10. How to Perform Phrasal (Literal) Searches

Phrasal (literal) searches are queries in which one wants to search for two or more contiguous terms separated by space(s). To make this kind of search one must enclose the words to be searched for, between quotes.
In fact from SFgate 4.0.30 at BioPD two or more terms in the same field are interpreted as contiguous or non contiguous terms connected by the Boolean operator AND.
If you want more information, please see the document How to Query for Multiple Terms in a Single Field.

In this example the two words molecular and biology MUST be one following the other in the field Title.
They are not found if are in reverse order or separated by others terms.

You can compare the similar query in the document on How to Query for Multiple Terms in a Single Field.
As you will see a different number of documents will be retrieved in these two cases.

Here you can inspect the .fmt file, while the relevant part of this form source code is here:

<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="/htbin/SFgate">
<INPUT NAME="database" TYPE="hidden" VALUE="local//usr/local/wais-sources/serials/current">

<CENTER>
   <TABLE BORDER WIDTH=70%>
      <TR><TD><SELECT NAME="fieldsel_1_description">
                 <OPTION SELECTED>Title
                 <OPTION>Publication Place
              </SELECT></TD>
          <TD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="fieldsel_1_content" VALUE=""molecular biology"" SIZE=40></TD>

          <TD><SELECT NAME="fieldsel_1_tie">
                 <OPTION>and
                 <OPTION>or
              </SELECT></TD></TR>

      <TR><TD><SELECT NAME="fieldsel_2_description">
                 <OPTION>Title
                 <OPTION SELECTED>Publication Place
              </SELECT></TD>
          <TD><INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="fieldsel_2_content" SIZE=40></TD></TR>
   </TABLE>
</CENTER>
<P>

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="fieldsel_name_ti" VALUE="Title">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="fieldsel_name_pp" VALUE="Publication Place">

<CENTER>
<TABLE>
<TR><TH><INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Start Search">
</TH><TH> </TH><TH>
<INPUT TYPE="reset"  VALUE="Reset Query"></TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER>
<P>

<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="application" VALUE="serials">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="tieinternal" VALUE="and">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="listenv" VALUE="table">
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="range" VALUE="1">
</FORM>