Boolean Operators
The connectors AND, OR, and NOT, used to combine search terms and control which records a database query retrieves.
Boolean operators are the logical connectors AND, OR, and NOT used to combine terms in database searches. AND narrows results by requiring every term to appear; OR broadens them by accepting any of several terms, which is how synonyms are gathered; NOT excludes records containing a term. Parentheses group terms so operators apply in the intended order, as in (adolescent OR teenager) AND anxiety.
Mastering these connectors is what makes a thesis literature search efficient and reportable. A common pattern is to build one OR block of synonyms for each concept in your research question, then join the blocks with AND. Use NOT sparingly, because it can silently discard relevant papers that merely mention the excluded term. Since your methodology may need to reproduce the exact strings, save every query as you run it rather than reconstructing it later.
Writing the thesis this term belongs to?
CiteDash takes a thesis from research question to a compiled document, with AI that cites only real papers and verifies every claim against its source.