Trial Search

This page will allow non-subscribers to perform searches in the full CBA database and to see limited details of the journal abstract records which are found. If you are interested in obtaining the abstracts and the full journal references for these articles or if you regularly need similar construction industry information, why not contact us to arrange a subscription? Click here for fuller details

For a comprehensive search

1. Leave All in the Journal box and type your search term(s) in the All fields box.
2. You can use the wild card symbol * at the end of your term(s) eg ‘sustainab*’ which would find the terms ‘sustainable’, ‘sustainability' etc
3. You can use OR between two or more terms in the All Fields box, to widen your search or to cover alternative spellings eg ‘sustainab*’ OR ‘environmental*’; ‘infrared’ OR ‘infra red’

To narrow down a search

1. Use AND between search terms or between fields. Eg ‘office*’ AND ‘France’ in the All fields box will only find records mentioning office buildings and France.
2. Typing ‘office*’ AND ‘France’ into the All fields box AND ‘200*’ in the Year field box will only find articles mentioning office or offices, and France , published between 2000-2009
3. Typing ‘Lerner’ in the Authors field box AND ‘groundwater’ in the Title field box will only find articles by that author with ‘groundwater’ in the Title.
4. To exclude unwanted terms you can also use AND NOT within a Field box or between Field boxes. Eg ‘bridge* AND NOT footbridge*’
5. To search across a range of dates eg 1990-2007 you will need to type 199* OR 200* in the Year field box.

To search for a phrase:

To search for the exact phrase, put the phrase in inverted commas eg “green building”; “life cycle cost* ”; “health and safety”. If you omit the inverted commas and search for green building, or health and safety it will find records with those words – in any order- in the same record, if you select All fields (or in the same field, if you select a particular Field from the drop-down list.)

To search for articles in a particular journal

You can restrict the search to a particular journal title by selecting the title from the Journal drop-down list. To return to a comprehensive search, just select All from the top of the list.

Searching by subject keywords

You can go to the ‘Search by subject page’ to do a Keyword search. Subject keywords are added to each abstract record to show the main subjects and topics of particular interest which are covered by the article. In many cases the Subject keyword will also cover a range of synonyms eg HOUSING AND HOUSES will include articles on flats, apartments, dwellings, condominiums, homes, houses – so it will save you time if you use the Subject Keyword.

Click on your chosen Keyword to perform the search. Once you are in a record you can also click on any of the Subject keywords at the bottom of the record to carry out another subject search.

For more information on using CBA, including how to mark records, use of the shopping basket, exporting to a file, emailing and printing results, please go to the Help page