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Smart Search: Search Tips

Search Tips

When researching a question, don't use complete sentences. Instead, use the most important keywords! For example:

How are mobile devices affecting education?

The most important keywords are:

mobile devices AND education

Use Boolean operators to modify your search. This is very useful when you are searching for journal articles!

Boolean Operators

AND     OR     NOT

AND will narrow your search results:
"global warming" AND glaciers

OR will expand your search results:
"mobile devices" OR smartphones

NOT will exclude certain results:
cowboys NOT football

Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. This will help you find more specific results! For example:

social media = 8221 results

"social media" = 1140 results

Use an asterisk (*) after a set of letters to perform a truncated search. This will find variations of a word. For example:

musc* 

will find results containing the words... 

muscle, muscular, musculoskeletal, etc.

You should see the Boolean Operators and Search Modifiers handout embedded here. If you do not, it means that this browser does not support PDFs. Please download the PDF to view it!