BIOL 111 & 112 Principles of Biology I & II Labs

IMPORTANT: The samples in this guide are similar and do not exactly follow the CSE style guidelines. The formatting for citing sources is recommended for this course only.

Best wishes in your studies, Marilia (Librarian for Biology)

Boolean Operators: AND, OR

AND: use the word AND to retrieve results that contain only the terms specified.
Example: crayfish AND agonistic AND size (Note: you will retrieve fewer results than when you use OR)

OR: use the word OR to retrieve results that return one search term or the other (that is, either or both). Use for synonyms or related terms!
Example: agonistic OR fighting OR defensive behavior (Note: you will retrieve more results than when you use AND)
When using OR, enclose the terms in parentheses (  )  Example: (agonistic OR fighting OR defensive behavior)

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

                                                   A AND B                                     A OR B

TOO MANY Results/Not Relevant --Try This:

1. Search BIOSIS Previews (https://login.ezproxy.uakron.edu:2443/login?url=https://www.webofscience.com/wos/biosis/basic-search)
2. Add more terms to your search strategy/search string (e.g., include more ANDs)
3. Select different fields when searching search (from the search box in the main database page) to Title, Taxonomic Data, Major Concepts, and others (see if this helps)

TOO FEW Results/Not Relevant --Try This:

1. Make sure you select "All Databases" when searching Web of Science.
2. Search other databases (e.g., PubMed@UA)
3. Include more similar/related terms in your search strategy (e.g., include more ORs)
4. Use cited reference searching in Web of Science and Google Scholar (especially when you identified highly relevant articles).
    

COMMON KEYWORDS

CONCEPT ONE

• crayfish
• Order all related terms together by combining them with OR  [this is not required but if you are not finding what you need, try this strategy]:
  (Crayfish OR crustacean OR "decapod crustacean" OR "Procambarus clarkii" OR Crawdads OR Crawfish OR "freshwater lobsters")

CONCEPT TWO

• agonistic behavior
• fight* (will retrieve records with the words fighting, fight, fighting intensity, etc.)
• aggress* (will retrieve records with the words aggression, aggressive, etc.)
• dominan* (will retrieve records with the words dominance, dominant, etc.)
• hierarchy

CONCEPT THREE (YOUR CHOICE) - see example

• impairment* (will retrieve records with the words impairments, impairment, etc.)
• injur* (will retrieve records with the words injury, injuries, etc.)
• "loss of appendages" (this may or may not help)  Did you know? to retrieve exact phrases (in the same order), add quotes around the phrase.
• "body damage"  (this may or may not help)

Then combine the terms (your choice--don't have to use all of them):

Type this in the database's search box (This is an example!):

("agonistic behavior" OR fighting OR aggress*) AND ("body appendages injury" OR injur* OR "limb loss" OR "behavioral impairments" OR "loss of appendage" OR "limb damage") AND (Crayfish OR crustacean OR "decapod crustacean" OR "Procambarus clarkii" OR Crawdads OR Crawfish OR "freshwater lobsters")