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How to Search the Literature (Advanced)

This guide offers an eight step approach from identifying your topic to managing your search strategy and results

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are essential for building structured, powerful searches because they allow you to combine concepts and link related terms within a concept. Here’s how they work:

 

The OR operator broadens your search results by retrieving records that contain either or both of your search terms or concepts.

  • Usually, terms within a concept are combined using the Boolean OR operator.

The AND operator narrows the search results by retrieving records that contain both of your search terms or concepts.

  • Usually, different concepts are combined using the Boolean AND operator

The NOT operator narrows the search results by eliminating a specific search term. 

  • Use the NOT operator with caution.  It can eliminate relevant results that happen to mention the term you are "noting" out.

Using our example, we can now construct our search strategy using Boolean Operators:

Combining Search Terms and Concepts

Combining Search Terms

When you don’t have a definitive list of outcomes, scanning for patterns, signals, or emergent results can be much more effective than searching for something specific. Searching assumes you know what you’re looking for, while scanning allows you to discover unexpected insights or anomalies.