Skip to Main Content

REL 3335: Cults and New Religious Movements

One Perfect Source?

Search String Example

Now...how do you use AND, OR, and NOT while searching?

  1. Click on "Advanced Search" under the Start Your Research search bar on the main library webpage.
  2. Put in your keywords like this:

     3. Not getting enough results?  Remove one of your search terms. 

Boolean Search Terms

Combine Keywords

Research Databases do not work like Google!

You can't just type in your question.

BUT...you can combine keywords into a "question" that the database will understand.  Using AND, OR, NOT between search terms will make your search waaaaay more precise.

  • AND between two keywords will bring back less results    - only those that have both keywords.
  • OR between two keywords will bring back more results   - all those articles that have either keywords.
  • NOT between two keywords will bring back less results    - only those articles with the first keyword, but not the second keyword.

Search Tools

OTHER TOOLS FOR SEARCHING:

  • Use quotation marks to search for phrases - "endangered birds" will bring back results that have that phrase.
  • Use an asterisk to get all words with a single root within results - type creat* and results will include create, creating, creators, creation, creatures, etc.
  • Combine keywords using AND, OR, and NOT rather than typing in your whole question.  (Look left for an example.)