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Business and Management

A Library Subject Guide

Business Research Tips and Techniques

Boolean Search Tips

Use:

  • Always capitalize Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) in your search statement.

  • AND
    This strategy will narrow your search. 
  • OR
    This strategy will broaden your search. Put words linked by OR inside parentheses ( ).
  • Quotation marks " "
    Using quotation marks will ensure that the database finds results that use that exact phrase.
  • Asterisk * 
    The * symbol tells the database to search for alternative word endings, for example: cultur* will search for culture, cultures, cultural

Search Tips for Business and Management

How do I choose keywords for my searches?

  • Words to include
    For a business research topic, you may want to include company names or keywords from your topic.
  • Use quotation marks
    This will find documents that contain the exact phrase placed between the quotation marks.
  • Use * (an asterisk)
    This will find various endings of the word fragment before the *. For example, searching for manage* will find documents containing managermanagersmanagement, etc. Note that you can use an asterisk in a phrase enclosed in quotation marks.
manage* AND communicat* AND ("virtual team*" OR "distributed team*")

Found too many results?

  • Add more keywords, using AND
    If you find that you are retrieving too many results, add more keywords to reflect additional concepts related to your topic.
manage* AND communicat* AND ("virtual team*" OR "distributed team*") AND trust

Found too few results?

  • Add more keywords, using OR
    If you are having trouble finding enough results, add synonyms or related terms for terms already used in your search statement. 
manage* AND communicat* AND ("virtual team*" OR "distributed team*" OR "remote team*" OR "dispersed team*")

Video Review on Keywords

Video Review on Searching

More Research Help

You can review your searching skills with our Database Searching Basics guide and this UMGC Library Webinar on Boolean Searching.