Combine Search Terms Using OR (#13)

Some resources will allow you to combine your keywords in different ways. One of those ways is to combine terms using the word “or”.

Venn diagram showing the overlap of words that mean the same thing

You use OR to combine words that mean the same thing. Authors may refer to the same thing using different terminology. To ensure that your search retrieves all the items relevant you should include a range of terms.

For example someone may refer to “kidney disease” but another person may call it “renal disease”. Your search needs to return both sets of information, so you should search for items that contain either kidney OR renal disease.

Here’s a short animation from HEE explaining the use of OR:

You can learn more about how to combine search terms by completing our etutorial Develop Your Search Skills.