When searching a database, you don't want to type your whole question in. Instead think about your topic and identify keywords that describe the different components of your search.
Write a list of keywords, making sure to think of synonymous terms. Then you will combine different variations of these terms together using Boolean Operators to tell the database how to understand your terms and pull results accordingly.
Combine your search terms with “boolean operators” to either narrow or broaden your search results.
AND: Narrows search results
OR: Broadens search results
NOT: Excludes certain terms
Let’s put this into practice. The following slides break down each of these operators to show how the operators will impact the search results.
In this example, our topic is on the impact of bullying on adolescent academic performance
Let’s put it all together. A search on this topic, using what we know about Boolean operators may look like this:
(bullying OR victimization) AND academic performance AND (adolescents NOT elementary)
This should pull back articles that are focused on how bullying impacts adolescents’ academic performance, excluding articles that may be
about younger children