Usually, when searching for information, more than one keyword is required. To combine keywords, use one of these:
AND; OR; NOT
AND: All the keywords will be present in the result list. AND usually limits the search results
For example: Internet AND “political participation” AND democracy
OR : Any of the keywords used will be present. It broadens your results by connecting two or more synonyms.
For example: “social media” OR facebook OR instagram
NOT: if you want to exclude a keyword from your result list. NOT may exclude relevant findings from the result list.
For example: "social media" NOT blogs
Quotation marks “…….”
two or more words that form a single concept/phrase
For example “South Africa”
“attention deficit disorder”
Truncation *
Use truncation for words with the same stem
For example: work* = work, works, worker, working, etc.
Parentheses / Brackets
Eg (cars OR motors OR busses) AND driving
The results will contain driving and either or all of the words cars OR motors OR busses
Wildcarts
Use a symbol for one letter of a word
Example:
behavio?r = behaviour or behavior
Colo!r = color OR colour
For example: See keyword search strings below:
(social media OR INTERNET OR TWITTER OR FACEBOOK OR INSTAGRAM) AND (“CIVIC ATTITUDES” OR “CIVIC VALUES” OR VALUE* OR ATTITUDE* OR “POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR” OR “POLTICAL BAHAVIOR“ OR “POLITICAL PARTICIPATION” OR PARTICIPATION) AND (DEMOCRAC* OR E-DEMOCRACY)
(“HIGH CONFLICT COUPLES” OR “LOWER INCOME” OR “LOW INCOME” OR LIC ) AND (EFFECT OR SYMPTOM* AND ANXIETY OR “ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER”) AND CHILDREN
FATIGUE AND FIBROMYALGIA AND ("LIVED EXPERIENCE" OR EXPERIENCE*) AND (FAMILY OR PARENTS)
