George H. Cook Honors Program

The best search strategy is different for each topic and database. Here are a few useful ideas:

• Formulate your preliminary research question. Be prepared to narrow or broaden it as your topic evolves during the search.
• Once you have defined a research question, list the main concepts along with alternative terms.
• Combine your terms with Boolean operators for better results: AND will narrow down your search, OR will broaden it.
• Use your search terms in various combinations to run multiple searches in QuickSearch and selected databases.
• Take advantage of available functions, such as truncation (dog*), wildcards (wom?n) and phrase searching (“companion animal”).
• Remember to save results that look good for later use.

Remember: Research is an iterative process. It involves locating and assessing information from multiple sources.

FOR DATABASES:

• Read the description of the database to find out what you are dealing with and what works the best (HINT: Don't hit the CONNECT button too quickly).
• Watch a quick tutorial about the particular database. You will be surprised by what you might have missed.
• Check out the thesaurus for better search terms or controlled vocabulary (i.e., the terms preferred by the database).

TIP: As your research topic evolves, you may want to go back and run more searches to find more sources.

FOR ARTICLES:

• Look for "review articles" first. They will provide not only a good review of what has been written on your topic so far, but also an extensive list of references.
• Once you identify a relevant article on your topic, you can benefit from
  • Its bibliography to find more on your topic, i.e., from its Works Cited or References. This is usually provided for free even when the full text is unavailable.
  • Other articles that cite the first one, which are provided by most databases through the Find Similar function or by Google Scholar through the Cited By function.
  • Subject Headings, the terms the database uses to describe the article. These include MeSH terms, or keywords. Use these in your next searches in combination with the original terms.
  • The author, who might have written more on the same topic, including books and book chapters.

For Choosing Databases:

• Read the description in the "About" section of the database on the listing page.
• Start with large, multidisciplinary databases.
• Continue with subject-specific databases.
• Take advantage of  the Help section of each database.

TIP: You’ll learn more about your topic with each search. Take notes of new ideas and concepts as you go. They might serve as your new search terms. 

Tips for Searching Databases:

• Identify search terms (main ideas, concepts, theories): female + athletes + nutrition.
• Connect your terms with AND or OR for better search results. For example:

1. female AND athletes (both)
2. women OR female (either-or)

• Use filters: dates, subjects, article type, population, etc.
• Search for exact phrase with quotes: "female triathletes"
• Use truncation: athlet* (athlete, athletes, athletic).
• Use wildcards (wom$n for woman and women).
• Mix and match all of the above.

TIP: Improve your results based on your findings by changing your terms and trying again in different databases.