Quimby Memorial Library: Practicum II: Creating an Effective Search

Create a Search Using Commands

This is an example of how you can build your search using the commands known as Boolean Operators.

The first part of running a successful search is to isolate the keywords from your question that you will need in your search.

Text with highlights over keywords. 'How can I implement art therapy in the treatment of cancer patients who are terminal?" with "art therapy," cancer, and terminal highlighted

Vin diagram with three circles and each has 'art therapy' AND cancer AND terminal. Then an explanation that says 'narrow your search results to include all of your keywords using AND. Expand your search using OR to find like terms.

Vin diagram with 2 circles and AND inbetween them. Text says 'AND narrows your search'

Combining search terms with AND:

Narrows your search, reducing the number of results.
Makes the search focus more specifically on your topic.

For example

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" yields 2,500 results

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" AND cancer yields 340 results

Vin diagram with 4 circles and OR in the inbetween of each with the text 'OR expands your search'

Combining search terms with OR:

Expands your search and increases number of results.
This is a great way to add additional synonyms into a search.

For example

A search in PubMed for terminal yields 677,429 results

A search in PubMed for terminal OR hospice yields 712,005 results

Two circles one says therapist and the other says artist. Artist has a line through it next to the word NOT. Text says 'NOT narrows your search'

Combining search terms with NOT

Narrows your search, decreasing your search results.
Tells the search to exclude certain terms.

For Example

A search in PubMed for therapist yields 52,654 results

A search in PubMed for therapist NOT artist yields 52,570 results

Please keep in mind you usually don't want to start a search with NOT in it. You will most likely want to add NOT only in situations where you are finding an overwhelming amount of literature that specifically doesn't answer your questions because a term is being included too often.

Two overlapping circles as a vin diagram with the terms Art and therapy in each. Inbetween them "art therapy" represents quotation marks. The text says 'quotes narrow your search. Keep in mind when using quotation marks, you will only find the exact phrase listed.'

Use Quotation Marks to:

Narrow your search.
Combine search terms that are more than single worlds.

This shows the search engine that you want the terms to be found together. The search will look for exactly what you place in the quotation marks, so be sure there are no mistakes.

For example

A search in PubMed for art therapy yields 46,859 results

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" yields 2,590 results

Boolean operators are the commands that you can use in databases and search engines to specify exactly what you are looking for. These work so well because they are the coding language the developers use.

If you are having a hard time finding what you need, use the Boolean Operators outlined here to more efficiently search databases.

No matter where you are searching - the catalog, Google Scholar, a database you will want to use Boolearn Operators to refine your search to your specifications.

We are indebted to the Butler University Library's And/Or/Not box and to the Sarah Lawrence Create a Search Using Commands box for some of the content displayed here.

Using Filters

Almost all academic databases have filters, or limits, that you can use in order to narrow down your search in a more robust manner. These are usually located on the left hand side of the search results page. These allow you to select items like date ranges and types of articles to narrow down your results within your specifications.

This example of a filter section is from SWC's Taylor and Francis database.