Answered By: Loan Nguyen Last Updated: May 01, 2017 Views: 126
Tips
When you perform a search from a research topic, follow these tips:
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Select only the most important words and phrases from your topic. Don't include connecting words like "for" or "the," or words like "cause" or "effect" that could be a part of any topic statement.
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Search for individual words and phrases, not sentences. Databases don't understand grammar.
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Combine terms with AND to narrow your focus. To find info about fur on dogs, search: fur AND dogs.
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Combine terms with OR to expand your focus. To find info about fur on either dogs or cats, search: fur AND (dogs OR cats).
Example: Using multiple boxes
In a database, if you were researching:
What is the effect on a dog's fur of eating fish
You could use the database search boxes to enter:
dogs | |
AND | fur OR coat |
AND | fish OR seafood |
In other words:
- separate your main concepts into different boxes connected with AND
- add alternate keywords within a box using OR.
If you find too few results, try brainstorming new terms or making your topic more general (e.g. dogs --> pets).
Tutorials
- For more online help, view the slide shows at the Ask Us answer, "How do I get better search results through research and database techniques?"
- The University of Texas Libraries have produced an interactive tutorial on generating a keyword search from a research topic.
- Go through all the steps.
- Then, in the last screen under "Automatically Search with Your Keywords," copy and paste the entire search string, for example (dogs OR canines) AND (fleas OR ticks), into a single search box in any library database.