BASIC SEARCH

Simple Keyword

ADVANCE SEARCH
Boolean Search

Limited Field
Phrase

Parentheses (Nesting)
Truncation

Wildcards

BASIC SEARCH

Simple Keyword

ex. 1. MSC 2. Music

Limited Field

Limited Field (use + or symbol) ex. 1. File + Murder 2. Magazine - Computer Phrase (put quotation marks) / [ ] ex. 1. animal rights 2. Mahathir Mohamad

Phrase

ADVANCE SEARCH
Boolean Search
Using the terms AND, OR and NOT AND OR NOT To combine concepts To search for alternative terms To remove an irrelevant term

Parentheses (Nesting)

Use of parentheses to put your search words into sets Act together as an OR operator

Truncation

Using asterisk (*) or question mark (?) to find different forms of words

Wildcards

A symbol within a word

ADVANCE SEARCH
Boolean Search Using the terms AND, OR and NOT

AND

To combine concepts To narrow your results

Narrowing your search: By typing the word AND in between two different words ex : Financial Accounting AND Financial Performance Search result include only the red area
Result: financial accounting AND financial performance

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

Boolean Search Using the terms AND, OR and NOT

OR

To search for alternative terms To broaden your results

Expanding your search: By typing the word OR in between two different words ex : Financial Accounting OR Financial Performance Search result include the red area

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH
Boolean Search Using the terms AND, OR and NOT

NOT

To remove an irrelevant term To narrow your results

Limiting your search: By typing the word NOT in between two different word ex : Financial Accounting NOT Financial Performance

Search results include the red area only

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

ADVANCE SEARCH

PARENTHESES (NESTING)

Ex.: education and (employment or jobs)

TRUNCATION
EXAMPLE RESULTS

employ*

employ employment employs employee employer acquired acquiring acquisition

acqui!

Truncation Symbol

Databases

Ebsco Academic Premier

* Lexis-Nexis !

Ex.: employ* and education

WILDCARDS

EXAMPLE wom*n col*r

RESULTS woman women colder collar collector color colour color

col?r

col??r

colder collar colour

acquired acquiring acquisition

acqui!

PREPARING YOUR SEARCH

STEP 1:
State what you want to find STEP 2: Identify keywords STEP 3: Select synonyms and variant word forms STEP 4: Combine synonyms, keywords and variant word form STEP 5: Check your spelling