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Tips for Searching

Regardless of the search engine you choose, you should always develop a proper search strategy. The following steps will help:

  1. Identify the important concepts, or keywords, in your question.
  2. Consider other terms that can be substituted for your keywords.
  3. Employ the basic and/or advanced search commands outlined below.

Basic Search Commands

No two Internet search tools are alike; each will have its own set of commands and features. However, the following features apply to most search engines:

If you want to Then Example
     
include all words* place a "+" in front (no space) of each word +falcons +habitat
exclude a word place a "-" in front (no space) of word +portland -oregon
search for a phrase enclose the words in quotation marks "sustainable development"

*By default, most search tools search for all words, so a "+" is not necessary.

Advanced Search Commands

In addition to basic commands, many search tools also feature a variety of advanced commands. Since advanced commands often differ between search tools, the best source of information is the "help" section at each site. However, for a quick look at basic and advanced commands for various search tools see this chart or this chart.

A few examples of advanced commands:

  • proximity searching (useful when you want two or more words to be close to each other but not necessarily adjacent), e.g., paul near corinthians near interpretation
  • truncation (allows simultaneous searching of variant endings of a word), e.g., psych* will search for psychiatry, psychology, psychiatrist, psychologist, etc.
  • restricting a search to a specific domain, e.g., .gov, .edu
  • searching for specific file types, e.g., .pdf, .doc, .ppt
  • restricting to a date range
  • Boolean operators (used when searching for multiple terms):
    • "and" between words requires that all words be present (equivalent to "+" in basic commands), e.g., cod and maine and statistics
    • "or" between words allows either, but not necessarily both, words to be present, e.g., great britain or united kingdom
    • "not" before a word excludes it (equivalent to "-" in basic commands), e.g., homer not simpson
    • nesting (allows multiple Boolean operators to be used in a single search statement), e.g., (children or adolescents) and homelessness