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Introduction
Once you are in a database, you will need to convert your topic or research question into language the computer understands. The following search techniques will help you with this process.
Search Strategies
The first step is to determine keywords that sum up the main concepts of your topic. Keywords are typically nouns or noun phrases. If you phrase your topic as a research question or thesis, you can often pull keywords from the topic sentence.
Example topic: Should plastic straws be banned on college campuses?
Keywords: plastic straws, college campuses, ban
Sometimes the keywords from your original topic sentence will not produce the types of results you want. When that happens, try to think of related keywords. These can be other words that have similar meanings, words that are broader (good for when you have too few results), or words that are more specific (good for when you have too many results).
Example related keywords:
Similar: drinking straws, colleges, legislation
Broader: single-use plastics, higher education, environment
Narrower: college food courts, college buildings
Truncation (shortening your keyword) makes the database look at other possible forms of a word for which you are searching. Use truncation to find plurals and variations on the endings of a word. To truncate, use the asterisk symbol: *. You can enter this symbol by pressing Shift and 8 on the keyboard at the same time or by pressing the asterisk symbol on the number pad.
Examples:
- You want to find the following terms:
plastic, plastics
Use plastic* - You want to find the following terms:
environment, environmental
Use environment*
To find an exact phrase (i.e., words in a row in an exact order), enclose the phrase in quotation marks.
Examples:
- "plastic straws"
- "college campuses"
- "single-use plastics"
Combine keywords by putting the word AND between them. This requires that both keywords be present in the database's search results. Entries that include keywords connected by AND are referred to as search statements.
Example Search Statements using AND:
- "plastic straws" AND "college campuses" AND ban*
- "single-use plastics" AND environment*
- plastic* AND environment* AND legislation
Note: If you use the Advanced Search feature of a database, AND is the default connector between the entry boxes.
