Biology
Search Strategies
Boolean Operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. When searching electronic databases, you can use Boolean Operators to either broaden or narrow your search results. The three Boolean Operators are AND, OR and NOT.
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are simple words (AND, OR and NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused search results.
OR
- Broadens or expands your search
- Is used to retrieve like terms or synonyms
- Finds all items with either teenager OR adolescent
- In set theory and math, "union" is inclusive "OR".
"OR" = teenager U adolescent
AND
- Narrows or limits your search
- Used to retrieve unrelated terms
- Finds items with both diet and children
- In set theory and math, "intersection" is "AND".
"AND" = diet ∩ children
NOT
- Narrows or limits your search
- Finds the term "spider" not "monkey"
- Use the NOT operator with caution
- May eliminate relevant records
Note:
AND is the default or implied operator in Usearch, Google, Scopus, PubMed, EBSCOhost, and most search interfaces.
"ecotourism sustainable" is the same as "ecotourism AND sustainable"
In Usearch, EBSCOhost, SCOPUS, and PubMed, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) must be entered in upper case.
Phrase Searching
Phrase searching is using quotations.
For instance:
"international olympic committee"
"Utah tennis"
It finds the exact phrase, and items with words in the order typed. One exception is Scopus. Scopus uses curly brackets or braces for {exact phrase} searching. In Scopus, quotes are used for "loose/approximate phrase" searching.
Truncation Stemming
Truncation or stemming is using an asterisk *. It is also known as a wildcard. Truncation is a symbol that retrieves all the suffixes or endings of a word.
For instance:
school* retrieves school, schools, schooling, schooled, etc.
latin* retrieves latina, latino, latinx, latinos, latinas, latin, latinization, etc.
Note:
In the Library of Congress, % (percent sign) is a single character wildcard and ? (question mark) is truncation for multiple characters.
Nesting
Nesting is commonly used when combining more than one Boolean operator (OR, AND). Most search interfaces search left to right. Using parentheses in a search changes the order of operation.
For instance:
(moral* OR ethic*) AND (assisted suicide OR euthanasia)
(ski OR skis OR skiing OR snowboard*) AND video*
Proximity or Adjacency Operators
Proximity operators allow you to find one word within a certain distance of another.
With (w), Near (n), Next (n), or Pre (p) are common proximity operators.
Note:
Read the database help to see if proximity operators can be used in your searches.
Thanks to Alfred Mowdood for authoring these instructions.
Article Databases
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowA multi-disciplinary article database which offers information in many areas of academic study, Academic Search Ultimate focuses on a range of subjects including biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, psychology, religion/theology, and more. This article database is a good place to learn and find successful search terms, subject-specific vocabulary, as well as to determine what is available in different research areas with which you may not be familiar at first. If you cannot get access to this database via Google Chrome search engine, please switch to another such as FireFox, etc.
- Embase This link opens in a new windowEmbase - another crucial resource for discovering biomedical evidence within published, peer-reviewed literature, in-press publications and conference abstracts. Full-text indexing of drug, disease and medical device data - supported by Emtree - helps retrieve precise answers to search queries. Coverage is 1947 to present.
- SciFinderCoverage: 1907--present.
SciFinder is your link to the wealth of substance information and chemical literature in CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) databases. That includes over 16 million journal articles, patents and other documents and more than 24 million substance records in the CAS Chemical Registry database.
Note: This database is licensed for use only by UU faculty, students, and staff. It is not to be used for commercial research. It is not available to library visitors or walk-in users, or those with guest NIDs. See Common Chemistry for a free resource from CAS Registry Numbers, structures, molecular formulas and synonyms for chemical compounds. To register, for SciFinder Scholar you must use your University of Utah email and be at a University computer. If you have any questions please call Daureen Nesdill at 801-585-5975. To register click here or access the database, click on the Scifinder Scholar link from the Marriott Library Database of Databases page.
- ClinicalKey This link opens in a new windowMake better decisions. Access e-books, e-journals, images and procedure videos. Personalize your ClinicalKey for additional benefits.
- AgricolaDatabase consisting of literature citations for journal articles, monographs, proceedings, theses, patents, translations, audiovisual materials, computer software, and technical reports pertaining to all aspects of agriculture from the National Library of Agriculture. If you cannot get access to this database via Google Chrome search engine, please switch to another such as FireFox, etc.
- Plant Sciences(1994-Current)
Focuses on all plant scientific aspects, especially on pathology, symbiosis, biochemistry, genetics, biotechnology, techniques and environmental biology. - Toxline(1994-Current)
Indexes literature on toxicology: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pollutants. Citations to journal articles, conference papers, technical reports and theses. - Dissertations and Theses: GlobalDissertations & Theses: Global provides access to millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from around the world, available from 1861 to the present day. The database offers the full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and retrospective full-text coverage for many older graduate works. Over a million of these dissertations are available for download in PDF format, and over 2.1 million are available for purchase as printed copies.
- NTIS (National Technical Information Service - U.S. Department of Commerce1964-Current
The NTIS Database produced by the National Technical Information Service, is the preeminent resource for accessing the latest U.S. government-sponsored research and worldwide scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information. NTIS is the central source for the sale of unclassified and publicly available information from research reports, journal articles, data files, computer programs and audio visual products from Federal sources.
- USPTO Patent Public Search Tool This link opens in a new windowProvides access to granted and published applications. Full document text may be searched on U.S. patents issued since 1971 and OCR text from 1920 to 1970. U. S. patent images from 1790 to the present may be retrieved for viewing or printing. Published applications can be searched from 2001-present. Newly granted patents are published every Tuesday.
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