Biology: Search Strategies

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Construct a successful search

  1. Do not write an entire sentence into a database's search box.  Explain your topic to someone in three words or less.  Multi-word terms that are a single idea count as one word, just put them in quotation marks (e.g. "attachment theory").  These are your search terms.
  2. Search terms that represent different aspects of your topic (e.g. "attachment theory" and infants) should be entered into different search boxes when available.  Otherwise, these terms can be combined using the word AND (e.g. "attachment theory" AND infants).
  3. Search terms that are synonyms or related terms (e.g. anxiety or worry) should be entered into the same search box and combined using the word OR (e.g. anxiety OR worry).  If multiple search boxes are not available, group related terms in parentheses and combine with the word OR.

Single search box example:

Multiple search box example:

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are simple words (AND, OR, NOT ) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused and productive results. Databases, when displaying their Advanced Search modality, always include these three words as optional connectors between separate search bars. If typing them in yourself within a single search query, they MUST BE CAPITALIZED to function properly.

 

 boolean "AND" diagram    AND

Use AND to narrow a search and retrieve records containing all of the words it separates, e.g. adolescents AND children  will only find records containing both these words.

 

 boolean "OR" diagram     OR

 

Use OR to broaden a search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates, e.g.adolescents OR children  will find records containing adolescents only, children only, or both words.

 boolean "NOT" diagram   NOT

Use NOT to narrow a search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it, e.g. adolescents NOT children will find records that contain adolescents, but will not contain the word children

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