Skip to Main Content

Online graduate courses - Master of Psychiatry

Boolean Operators

Combine your keywords using Boolean operators to create a search statement in the database.

Boolean operator AND

Combining terms using AND narrows your search

depression AND diagnosis AND treatment

Boolean operator OR

Combining terms using OR broadens your search.

Use OR to include alternative or related terms.

adolescent OR teenager OR child

Boolean operator NOT

Combining terms using NOT to exclude a term.

therapy NOT cognitive

 

Word Truncation

Use the asterisk/star * to truncate word endings. Truncation enables different forms of a word to be searched for simultaneously, and will increase the number of search results found.

For example,

patient-cent*

Will automatically search for:

patient-centred

patient-centered

patient-centric

patient-centeredness

patient-centredness    

 

Sample Search Statements

Here are some search statement examples using common Boolean operators (and / or), “quotation marks” (for multiple-word phrases) and the truncation symbol ( * ) for plural or alternative word endings.

  •  anxiety or depression
  • schizophrenia and antipsychotic*
  • (alzheimer* or dementia) and (“early stage*” or “early symptom*” or onset)
  • “transcranial magnetic stimulation” and depression
  • “first episode psychosis” and diagnosis
  • (bulimia or anorexia or “binge eating”) and (treatment or intervention)