Graduate Education Research Guide

Examples Using Boolean Operators

Boolean Operator "And"

For example, for the thesis statement Medical Marijuana should be legalized for the treatment of seizures, glaucoma, and nausea as a result of chemotherapy, you could try searching for articles by combining keywords and Boolean Operators like this:

"medical marijuana" and treatment and nausea

You will get articles that contain all three of these keywords in your search.

Boolean Operator "Not"

"medical marijuana" and treatment and seizures not recreational

You will get articles that contain the first three keywords but articles that have the word recreational will be excluded.

Boolean Operator "Or"

"medical marijuana" and treatment and seizures or epilepsy

Here you have a search, and the article results will contain the keywords "medical marijuana" AND treatment, but also articles results that contain the keywords seizures OR epilepsy. So, the articles could contain either or both of these terms.

Truncation

Truncation, also called stemming, is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.

• To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end.
• The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
• Examples:

        child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhood
        genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

• Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #

Wildcards

Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word.

• This is useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning.
• Examples:
  wom!n = woman, women
  colo?r = color, colour

Using the Thesaurus Search in ERIC Database

When you log on to the ERIC database, if you want to search by subject, click on the link for Thesaurus at the top. For a tutorial on searching in ERIC using the thesaurus, watch the following video Using the Thesaurus Search in ERIC Database.

Too Few Results?

• Use fewer search terms, or swap out for synonyms.
• Borrow the subject terms coming up in the sidebar.
• Truncate keywords to get all variations of the word (e.g. "censor*" searches for censor, censored, censorship, and censors). 

Too Many Results?

• Be more precise (e.g. basketball instead of sports).
• Add an additional keyword.
• Enclose exact phrases in double quotation marks (e.g., "world health organization").
• Refine your search using the facets like publication type, date range, or subject headings.