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NRHL 3330 Nursing Scholarship: Role of Research in Evidence Based Practice: Boolean searching

What is Boolean Searching?

Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT (known as Boolean operators) to limit, broaden, or define your search. A good researcher should know how to do a Boolean Search.

"AND" logic

AND : Using AND narrows a search by combining terms.

"OR" logic

OR : Using OR broadens a search to include results that contain either of the words you're looking for.

"NOT" logic

NOT : Using NOT will narrow a search by exclusion. (Some search engines, like Google, recognize the minus (-) symbol, instead of the word NOT).

Quotations : Placing quotations around a specific phrase will help you narrow results in order to find information containing that exact wording.

(https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/02/22/what-boolean-search)

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