Psychology 124 (Epperson): Keywords & Search Terms

A. Boolean Operators

When searching in Databases, use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, and NOT) to tell the database what you're looking for).

OR is mORe (joins similar terms)  e.g. inactivity OR sedentary 

AND is less (joins dissimilar terms) e.g. schedule AND sleep

Sample Search Using both AND and OR

sugar OR soda

AND

reduc* 

NOTE: use the asterisk in reduc* to tell the database you want results that start with those letters, e.g., reduce, reduction, reducing, etc.

B. Quotation Marks

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase

• "sleep hygiene"
• "water pollution"
• "fast food"

C. Truncation

Use a symbol, the asterisk * is the most common, to look for variant endings of a word

• disparit* will search for disparity, disparities, etc.

D. Combine search strategies

Combine search strategies for more efficient searching

For example: ("food desert" OR "supermarket location") AND california