Use these operators in the search bar to filter your results precisely.
Our search understands special commands. Type them directly into the search bar to activate advanced filters.
Format: date:YYYY or date:YYYY-MM or date:YYYY-MM-DD or date:YYYY-YYYY
Examples:
CRISPR date:2015-2020COVID vaccine date:2020-03 | date:2020-12 (range between two dates)climate change date:2024exoplanets date:2024-01-01 | date:2024-06-30Date Range Syntax:
date:2020-03 | date:2020-12 (year-month range)date:2020 | date:2023 (year range)date:2020-03-15 | date:2020-12-31 (full date range)Alternative syntax:
published:2023year:2020-2022Format: source:"Institution Name" or institution:"Institution Name"
Restricts results to articles published by that institution. Any words you add after the institution are treated as a separate search of the article text.
Examples:
source:MIT artificial intelligence — MIT articles about artificial intelligenceinstitution:"Johns Hopkins" COVID — Johns Hopkins articles about COVIDsource:NASA Marssource:"Max Planck Institute" quantuminstitution:Stanford medicineImportant: Put quotes around any institution name longer than one word — source:"Max Planck Institute", not source:Max Planck Institute. Without quotes only the first word (Max) is used as the institution and the rest becomes a text search.
Tip: Full names match the institution exactly (e.g. "Johns Hopkins" finds all Johns Hopkins schools and centers). Short abbreviations such as MIT or NASA, which aren't stored as the full institution name, are matched wherever they appear in the article.
Format: journal:"Journal Name"
Examples:
journal:Nature gene editingjournal:"The Lancet" clinical trialjournal:Science climatejournal:Cell immunologyImportant: Quote multi-word journal names — journal:"Nature Physics", not journal:Nature Physics (which would filter for the journal Nature and search the text for Physics).
Format: method:"study type" — this matches one of a fixed set of study types, so the name must match. Add other words after it to search the article text.
Examples:
method:"meta-analysis" dietmethod:"observational study" air pollutionmethod:"experimental study" photosynthesismethod:"systematic review" statinsmethod:"randomized controlled/clinical trial" cancerRecognized study types: Experimental study, Observational study, Data/statistical analysis, Computational simulation/modeling, Survey, Randomized controlled/clinical trial, Meta-analysis, Systematic review, Literature review, Imaging analysis.
Format: subject:type — who or what was studied, from a fixed set. Add other words after it to search the article text.
Examples:
subject:people depression treatmentsubject:animals behaviorsubject:cells agingsubject:"human tissue samples" alzheimerRecognized subjects: People, Animals, Cells, Human tissue samples, Animal tissue samples, Lab-produced tissue samples, Human embryos.
Format: keyword:"tag" or topic:"tag"
Matches articles tagged with that exact keyword. Use it on its own — unlike the other operators, extra words in the same query are not applied. To combine a topic with free text, search the words directly instead (e.g. immunology T-cells).
Examples:
keyword:immunologytopic:"machine learning"keyword:"climate change"topic:exoplanetsFormat: doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx
Examples:
doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06825-8doi:10.1126/science.abc1234Format: has:images or has:video or has:multimedia
Examples:
Mars rover has:imagescell division has:videoblack hole has:multimediasource:NASA has:images date:2024Format: "exact phrase in quotes"
Examples:
"long COVID" treatment"mRNA vaccine" development"gravitational waves" detection"CRISPR-Cas9" therapyThis is where it gets powerful. Stack operators to create precise queries:
Examples:
source:MIT topic:"artificial intelligence" date:2023-2024 has:imagesjournal:Nature method:"randomized controlled/clinical trial" date:2020 | date:2022 COVIDinstitution:"Johns Hopkins" subject:people vaccine date:2020source:NASA Mars has:multimedia date:2021 | date:2025journal:"The Lancet" method:"meta-analysis" subject:people cardiovascularCRISPR source:Berkeley journal:Science date:2015-2020climate source:"NOAA" date:2024 has:images(quantum OR photonic) institution:"MIT" date:2023Format: AND, OR, NOT (in capitals), with ( ) for grouping. These combine search words: AND requires a word, NOT excludes it, OR (inside parentheses) accepts either.
Examples:
vaccine AND efficacy NOT animalclimate change AND (adaptation OR mitigation)cancer treatment NOT chemotherapy(immunotherapy OR CAR-T) AND melanoma"gene therapy" AND (cancer OR leukemia) NOT miceNote: Boolean logic applies to the search words. Field filters (source:, journal:, date:, etc.) are always combined with AND — you can't yet OR two different field filters together.
Format: * for wildcard matching
Examples:
neuro* (finds neuroscience, neurology, neuroplasticity, etc.)genom* (finds genome, genomic, genomics)immun* AND therapy (wildcards combine with boolean operators)Note: The * goes at the end of a word to match everything starting with it (cardio*). It must follow at least a few letters.
| What You Want | Type This | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Specific institution | source:"Name" | source:"MIT" |
| Date range | date:YYYY | date:YYYY | date:2020 | date:2023 |
| Specific journal | journal:"Name" | journal:Nature |
| Study type | method:"Type" | method:"meta-analysis" |
| What was studied | subject:Type | subject:people |
| Has media | has:images | has:video |
| Exact phrase | "phrase" | "dark matter" |
| Combine searches | operator operator | source:NASA date:2024 |
| Either word | (A OR B) | (adaptation OR mitigation) |
Start simple, then add:
cancercancer date:2024cancer date:2024 method:"observational study"cancer date:2024 method:"observational study" source:StanfordUse parentheses to group search words:
(quantum OR photonic) AND computing source:MIT date:2023-2024Combine text search with operators:
mRNA vaccine development source:"Moderna" date:2020Search within search results:
After getting results, refine by adding more operators to your original query.