Boolean Operators

You can use the following Boolean operators in your query, either by typing them, or by selecting from the drop-down list in the search form.

AND:	Results must match both terms. Only documents that contain all of the terms will be found.
OR:	Results must match one or more of the terms. Documents that contain any of the words will be found.
AND NOT:	Results must match the first term and may not match the second.

Notes

If you want to search for the words or, and, or and not literally, enclose them in double quotation marks.

If you enter more than one word or phrase in the same text box without using an operator, AND will be assumed, and only documents containing all of the terms will be found.

Use the following tips to construct a search string that uses connectors:

Use AND when all the terms must appear and may be far apart from each other.

For example:   lesion AND pancreatic

Note    If you are searching for a phrase which contains the word "and," omit the word "and" from your search string.

For example:   profit loss would find the phrase "profit and loss"
Use OR when at least one of the terms must appear (such as synonyms, alternate spellings, or abbreviations).

For example: kidney OR renal
Use AND NOT to exclude specific terms. This connector must be used at the end of a search string.

For example: ganglia OR tumor AND NOT malignant

Order of Precedence Rules

Search queries with multiple operators are processed using the following order of precedence:

OR
AND
AND NOT

After the precedence rules are applied, the query is read left to right.

Examples

KEY(mouse AND NOT cat OR dog)
will run as:
KEY((mouse) AND NOT (cat OR dog))
KEY(mouse OR rat AND rodent)
KEY(rodent AND rat OR mouse)
KEY(rat OR mouse AND rodent)
will all run as:
KEY((mouse OR rat) AND rodent)
KEY(cat AND dog AND NOT rodent OR mouse)
will run as:
KEY((cat AND dog) AND NOT (rodent OR mouse))

Warning

AND NOT can give unexpected results when you have multiple operators. We recommend that you put it at the end of your queries.

For example, the following queries will return a large number of results:

KEY(cold) AND NOT KEY(influenza)
KEY(cold) AND NOT KEY(influenza) AND KEY(rhinovirus)
KEY(cold) AND NOT (KEY(influenza) AND KEY(rhinovirus))

To exclude influenza from your search, you should use the following query instead:

KEY(cold) AND KEY(rhinovirus) AND NOT KEY(influenza)

Proximity Operators

Scopus will not support boolean operators (AND , OR, AND NOT) as an argument to a proximity expression.

For Example

cat pre/10 (dog AND mouse)- invalid
cat w/11 (dog OR mouse) - invalid
cat w/11 dog OR mouse - invalid because or has a higher precedence

But note: cat pre/10 dog AND mouse - is valid because AND has a lower precedence, so the query is effectively (cat pre/10 dog) AND mouse