Quick video overview
Watch the video below for a demonstration of how to perform a basic search.
Constructing basic searches
To get started, enter the desired search term into the search bar:
Start with a broad search using relevant key terms. Then refine your results as needed. This is generally more effective than formulating a specific research question.
Example: If you're researching treaties for Indigenous peoples of Australia, start with broad search terms such as treaty Indigenous Australia or Indigenous rights Australia.
When you enter multiple search terms, such as treaty Indigenous Australia, the search looks for results containing any of those terms. In other words, it uses the OR Boolean operator by default.
That means that the search is processed as treaty OR Indigenous OR Australia.
Use Boolean operators such as AND or NOT to make your search more specific.
Examples:
- treaty AND Indigenous AND Australia returns results that contain all three terms.
- treaty AND Indigenous AND Australia NOT Canada helps you focus on treaty-related topics involving Indigenous peoples in Australia and filters out results related to Canada.
You can narrow your results by selecting one or more search facets from the side bar on the left. These facets are available on all search results pages:
The edit search button is available under your search query:
The advanced search is accessible from either the top navigational bar or to the right of the search box:
Looking to construct more complex searches? Visit the Advanced Search Guide.
Search tips
Below are some other helpful tips for constructing a search query:
Use the Boolean operator AND to find results that contain all your keywords
Examples:
- Climate change AND Australia
- Depression AND social media
This is useful when your research contains two or more key concepts.
Note:
-
If you combine a Boolean operator (AND, OR, or NOT) with a multi-word search term (e.g. climate change), Informit automatically inserts AND between the words.
For example, a search for global warming OR climate change is automatically processed as global AND warming OR climate AND change.
Use the Boolean operator OR to find results with similar terms
Examples:
- Teachers OR educators
- Artificial intelligence OR AI
This is useful when searching for alternative words or similar concepts to broaden your search.
Use the Boolean operator NOT to exclude irrelevant results
Examples:
- Diabetes NOT Gestational
- Christianity NOT Catholicism
This is useful when a search term has more than one meaning.
Use double quotation marks “ ” to search for an exact phrase
Examples:
- “Voice referendum”
- “Shrine of Remembrance”
Using quotation marks ensures that the search retrieves results containing the exact terms in the specified order.
Use parentheses ( ) to group search terms
Examples:
- Body image AND (teenagers OR adolescents)
This finds results about mental health that also mention either teenagers or adolescents.
Use an asterisk * to find word variations
Example:
- Religio*
This may return:
- Religion
- Religions
- Religious
- Religiously
- Religiosity
Note:
- To find all records in a field, enter a*
Use a question mark ? to replace a single letter
Example:
- Wom?n
This may find:
- Woman
- Women
Note:
- Wildcards do not work at the start of a search term;
- Wildcards do not work within quotation marks
Use Match Any, Match All, and Match None
Use these selectors to include or exclude Resource Types and Media Genres (if available) from your search results.
Match Any
Finds results that contain at least one of the selected terms or filters.
Example:
-
Under Resource Type, select Match Any and then select Journal and Conference Proceedings.
This returns results that are either Journal articles or Conference proceedings.
Match All
Finds results that contain all of the selected terms or filters.
Example:
-
Under Resource Type, select Match All and then select Conference and Conference Proceedings.
This returns only results that are both Conference and Conference Proceedings.
Match None
Excludes results that the contain any of the selected terms or filters.
Example:
-
Under Resource Type, select Match None and then select Video and Sound.
This excludes all Video or Sound resources from your results.
Still Need Help?
If you have further questions on how to use the basic search, please reach out to us at support.informit@rmit.edu.au