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International Relations

This research guide is intended to serve as an introduction to the resources the L.W. Tyree Library has on International Relations.

Search Strategies

binocularsWhen using the Library Catalog or one of the Library Databases 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.

Keywords

Keywords

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: How did U.S. foreign policy change after 9-11?

Example keywords: United States - foreign policy - 9-11 - change

Keywords: 

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: America, diplomacy, September 11
Broader: North America, terrorism
Narrower: New York, immigration, twin towers

Truncation

scissorsTruncation

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:
    immigrant, immigration, immigrating

Use immigra*

  • You want to find the following terms:
    terrorism, terrorist 

    Use terroris*

Phrase Searching

 Phrase Searching

To find an exact phrase (i.e., words in a row in an exact order), enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

Examples:

  • "United States"
  • "September 11"
  • "foreign policy"

Using AND

Using AND

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:

  • united states AND foreign policy AND september 11

Note: If you use the Advanced Search feature of a database, AND is the default connector between the entry boxes:

Search with united states in first box and foreign policy in second box and September 11 in third box

Using OR

Using OR

In cases where two keywords are equally good, and you don't need to have both of them, you can connect them using OR. This will require that only one of the two keywords be present in the results. To make sure these are not mixed up with any uses of AND in a search statement, enclose uses of OR in parentheses.

 

Example Search Statements Using OR:

  • (united states OR america OR usa OR u.s.) AND foreign policy AND september 11

Academic Search Complete search for united states OR america OR usa Or u.s. in the first box and foreign policy in the 2nd box And september 11 in the 3rd box

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