FN 15: Research Strategies

Search Terms  

• Try different search terms as they will bring back different results and some terms can yield more relevant search results than others.

Example:   when searching for teenager, try different search terms, such as adolescent, youth, juvenile, etc.

• You can further expand your search by using truncation technique to retrieve more results.

Example: child* (searches for child, children, childhood...)

• Use double quotations to enclose a phrase when you want to search the exact phrase.

Example: “body image”

• Use Boolean search technique to combine different keywords for more precise search results.

Example:                    weight  AND  menopause

                          AND    exercise  OR  diet

Search Fields

When using library research databases, you can specify the search field for each search term. Try searching by Subject for your subject matter, search by Abstract for important concepts.

Example:                         "college students"            (Subject)

              AND     body image AND study  (Abstract)

Web Search

• If you need to use web resources, try to find sources from reputable organizations and government websites. You can limit your search results to a specific domain by using the site: command with .gov for government websites, .edu for accredited institutions of higher education.

Example: dietary fiber colorectal cancer  research  site:.gov

• When doing a web search, enter more search terms to refine the search results. You can use phrase search and Boolean search when searching in Google.  In Google, when you enter more than one search term, the AND operator is by default, so there is no need to add AND to combine search terms. But you will need to enter the OR operator (in all caps) if you want to search either of the terms.

Example:  "breast cancer"  diet  study  OR  "clinical trial"