Research Tutorials

Start with keywords!

1. Select keywords based on your topic

• Pull directly from your topic, thesis statement, and/or research question
• Ask yourself, how would I explain this topic to someone else? This can be an effective way to put your topic into clear words from which you can pull keywords.
• Use words that are more descriptive and specific. For example, use "aorta" instead of something less specific like "artery" or "circulation."

2. Mix and match keywords for most relevant results

• Consider your entire topic, not just one part of it.
• For example, just searching for "aorta" is too broad, so try adding in keywords about specific diseases or other relevant topics.

3. Different forms of keywords:

• Single words, e.g. "aorta"
• Word phrases. e.g. "aortic valve disease"
• Synonyms, e.g. "doctor" or "physician"
• Completely different words and phrases based on the topic, e.g. "patient access" AND "rural areas"
  • This is the most efficient way to get relevant results

Boolean operators are used to combine your keywords

There are 3 Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT. They are used between keywords to join them as a single search.

AND

• Narrows the search
• Tells the search engine that the results must contain both terms
• The default setting in most databases
• Use for multiple keywords covering different concepts

OR

• Broadens the search
• Tells the search engine that the results must contain at least one of the terms
• Use if search results are too narrow and the scope of the search needs to be more broad

NOT

• Excludes terms from the search
• Tells the search engine that results must not contain the specified term
• Use to exclude irrelevant search terms that are appearing in the results

Search modifiers use punctuation to expand or narrow the search

Define keyword phrases with quotation marks:

• Surround keyword phrases with quotation marks.
• Tells the search engine to search for that phrase exactly as it is entered.
• Prevents the search engine from searching for parts of the phrase separately.
• Examples:
  • "heart attack"
  • "nursing care plan"

Nesting with parentheses:

• Use parentheses to connect multiple terms and run several searches simultaneously.
• Also uses Boolean operators to connect the terms inside and outside of parentheses
• Saves time by running more than one search at a time
• Examples:
  • ("myocardial infarction" OR "heart attack") AND treatment
  • (cats OR felines) AND habits
  • (obamacare OR "affordable care act" OR "the patient protection and affordable care act") AND coverage

Truncation with asterisks:

• Use an asterisk at the end of a root word to search for all possible endings of that word.
• Broadens the search
• Some databases use a question mark instead of an asterisk
• Examples:
  • educat* = educate, education, educator, educators, educates, educated, educating, etc.
  • interact? = interacting, interactions, interactivity, etc.

Limiters: The most convenient way to get to relevant results!

Limiters are exactly what they sound like. They limit your search using determined perimeters available in the database. All you have to do is click a check box. Limiters include, but are not limited to:

• Full text availability
• Catalog availability
• Peer reviewed articles
• Publication date
• Source type (books, magazines, news, academic journals, etc.)
• Subject
• Publisher
• Location

In EBSCO databases, limiters are found on the left-hand side. See below:

Find specific sources using title and author searching

Title searching:

• Enter the title of a source into a search engine to pull up that source.
• Makes for easy retrieval of a source you're already aware of.
• Enter the entire title or a segment of it.

Author searching:

• Enter an author's name to retrieve sources written by them.
• Makes for easy retrieval of a specific source OR you can browse different sources that might be relevant.

Databases usually have a drop-down beside the search field where you can select the option to search by title or author.

Subject searching is the most complex search method

What is it and how does it work?

Subject searching uses subject headings (also called subject terms, thesauri, or controlled vocabularies) to explore a specific discipline or field of study.

A subject heading system is a hierarchical, tree structure of terminology that are relevant to the discipline. Most nursing, medical, and health sciences databases use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

In practice, subject headings function like keywords and are joined by Boolean operators. Some databases may suggest subject headings after you run a keyword search.

What's the benefit?

Using subject headings allows you to exercise more control over the search. The established terminology is mapped to specific subjects, and sources within a database are tagged with these specific subjects. Subject searching can yield extremely relevant results with less work.

For more details, visit the link below:

Searching for Information: Overview & Tutorial

Boolean Operator Overview

Tips for Effective Searching (Boolean Operators & Search Modifiers)

Boolean Operator & Search Modifier Cheat Sheet