HERS: Haskell Environmental Research Studies: Finding Articles

This guide provides academic, web, and government resources related to interdisciplinary research topics for the HERS program.

Literature Searching Tips

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow you create searches that combine keywords and search terms for more relevant search results. 

  • AND - narrows the search by searching for both terms 
    • Ex. snowfall AND Montana, returns results that contain snowfall and Montana
  • OR - broadens the search by searching for either term
    • Ex. Apsaalooke OR Crow, returns results that contain either the Apsaalooke or Crow
  • NOT - narrows the search by excluding a term 
    • Ex. precipitation NOT rain, returns results that contain precipitation, but not rain

Searching Tips

Here are some general searching tips

  • Use quotation marks "x" to search a phrase
    • Ex. "climate change"
  • Use the wildcard symbol (usually an asterisk *) to search for alternate endings of words
    • Ex. snow* will also search for snows, snowfall, etc
  • Use parenthesis () to nest search terms and keywords
    • Ex. (Apsaalooke OR Crow) AND "climate change" AND snow*
  • You can combine Boolean searching with other searching tips (see above example)
    • Complex searches can be as ineffective as searches that are too simple because it can narrow your results too much

Strategies Reading Academic Articles