SOWK 7370 - Research Methods

Basic Boolean Operators are used to focus or expand searches based on the relationship between the selected terms by

• Combining terms
• Using synonyms
• Eliminating concepts

Additional operators and symbols can be used to create more advanced search strategies.

In some databases, the Boolean Operator must be in all capital letters and in others it will not matter. Each database will make note of specific requirements like this.

Advanced Search Techniques allow for more complicated searching than just combining terms using AND, OR, or NOT/AND NOT.  Advanced searching will allow you to create searches that

• search for more than one one word and then combine those results with another term
• search for multiple spellings of a word
• search for the singular and plural spelling of a term