Boolean logic is essentially a mathematical equation: the. For example:įor this next example, you have only TWO concepts: the problem (lumbar pain) and the intervention (either exercise or spinal manipulation). Boolean logic refers to search operators or terms that can help narrow or broaden your search results. You can add alternative keywords to your search, but just make sure you are clumping together your concepts using parentheses. You'll want to connect each MUST-HAVE concept with an AND. or you might just find information about exercise that has nothing to do with back pain!!Ī good way to think about this is: What are your MUST-HAVE concepts? For this question, there are three: the problem (lumbar pain) and your two treatment options that you are comparing. If you don't include the parenthesis, you might find information about lumbar pain and spinal manipulation. This is because databases read your search from left to right, like a mathematical formula. NOTE that I put parentheses around spinal manipulation and exercise. If you want research on either spinal manipulation or exercise, you can use an OR: lumbar pain AND (spinal manipulation OR exercise). You might do this if you aren't comparing the two treatment options rather, you want studies that include either of those types of treatment. If you want research that compares spinal manipulation and exercise, you want to connect your search terms with AND: lumbar pain AND spinal manipulation AND exercise. Using AND will retrieve all three search terms, which is important if you are looking for research that compares those treatment options. A Boolean search allows system users to combine keywords with operators such as AND and OR. Truncation* → Broadens search to include various endings and spellings of a wordįor example, let's say you are searching for information about spinal manipulation and exercise to treat lumbar pain. Proximity N# → Narrows search by making sure two or more words occur within a certain number of words from each other (useful in EBSCO databases, but not available in Pubmed) "Quotes" → Narrows search to an exact phrase
NOT → Narrows search results by excluding unwanted terms Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine or exclude search terms. Boolean operators are a way to construct a computer searchable question.
0 kommentar(er)
