amid the overwhelming volume of online content is therefore crucial to produce quality translations.
Infoxication (information overload) poses a real challenge. However, at least for medical translators, identifying reputable sources for biomedical translation is nowadays a breeze: we just need to conduct a quick search on Árbol de Cos, a database containing multilingual Internet resources whose quality and suitability have been thoroughly vetted by a team of authoritative medical translators.
But once we have identified reliable and suitable information sources, how do we actually single out the exact paragraph, line, phrase or term we are after?
Search operators are special commands used to refine search queries: reduce noise (filter out irrelevant results), search within specific domains, locate exact words or phrases, and much more. If used correctly, they represent an invaluable tool to increase our productivity and the accuracy of our translations. Mastering search operators will also come in handy when it comes to justifying translation decisions, as we will be able to quote accredited sources.
Do you already use search operators in your documentation process? Here are a few you can us in your Google searches.
AND or the plus sign (+)
Usage: It narrows down the search by including only those documents containing all the specified terms.
Example: If we search for tuberculosis AND consumption, Google will only return documents that include both terms.
Note: Although AND, or the plus sign (+), is one of the most basic and popular commands in search engines and databases, it is not explicitly needed in Google search, because it is implied by default. This means that when you enter multiple search terms, Google automatically interprets them as if you were using the AND operator, returning only the results that include all the specified terms. If you do use it, Google will ignore it to avoid the potential confusion caused by the duplication of AND.
OR (or the pipe sign ‘|’)
Usage: It broadens the search to include results that contain any of the specified terms.
Example: Searching for tuberculosis OR consumption will retrieve documents containing either the term tuberculosis, the term consumption, or both, but not necessarily both together.
Note: The pipe sign ‘|’ operates similarly to OR.
NOT or the minus sign (-)
Usage: The minus sign (-) before a word (with no space) will exclude results containing the specified word
Example: when looking up tuberculosis -consumption, Google will return results that include the term tuberculosis but exclude the term consumption.
Note: Google does not currently support the NOT operator, only the minus sign (-).
Quotation marks (“ ”)
Usage: It searches for the exact sequence of characters or words between the quotation marks.
Examples: Entering “oesophagitis” in the Google search bar will yield results containing the term oesophagitis (in British spelling), but not the term esophagitis (in American spelling). Also, running a search for "aspermia is a condition that" will return results containing this exact sequence of words in the specified order.
Note: Quotation marks (“ ”) are particularly handy for determining the frequency of use of a specific term, phrase, or expression.
Parentheses ‘( )’
Usage: They refine and structure complex search queries by combining multiple terms, phrases, and/or search operators.
Example: Searching for (tuberculosis -consumption) AND “white dead” will retrieve pages containing the terms tuberculosis and white dead, while excluding any pages mentioning the term consumption.
site:
Usage: This is one of the most powerful search modifiers and, in my opinion, the most versatile and beneficial for translators. It restricts search results to a specific domain (e.g., .org, .edu, .co.uk, etc.), website (nejm.org, thelancet.com, etc.), or URL, which is particularly convenient for extracting terms or phrases from a website whose suitability and credibility have already been substantiated, such as those indexed on the Árbol de Cos database.
Examples: Conducting a search for "creatinine clearance" site:elsevier.com will yield all the documents hosted within elsevier.com that mention the expression creatinine clearance.
The site: operator is also very useful for verifying if a specific term or expression is commonly used by a particular community of experts. For instance, to find out if the expression permanent pacemaker is used in British English, we could check if it’s mentioned within the website of the British Cardiovascular Society by searching for site:britishcardiovascularsociety.org "permanent pacemaker".
The wildcard ‘*’
Usage: It is most often used in combination with the quotation marks (“ ”) to replace one or more words in a search query. This helps find variations of a phrase or expression, for example, when we only know part of the expression.
Example: The search for site:thelancet.com "bilateral * swelling" will yield documents hosted on thelancet.com that include expressions such as bilateral pulsatile swelling, bilateral pain and swelling, bilateral testicular swelling, or bilateral optic disc swelling.
AROUND(n)
Usage: This proximity operator is used to find terms that appear in a text within a specified distance from one another. By specifying how close terms should be from each other, it enhances precision, which is very helpful for retrieving contextually relevant information.
Example: Searching for site:co.uk "general practitioner" AROUND(3) patient will retrieve documents where the expression general practitioner and the word patient appear within three words of each other on websites with the domain .co.uk.
Note: Other search engines or databases might support other proximity operators, such as NEAR(n) or WITHIN(n).
intitle:
Usage: This operator finds web pages that contain specific keywords or phrases within its title. This narrows down search results to those that are more likely to be relevant, since the presence of a keyword in the title often indicates the main topic of the page.
Example: Entering intitle: azygos vein in your search bar will yield documents focusing on the topic ‘azygos vein’.
filetype:
Usage: When combined with other commands, the filetype: operator retrieves only those documents in the specified file format (.doc, .pdf, .xlsx, .pptx, etc.) that mention the searched keywords. This is very convenient when trying to find, for instance, academic publications, which are often published in PDF.
Example: Querying filetype:pdf "the omicron strain" will return those documents published in a PDF format that contain the phrase the omicron strain.
Google currently supports many more search operators you may want to learn about (e.g., related:, allintitle:, intext: allintext:, cache:, info:, define:, etc.), but the above-mentioned are the ones I find more helpful as a medical translator.
Please note that other search engines or databases may support different operators. Also, Google periodically updates its terms of services, so it may discontinue the use of some operators or incorporate new ones.
Content Editor and Writer at Cosnautas