---
title: Search Tips
description: Search tips for an effective search
---
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October 8, 2026
# Search Tips
## Search tips for an effective search
---
#### **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:
- Religio**n**
- Religio**ns**
- Religio**us**
- Religio**usly**
- Religio**sity**
**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:
- Wom**a**n
- Wom**e**n
**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.
For further information please refer to the [**Advanced Search article**](https://support.informit.org/knowledge-base/advanced-search?hsLang=en) or the [**Advanced Search Guide**.](https://support.informit.org/hubfs/InformitSearch_AdvancedSearchGuide.pdf?hsLang=en)
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