LIFE103/BZ111 - Biology of Organisms-Animals and Plants

Searching in the research databases and library catalog can be a bit tricky.

Incorporating the following tools and tips into your searches will help you create efficient searches and find pertinent information more quickly and easily (EXAMPLES below):

Boolean logic: a.k.a. boolean searching (named after George Boole) uses logical words/terms (AND, OR, NOT)  to combine words or terms.  Can either broaden or restrict your search.

AND:  Results must include both terms.

**Example: pulse AND exercise. Results must have the words pulse and the word exercise.  Restricts your search.

OR:  Results can include either word.

**Example: cardiac OR heart.  Results may have either the word cardiac OR heart.  Broadens your search.

NOT:  Results must have one word but not the other.

**Example: blood pressure NOT pregnancy.  Results must have the words blood pressure but CANNOT include the word pregnancy.  Restricts your search.

Truncation symbols: typically the asterisk (*) symbol, gives you extra searching options for the endings of words.  Broadens your search.

**Examples:

metabol*   searches for metabolism, metabolize, metabolite, metabolic

exercis*     searches for exercise, exercising

Wildcard symbols: usually the question mark (?) symbol, replaces a letter or letters in the middle of a word.  Broadens your search.

**Examples:

wom?n  searches for woman or women

col?r  searches for color or colour

Phrase searching: to keep words together as a phrase on a page (rather than separate), use quote marks around your term.  Restricts your search.

**Example: "cardiopulmonary physiology" (only items where these two words appear side-by-side will be included in the results)

Advanced searching: use parentheses to group and combine various searches and strategies into one larger search.

**Example: If you are interested in articles about the effect of exercise on blood pressure, pulse and recovery time, search:

(pulse OR "blood pressure") AND "recovery time" AND exercis*

Try these interactive tutorials from CSU Libraries to learn more about search techniques that work in most databases.