IST 605: Creativity & Leadership

Leadership is a multidisciplinary topic. If you use the keyword "leadership" in your search the results may be too broad. In this case, using Boolean operators to combine more specific keywords will help you find more relevant resources.

Examples:

Leadership AND "organizational culture"

"Leadership style" OR "leadership behavior"

"Leadership theory" OR "Leadership research"

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are useful for enhancing your searching skills. They offer an effective way to conduct a more efficient search by combining or excluding keywords.

Basic Operators

• AND narrows your search to results containing your keywords or phrases

                 Example: A search for creativity AND business will show results with both creativity and business

• OR expands your search to results containing at least one of your keywords or phrases

                 Example: A search for creativity OR ingenuity will show results that include either creativity or ingenuity

• NOT limits your search to results that exclude your keywords or phrases

                 Example: A search for inventive NOT science will show results that include inventive but not science.

Refining Boolean Search Results

• Use quotation marks to get results of an exact phrase
• Truncate searches by using an asterisk

                 Example: If you search leade* the results will include leader and leadership

Advanced Operators

Advanced operators vary slightly by database so check each ones help guide.