tutorial on "and, or and not"

1. You’re researching a company that makes
environmentally sustainable products. Which
search will give you the better results?
a. A company name AND
environmentally sustainable products
b. A company name OR environmentally
sustainable products

2. b. Using “AND” will give you the better results.
Your results will include every article that
mentions the company’s name AND
environmentally sustainable products. Using
OR would provide you with articles that
include the company’s name OR articles that
contain environmentally sustainable products.
a. Company name AND environmentally
sustainable products
b. Company Name OR environmentally
sustainable products

3. You are looking for articles on paper
products that are environmentally
sustainable. Which search will give you
narrower – or more targeted - results?
a. (Paper products OR environmentally
sustainable products) AND company name
b. Paper products AND environmentally
sustainable products AND company name

4. b. Searching paper products AND environmentally
sustainable products will produce results that include
only those paper products that are environmentally
sustainable, and will not include articles about paper
products that are not environmentally sustainable.
Searching paper products OR environmentally
sustainable products will include articles on products
that are not necessarily paper.
a. (Paper products OR environmentally
sustainable products) AND company name
b. Paper products AND environmentally
sustainable products AND company name

5. Why is “NOT” used here?
U.S. companies AND
environmentally sustainable
products NOT paper products

6. In this search, the researcher was interested in finding
articles about environmentally sustainable products
that are NOT paper products.
One risk in using NOT is that articles that may contain
some useful information might be eliminated from your
search. For instance, there might be a good article
about a product that is not paper, but it may not
appear in the search if the article also contains
information about paper products, since paper
products have been eliminated from the search.
Nevertheless, it is a good starting point for this
particular search, because once those non-paper
products have been identified, then the researcher
can better refine the search.

7. Which search will give you
better results?
a. (Heart attack OR myocardial
infarction) AND symptoms
b. Heart attack AND myocardial
infarction AND symptoms

8. a. This is a good example of when to use OR. In this search, articles
that contain both the terms heart attack OR myocardial infarction
will appear. In the search using AND, only those articles that
contain both terms – heart attack and myocardial infarction in the
same article – will be produced, eliminating valuable articles.
Since the researcher wants to capture all the articles that have to
do with heart attacks, using multiple terms will produce better
results. In this case, the terms are “nested” in parentheses.
a. (Heart attack OR myocardial
infarction) AND symptoms
b. Heart attack AND myocardial
infarction AND symptoms

9. Which search will get the most
results?
a. Elderly OR Aged
b. Elderly

10. a. Since the elderly may also be described
as aged, using both terms will yield better
results.
a. Elderly OR Aged
b. Elderly

11. .
Using an EBSCO
database, click on the
Help button, located
in the top right hand
corner, and then click
on “Boolean” on the
left hand side, under
“Searching.”