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Find Articles

This guide introduces journal articles and article databases. It also overviews and demonstrates searching for articles using Academic Search Complete.

Search Tips

Use "quotation marks" for phrases

To search for a phrase, use quotation marks. This tells the database to only show you results with those words in exactly the order you typed them.

  • Examples: "Iraq War," "childhood development," "interior design"

Truncation

To search for words with the same root or trunk, use an asterisk * , which is called a truncation symbol

  • Example: romantic* will find "romantic," "romanticism," "romantically," etc.
  • This won't be helpful with some roots, such as inter*, because many unrelated words begin with inter (interstate, interstellar, intervene, etc.

Boolean Operators: AND, OR, & NOT

Boolean Operators: AND, OR, & NOT

What are boolean operators?

The three basic boolean operators, AND, OR, & NOT, are used to create relationships between your search terms to either narrow or broaden your search results. 

How boolean operators work

AND - Narrows your results by finding records with all of your search terms. Use AND to connect two or more different concepts.

OR - Broadens your results by finding records with one term or the other, or both terms. Use OR to connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms). 

NOT - Narrows results by finding records that include the first term, but not the second. Use NOT to ignore concepts that may be implied by your search terms, but are not what you are looking for.