AND = will find both words
OR = will find either word
"example phrase" = will search terms as a phrase (they have to next to each other)
(brackets OR parentheses) = will group terms together
word* = will search for any word with that root e.g. symbio* will find symbiosis, symbiotic, symbiont

Found a good article? You can likely find more articles relevant to your topic by checking the reference list.
You can also use the "Cited by" function available on Google Scholar and in some databases to find other articles that have cited the original article. This is especially useful if you are looking for up to date research on a topic.

How does this search look? Let's try it out!

Database searching works best if you choose keywords rather than a whole question.
Choose the main ideas/keywords in my topic:

Or I can choose specific types of camouflage that I might read about in background research:

Or I might choose to research the symbiotic relationship between the bobtail squid and bacteria specifically. I can use some words from my background search earlier!


