Ovid Tutorial 2.0
 University of South Alabama Biomedical Libraries

Combining the terms or sets

After creating sets of citations that discuss the key elements of your topic, you may wish to combine two or more of these sets. Sets can be combined in the following ways:
AND
All terms must appear in each reference.

This will decrease the number of citations to review.
OR
Either of the selected terms may appear in each citation; (used to include similar terms or concepts).

This will increase the number of citations to review.
NOT
The term will not appear in the reference; (used to eliminate terms which may be included in some of the citations but are not relevant to the topic. USE WITH CAUTION)
The combine function will create a new set on the Main Search Page.

Exercise:

  1. View the sample screen

    2.  
  2. Type 1 or 2 in the box labeled "Enter Keyword or phrase"

    3.  Note: we choose "or" because either term is relevant to our search
     
  3. Click on PERFORM SEARCH button

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Web address:     http://southmed.usouthal.edu/library/ref/ovid/combine.htm
Last Update:     2/14/02
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