Search Stop Words in the National Service Center for Environmental Publications

In all instances, be careful to avoid common words, referred to as "stop" words. The system will not prevent their use in a query but will generate an error message if they are not removed.

When you remove a "stop" word, you will need to add an "and" in place of the removed "stop" word. This will let the database search the field properly. If you do not add the "and" in place of the "stop" word you removed, you will get a ‘No documents found’ result. For example, if you are searching for the title: Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors", you would type in the title field: "Compilation and Air Pollutant Emission Factors".

In addition to the list below, single alphabet characters are also considered stop words but numbers are not.

NSCEP Search Stop Words
A-B	C-G	H-L	M-O	O-S	T-U	V-Z
a	came	had	made	of	take	very
about	can	has	make	on	takes	was
after	come	have	makes	only	than	way
all	comes	He	many	or	that	we
also	could	her	me	other	the	well
an	did	here	might	others	their	were
and	do	hers	more	our	them	what
another	does	him	most	ours	then	when
any	each	himself	much	out	there	where
are	eol	his	must	over	these	which
as	eos	how	my	said	they	while
at	for	If	never	same	this	who
be	from	in	not	see	those	with
because	get	into	now	sees	through	would
been	got	is		she	to	you
before		it		should	too	your
being		its		since	under	yours
between		just		so	up
both		like		some
but		likes		still
by				such