## Creating a search query

By combining your search terms smartly, you only need to run one search query.

Example research question:

Due to climate change, Amsterdam is experiencing more extremely hot summer days and more frequent heavy rainfall. What measures should the municipality take to protect its residents?

When you start looking for scholarly literature to answer this question, the search query will look like this:

("urban heat stress" OR “extreme weather”) AND (measure* OR action) AND (municipality OR "local government")

## Search methods

Method | Syntax | Example
Searching with words that belong together in that order (a phrase) | "...." | "extreme weather"
Searching with word variants, singular and plural (truncate or wildcard method) | * or ? or ! (database dependant) | organi* = organize, organization(s), organisation(s), organizational
Combine search terms to find more results | OR | Example: dogs OR cats searches for results containing ‘dogs’, ‘cats’, or both.
Combine search terms to find less results | AND | Example : dogs AND cats searches for results that contain both ‘dogs’ and ‘cats’.
Exclude search terms | NOT | Example: dogs NOT cats searches for results that contain ‘dogs’ but not ‘cats’.

Tip: Different databases use different syntax symbols as wildcards. Check the database’s help section to see how to use them.