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- When using Discover@UMSL, you should avoid typing full questions; instead, only type a few key words.
- Example: marijuana AND academic performance
- Since we’re looking specifically for articles about academic performance and not articles where the words academic and performance are used separately, we can search for the exact phrase by enclosing it in quotation marks. Specifying this exact phrase may eliminate articles that instead use the term academic achievement.
- Example: marijuana AND "academic performance"
- Discover@UMSL and most library databases combine words and phrases with Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT). As you can see from the diagram below, AND will reduce the number of results and OR will expand the number of results.
- AND should be used to connect components of your search that don’t have an explicit relationship.
- OR should be used to connect related terms, and you’ll want to enclose multiple related terms within parentheses;
- Example: (marijuana OR cannabis) AND (“academic performance” OR “academic achievement” OR “grade point average”).
- It’s usually best to avoid using NOT since it may exclude articles that mention your term but aren’t focused on it.
