Sample Search Constructions and Boolean Logic
Sample Topic: Articles on "Multicultural workforce"
- multicultural workforce (would get all articles with words close to each other)
- multicultural and workforce (would get all articles that had both terms anywhere in the record. The words do not have to be near each other.)
- A keyword search will look for words anywhere in the record; e.g. in the title, the author, the publisher, the journal name, the subject headings or descriptors and the abstract, and in some databases, the full text of the article itself.
HINTS:
- No search will get everything on the subject!!! Synonyms may have been used: e.g. diversity, minorities, minority employees, workplace, employment, hiring.
- When viewing the results of one search, watch for synonyms and other key words and phrases used as descriptors.
- Try other keyword combos:
- diversity and workplace
- minorities and hiring
- minorities and employment
Boolean Logic: Special words act as connectors in databases.
-
AND returns article citations which contain both words.
- diversity and workplace
- OR returns article citations containing either word. Use this for synonyms.
- workplace or workforce
- NOT eliminates citations that contain that word.
- minorities not asian
- Nesting: If using more than one connector in a search, be sure to use parentheses to group the terms appropriately.
- diversity and (workplace or workforce)
- Truncation:To pick up the singular "minority" and the plural "minorities" in one search, enter as a word root, with a special truncation symbol. Some databases use "*", others use "?", while still other use "!". The databases found in EbscoHost use the *.
- minorit* and employ*
The Help screens in each database indicate the symbol to use for truncation.
See this chart of Database Search Features for more assistance.
Last Updated: 06/13/2008 and Last Revised: 4/28/2008
Contact Denise Madland for more information or help on this topic.