Search tips

When you want to search for an exact phrase, such as "quality of life", put that phrase inside quotation marks.

The library databases work best if you eliminate "stop" words from your query. Stop words are words such as: a, of, the, in, on.  Natural language usually doesn't produce favorable results in database searches.  Instead choose one or two words or brief phrases and separate them by the word "and" to narrow your search.

Tip: Using AND, OR, and NOT in your searches. AND, OR, and NOT are Boolean Operators that can be used in most databases and search engines.

AND - I have included the word AND between each search term in the search query example above, so that the database will return only results that contain every one of these key terms. By including AND between each search term, I have limited my search results and will receive fewer but more relevant articles in my results list. 

OR - you can use OR between terms that have similar meanings, to expand your search results and receive results that contain either of the terms or both of the terms separated by OR. For example, the search query, "vocational rehabilitation or disability rehabilitation" will return all results that contain either vocational rehabilitation or disability rehabilitation or that contain both terms. 

NOT - Put NOT between two terms to specify that you want to receive results that contain the first term and not the term following the NOT. For example, the search query, "vocational rehabilitation not career counseling" will bring back results that contain the term, vocational rehabilitation but that do not contain the term, career counseling.

A fast way of determining if the article you are viewing is Peer Reviewed or Scholarly, is to search for the title of the journal which published the article in: Ulrichsweb

The Referee Shirt icon indicates the journal is refereed or peer reviewed.