Research the Smart Way

Using Boolean operators

More search strategies

General search strategy tips:

• Use the Boolean operators - AND, OR, NOT in ALL CAPS to refine your search.  For example:
  • zombies vampires – when using only the AND operator, just use a space between your words. The AND operator is assumed and you will retrieve records that include BOTH terms.
  • zombies OR vampires – you will retrieve records that contain AT LEAST ONE of these words.
  • (zombies OR vampires) AND werewolves - use parentheses to keep combination searches in order.  If you combine operators AND & OR, you will need to also type the operator AND.   You will retrieve records that include at least one of the terms - zombies or vampires, as well as the term - werewolves.
  • zombies NOT vampires – you will retrieve records that include the word, zombies and not the word, vampires.
• “  ”  use quotation marks to find an exact phrase – e.g., “world war z”
• ?  enter a question mark to perform a single character wildcard search. For example, type wom?n to search for records that contain at least one of these words - woman, women.
• *  enter an asterisk at the end of a root word to pick up all forms of the root word including the plural or singular of a word. For example, type the root word teen* to search for records that contain at least one of these words – teen, teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers.

AND     

Type AND between your keywords to narrow your search. The database or search engine will only retrieve those articles or web pages that contain both words. Using AND will decrease the number or hits or articles or web pages in your result list.

Example: school AND crime

Note: Some databases and search engines (such as Google and Craigslist) allow you to type a plus sign (+) in front of a keyword when doing a basic search. This works the same as AND.

Example: +school +crime

OR     

OR Type OR between your keywords to broaden your search. The database or search engine will retrieve those articles or web pages that contain at least one of these words. Using OR will increase the number of articles or web pages in your result list (especially if not used in combination with AND or NOT). Use OR between keywords that are synonyms or have similar meanings.

Example: baby OR infant

NOT     

Type NOT before a keyword to exclude that keyword from your search. Using NOT will decrease the number of articles or web pages in your result list. The best use of NOT is when you are searching for a keyword that may have multiple meanings.

Example: bat NOT baseball

Combo     

Use parentheses ( ) to keep combination searches in order. In the example below, the database or search engine will retrieve articles or web pages that must contain the word law and at least one of the words in parentheses.

Example: (ecstasy OR mdma) AND law