Before entering keywords in the search box, it is useful to write down several words that best describe your research topic. Use a thesaurus if necessary to generate more words.
Descriptive words can then be connected by using words such as AND and OR to form meaningful search statements.
AND Narrows a search by joining keywords so to find articles and other documents that contain both of the keywords (e.g. poverty AND health).
OR Broadens a search. Will find articles that contain at least one of these keywords (e.g. poverty OR low income).
NOT Narrows a search by excluding a term. NOT connector will find articles that contain the first keyword but not the second keyword (e.g. Canadian NOT Amercian).
Quotation marks are used to search keywords that are a complete phrase (e.g. "muscular dystrophy").
Keywords within parentheses will be searched as a single unit within the search statement e.g. (rehabilitation OR therapy) AND "spinal cord injury"
When a keyword is truncated, the ending of the word is removed and replaced with a truncation symbol, usually an asterisk (*). A truncated keyword search will find articles with all instances of the root word and the root word combined with any possible ending (for example, Canad* - this will find Canada or Canadian or Canadians).
Main Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
---|---|---|
OTA/PTA assistants | role | Canada |
Main Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
---|---|---|
Occupational Therapy Assistants | role | Canad* |
Physiotherapy Assistants | responsibilities | Ontario |
Rehabilitation Assistants | practice |
Main Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
---|
(occupational therapy assistants OR physiotherapy assistants OR rehabilitation assistants) AND (role OR responsibilities OR practice) AND (canad* OR ontario)
Use simple keywords when searching the Library databases
"stroke patients"
AND rehabilitation
see " Example: Developing Keywords and Constructing a Search" below for more information.