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BOOLEAN LOGIC |
Uses the words AND, OR, and NOT to connect search terms. Example 1: A search for handwashing retrieves article citations only containing that term. Example 2: A search for: handwashing AND hospital acquired infection retrieves article citations containing BOTH terms.
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TRUNCATION |
The truncation symbol (*) allows you to search for variations of a word that contain the same root or stem. Example 1: A search for the word nurs* will retrieve article citations containing the terms nurse, nursing, nurses, etc. Example 2: A search for the word child* will retrieve article citations containing the terms child, childs, children, childhood, etc.
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WILDCARDS |
The wildcard symbol (?) allows you search for words that have spelling variations. Example 1: A search for the word wom?n will retrieve article citations containing the terms woman, women. Example 2: A search for the word colo?r will retrieve article citations containing the terms color, colour.
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STOP WORDS |
Insignificant words that databases tend to ignore, which means you should avoid using them. Stop words vary by databases. Common Stop Words: a, and, of, but
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