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Research Guides

JSIS 495 - Winter 2021: Task Force C: General Search Conventions

Search Tips to Use in Most Literature Databases

AND Retrieves items that contain both terms. Good for combining topics to narrow a search. coronavirus AND Korea
OR Retrieves items that contain at least one of the terms.  Good for expanding a search by looking for similar terms. COVID OR coronavirus
*
(Asterisk)		 Retrieves word variants, such as Korea, Korean, Koreans.  Looks for any word that begins with the letters before the asterisk. Korea*
" "
(Quotation marks)		 Retrieves the exact phrase contained by the quotation marks.  (Searching for "economic impacts" will not retrieve references with only the phrase "economic impact.") "economic impacts"
(   )
Parentheses		 Tells search system how to combine terms.
Article needs to mention Korea and EITHER coronavirus or COVID.		 Korea* AND (coronavirus OR COVID)

Example: PAIS Index

Short Tutorials from UW Libraries