How to Search
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State your research question/topic
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EXAMPLE: "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"
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Identify main concepts:
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EXAMPLE: "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"
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Brainstorm synonyms, related terms, broader terms, scientific/technical terms, and more specific terms based on your own background knowledge:
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EXAMPLE:
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Cigarette companies: Philip Morris, Camel, Imperial
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Children: child, adolescent, teen, teenager, students, youth
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Advertising: ads, marketing, commercials, promotions, product placement
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Avoid the following:
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Abbreviations - spell them out
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Relationship words - words like compare, contrast, causation, etc.
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Judgement words - words like best, worst, pro, con, etc.
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If needed, search Wikipedia and other reference sources to further develop your list of keywords.
Combine Your Keywords to Narrow, Refine, or Expand Your Search Results.
Combine keywords when searching. Start simply, then add more complexity as needed to refine and narrow your results.
Avoid Natural Language
- Stick to keywords and phrases - don't write out questions in full.
Use Quotation Marks Around Phrases
- This ensures your search results will include the phrase, not the individual words found separately in the document.
Use the Advanced Search
- It will be located in different places depending on the database, but it will help refine and improve your search.
Use Limiters Provided by the Database to Narrow/Focus Your Results
- Limiters are usually found on the left or right hand side of your search results.
- Limit by source type, date of publication, reading level, subject, publication, and more
Use Boolean Operators
Exact match: "search"
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If you're looking for an exact phrase, use quotation marks.
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For example: "let them eat cake"
Exclusion: -search
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Put a minus sign/hyphen in front of a word you want excluded from your search results. This is helpful if your search term has multiple meanings
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For example: inception -film
Site-specific: site:
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Put site: in front of a website or domain if you want to get results from only a specific site or domain.
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For example: recipes site:nytimes.com or climate change site:.gov