Chemistry & Biochemistry: Essential Search Techniques

Most bibliographic databases, as well as Quick Find, allow you to use Boolean operators, truncation, and phrases in your search statements^†. Using these can make your searches more effective.
 

^† The database SciFinder Scholar does not allow these search techniques in its main text box. However, Boolean operators can be used with saved sets of results (the operators are called Intersect instead of AND, Combine instead of OR, and Exclude instead of NOT). Truncation and phrases are not supported either; however, the search engine automatically looks for different forms of words, and the search results are presented in a way where one can select a subset of results where the search terms appear as a phrase.

Boolean Operators

The Boolean operators (named after 19th-century logician George Boole) are AND, OR, and NOT.

Boolean operators can be grouped with parentheses:

(cat OR feline) AND (dog OR canine)

Note: Most search engines do not require that Boolean operators be written in capital letters. However, a few do. If in doubt, capitalize.
 

Truncation

Truncation is used to retrieve items having various forms of words. It is especially useful for finding singular and plural forms of nouns.

In most database search engines, the truncation symbol is the asterisk ( * ).

hormon*    This retrieves items that have hormone, hormones, hormonic, hormonology, etc.
 

Phrases

Phrases are sequences of words that appear together in the order specified. Use quotation marks to indicate phrases.

"global warming"   This retrieves items having this phrase, but not items in which global appears somewhere and warming appears somewhere else, but not next to each other in that order.
 

Phrases and Truncation Together

Most search engines allow you to use phrases and truncation simultaneously.

"global* warm*"   This retrieves the phrases global warming, global warmth, globally warm, etc.