Search Strategies
When you go to a database to do research, try and think of the many ways your topic could be interpreted- think of synonyms for your topic, or other ways to say it. You might be able to try the synonyms if your initial search doesn't work. There are also a couple of tips and tricks to help find more specific topics:
Exact Phrase Searching
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Quotation Marks: Create an exact phrase search using quotation marks. This technique narrows your search. Use this for common phrases. |
Less Precise |
More Precise |
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Global AND Warming |
“Global Warming” |
Using quotation marks will give results that contain the entire phrase within quotes.
Limit the Results
Most databases allows you to limit your search results using a variety of criteria. We call these tools limiters. Common limiters include:
Peer Reviewed
Most databases allow you to limit your results to only articles from peer-reviewed journals. Look for a check box on the search page or on a side column on the results page.
Publication Date
Depending on your research topic, you may want to limit your article results to a specific date range. This can be in the form of a free text box, dropdown menu, or a slider as seen in the example below from an EBSCO database.
Publication Type
Limiting by the publication/source type is helpful when you're looking for (or want to eliminate) certain types of publications, such as academic journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.
Language
The language limiter is a quick way to eliminate articles written in languages that you can't read.
