PSYC 302: Research Methods

OneSearch

Additional Databases

Search Tools

So, now that you have your keywords you are ready to start your searches. Here are a few tools that you can use to focus your search:

• Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT

• AND - use AND in between connected search terms to narrow and focus the search, using AND will usually return fewer results
  • For example, search for global warming AND polar bears and the search will return only results that include both search terms

• OR - use OR to search for results that contain alternatives to your search terms, using OR will usually return more results
  • For example, search for global warming OR climate change and the search will return results that include either of these search terms

• NOT - use NOT if there is a search term that you want to exclude from your results
  • For example, search for global warming NOT greenhouse gases if you want to exclude all results that include greenhouse gases

• Note: these operators can be used together
  • For example, search for global warming OR climate change AND polar bears for results that contain global warming and polar bears and also climate change and polar bears

• Quotation marks: place around phrases or words that should show up in results together, such as "global warming". Otherwise, a search will be done for both global by itself and warming by itself.

• Truncation: use an asterisk to search for a term that may have many variations, such as warm*. In this case, all terms that start with warm will be found, including warming, warms, warmer, etc.