Although you can find article citations in a database easily, finding useful and relevent articles is often difficult. Several search strategies will be useful.
Boolean logic uses and / or / not to combine words or terms.
Examples:
bacteria or microorganisms includes either term
microscopy and bioassay includes both terms
turtles not migratory includes first term but not second term
Truncation symbol, usually the asterisk *; offers variant endings on words.
Example: hypothe* retrieves hypothesis, hypotheses, hypothetical, etc.
Wildcard symbol, usually the question mark ?, replaces a letter or letters in the middle of a word or one letter at the end of a word. Not all databases allow wildcards.
Example:
genetic? Retrieves genetic or genetics
colo?rful Retrieves colorful or colourful
Phrase searching, to keep words together as a phrase, you usually use the quote marks around the phrase "words together"
Example: "global warming"
Author Name - the same author may publish under versions of a name over a lifetime. Search for different combinations of the name OR with unusual last names try searching for last name, first initial with an asterisk, as in Buffo J*
Examples:
Silander, John A.
Silander John Augustus
Silander J.A.
Silander J.
Information on this page is from this Biology Subject Guide and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License.