Advanced search techniques

This level will help you use some advanced features of Google Scholar and YorSearch.

Instructions:

• work through the tasks and materials here
• we recommend you start at the beginning and move through, but you can do them in any order you want
• if you already have a good grasp of the material, you can skip that section (note: the material will still appear in the progress test!)
• when you are ready, take the progress test. If you do well, you can progress to the next stage. If you still have work to do, you will need to come back here to go over material again.

Using Boolean operators in searches: AND, OR, NOT

Booleans (sounds like "BOO-lee-unz") are special search terms you can use to show connections between keywords in your search.

They are useful to help you make the topic narrower or broader - you can look for sources that contain two topics, or that don't include a specific topic. this makes it easier to find sources that are relevant to your research topic.

Note: you must write Booleans in CAPITAL letters (this tells the software that you want to use a Boolean, and not just a normal word)

Task: how do Booleans work?

3. match these searches with the sources you will get:

Want more practice?

Complete this interactive tutorial about Booleans from the University of York Library.

You can also complete it in a new window by clicking here: take me to the tutorial

Google Scholar: Advanced search

Another way to help refine your search to find relevant sources is to use the Advanced Search feature in Google Scholar.

Advanced Search lets you search for sources:

• containing all keywords (like the Boolean AND)
• containing an exact phrase (like using "this phrase only")
• containing at least one keyword (like the Boolean OR)
• which do not contain a keyword (like the Boolean NOT)
• containing keywords only in the source title or in the body of the source text
• by a specific author
• which appear in a specific journal
• published in a specific date range

Task: using Advanced Search

3. Go to Google Scholar and use Advanced Search.

Choose a research topic you want to find out about - make sure you have at least two keywords for this topic.

• limit your search using one or more of the four keyword options
• find an author that has written on this topic. Do a new search only for sources by this author
• limit the results to sources published after 2010?

YorSearch: filtering results

You can refine your search results in YorSearch by using the filtering options on the left side of the screen.

The most useful filters are:

• Show only: show sources in the library or online sources
• Resource type: book, journal, article etc.
• Subject: e.g., show only Environmental Science sources
• Author or creator: sources by specific authors or organisations (e.g., only the World Health Organisation)
• Publication Date: e.g., after 2010, or between 2005 - 2015

Task: filtering results in YorSearch

1. go to YorSearch and enter the keywords you used in the Google Scholar Advanced Search task
2. filter your results to show only sources:
   • where the full text is available online
   • that are journals
   • that were published after 2012

YorSearch: Advanced Search

In addition to filtering, you can also used Advanced Search in YorSearch to search more effectively.

To access this function, click Advanced Search under the search box. You will then see this larger search box:

Task: Advanced Search in YorSearch

1. go to YorSearch and open Advanced Search
2. use the keywords you used in the Google Scholar Advanced Search and filtering results in YorSearch tasks
3. set up your search to find sources which contain at least one of the keywords in the title of sources (hint: which Boolean do you need?)
4. add filters so that your results to show only sources:
   • that are books in the University Library
   • that were published between 1st January 2014 and 31 December 2016

Quiz

Complete this quiz to test your knowledge. Get all the answers right to get the code to move onto the next level.