In this example, we will consider the following topic: The effects of pollution on frog reproduction.

Are there other ways to express your keywords and phrases to widen the search?

Synonyms

For example:

• Effects OR consequences
• Pollution OR poison OR toxin
• Frog OR amphibian
• Reproduction OR breeding

Note: you may find using a thesaurus or a subject dictionary useful at this point, to help expand your selection of possible keywords.

Spelling variations

Use of the ‘wildcard’ symbol—commonly represented by a question mark (?)—will search for multiple spellings. For example:

• Behavio?r will search both behaviour, behavior.
• Organi?tion will search both organisation, organization.

Acronyms

For example:

• CVD, cardiovascular disease
• ANU, Australian National University

Adding a truncation symbol—commonly an asterisk (*)—after the root of a word will find variations of that word. Truncating words returns variant spellings and endings, and can save you from having to do multiple searches.

For example:

• Frog* will also return the word frogs.
• Pollut* will return the words pollution, pollutant, and pollutants, etc.
• Toxi* will return the words toxic, toxin, toxins, toxicity, and toxicology, etc.
• Reproduc* will return the words reproduce, reproductive and reproduction, etc.

Boolean operators and modifiers let you combine keywords and phrases to retrieve specific search results. They are inserted between your keywords and phrases, and must always appear in UPPER CASE. Taking the time to learn basic Boolean allows you to create increasingly specific searches to find the information you need faster and with less stress.

For example:

Use AND to narrow or focus your search and retrieve records containing only the specified words. For example:

Use OR to broaden your search and retrieve records containing any of the words specified. For example:

If you use the OR operator when searching for acronyms and abbreviations, remember to include the actual term spelt in full as well as the abbreviation. For example:

• spi OR “soy protein isolate”
• pow OR “prisoner of war”
• un OR “united nations”

Use NOT (which sometimes also appears as AND NOT) to narrow your search results and return records that do not contain a specified term. Note: Some search engines do not recognise NOT, so for these you will need to use the minus symbol. For example:

Use parentheses ( ) to group words and phrases together when combining the OR operator with an AND operator in the same search. This is sometimes referred to as Nesting. For example: