Use of parenthesis in requests

The use of parentheses in your queries allows for keyword distributivity.

Parentheses are not strictly speaking Boolean operators in that they do not focus the search in a particular direction. However, they do allow the redistribution of keywords within a query.

agriculture (biotechnology OR GMO)

In this example, the parentheses will search for both the combination of the terms:

• agriculture biotechnology

as well as for the term

• agriculture GMO

Without the use of parentheses, the query would focus on agriculture AND biotechnology on the one hand and GMO on the other. The latter would therefore be considered as a separate element and the information collected could be distant from the agriculture domain. 

The duplication of a keyword in a search accentuates its importance. The brackets therefore allow different keywords to be put on the same level while expanding the ecosystem in an oriented way.