The following search tips can be used to help make your search more precise or to help return more results.
| Search strategy | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| AND | Use AND to combine words together so that both terms are in your results | Media AND violence |
| OR | Use OR to combine words so that the results include at least one of the terms. This is used for synonyms | teenager OR youth |
| NOT | Use NOT to exclude a term from your results | Genetics NOT cloning |
| " " | Use quotation marks “ “ to search for a phrase. Omni will return results where the words are located next to each other. Without the quotation marks, Omni would look for the words anywhere and not necessarily together | “climate change” will return results with the two words together |
| * | Use the * at the end of a word to find words with alternative endings | comput* will give you results with computer, computers, computing, computation |
| ? | Use the ? to replace a letter within a word in order to find variations on spellings | wom?n will return results with the words women and woman |
| ( ) | Use ( ) to help organize your search and group terms together. The terms in brackets will be processed by Omni first | Professional AND (ethics OR codes) |
| Putting it all together. You can create what we call a “search string” by combining the strategies above | “climate change” AND activism AND (teen* OR youth) |
Helpful tips
1. AND, OR, NOT need to be capitalized otherwise Omni treats them as if they are not there.
2. The French equivalent ET, OU, SAUF are not supported by Omni so if you are searching in French you need to use the English equivalent.