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Religion and Theology - Information Competency: Combining search terms

Combining search terms

Once you've selected ‘your’ database the actual searching starts. For optimal results there are some rules to keep in mind. Looking for literature using just one or two keywords is a great way to generally ‘explore’ the field and get an idea of what’s going on. You can combine these keywords using so-called operators: AND, OR and NOT.

 

OR A OR B (broaden)
the search result can include either term A, B or both
AND A AND B (narrow)
the search result must include both terms
NOT

A NOT B (exclusion)
the search result must include the first term but not the one after NOT