By combining your search terms smartly, you only need to run one search query.
Example research question:
When you start looking for scholarly literature to answer this question, the search query will look like this:
|
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.