Searching with wildcards - complete confusion...

[Rainer M Krug]

Hi

I am completely confused with the search with the search with wildcards.

I tried in the website, title search only, the following:

1. co-operation - 18,580 works
2. co operation - 18,580 works OK - the `-` is stripped
3. co?operation - 25 works   Only ones which have any character instead of the `?` - but no space, and also no `-`
4. co??operation - 18,580 works I can add more ? And the number stays the same

And here it gets really weird:

1. “co-operation” - 16,720 works
2. “co operation” - 16,720 works
3. “co?operation” - 16,720 works I can add more ? And the number stays the same

So it seems that when using inverted commas, special characters are replaced with a space, but e.g. co-operation is included…

Also, in https://developers.openalex.org/guides/searching#wildcards it says

The search term must have at least 3 characters before the wildcard. Leading wildcards (e.g., *ology) are not supported.

But `co` is two characters and it works (3. In first list)

I need some help here - I am confused.

Thanks

Rainer

---
Dr. Rainer M. Krug (PhD Conservation Ecology, SUN; MSc Conservation Biology, UCT; Dipl. Phys. Germany)

Senior Data Specialist
Environmental Bioinformatics,
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Zurich

Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre,
Senckenberg Society for Nature Research
Frankfurt Main

Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7490-0066

Mobile:        +41 (0)78 630 66 57
Email: Raine...@sib.swiss
Rai...@krugs.de