Boolean operators are words or symbols used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search. Using these operators, you are able to focus your search on the results that will be most helpful. Google also has a few additional operators that work to refine results.
Below are common boolean operators that work when searching within Google and Google Scholar, as well as an example of each.
| Boolean Operators | Example |
| AND Limit results | Vegetarianism AND obesity (Search for content that contains both vegetarianism and obesity.) |
| OR One term OR another | Scholarly OR academic (Search for content that contains scholarly OR academic.) |
| - Exclude a term from the search | Bears -Chicago (Limits results to only those with bears and not the term Chicago.) |
| -site: Exclude a website from the search | Bears -site:wikipedia.org (Limits results to results other than Wikipedia.) |
| ~ Synonyms of term | ~academic (Search for the term academic and its synonyms.) |
| “ “ Exact phrase | “sleep deprivation” (Search for the phrase sleep deprivation.) |
AROUND (#) Search for specific words in a specific number of words in your phrase. | sleep AROUND (5) anxiety (search for the word sleep within five words of the word anxiety) |
intitle: Search for a specific word or phrase in the title. | intitle:Sleep (Search for sleep in the title) |
intext: Search for a specific word or phrase in the text. | intext:Sleep (Search for sleep in the text) |
source: Search for a specific word or phrase in the source. This is an excellent way to search for a specific publication | source:Education (Search for term in the source) |
