General search strategy tips

Hints to help you search more efficiently

1. Basic Principles

1. Choose appropriate keywords
2. Use Boolean operators
3. Use appropriate truncation
4. Use the thesaurus
5. Limit your search results.

Keywords

•  Be clear about your topic.

•  Consider all possible words or phrases that might be used to describe it. Also include -

Related terms
Variations in word endings (e.g. singular, plural, adjectives)
Synonyms
Variant terminology (e.g. US & UK alternative spellings)

Be specific to achieve the most relevant references, but do not use long descriptive phrases which would only find references with that exact phrase.

Search widely to achieve the greatest number of potentially relevant references.

To retrieve relevant references you need to link concepts and keywords together. There are three Boolean operators to help you do this:

i) OR

Either one term OR another is present. This is used for synonyms, variant terminology, alternative topics or alternative spellings. It increases the number of references.     

India OR Pakistan

ii) AND

More than one keyword is present in the references (reduces the number of references, and makes your search more specific).     

  China AND Taiwan

iii) NOT

To specify that a term is not present. This reduces the number of references and makes the search more specific e.g.    

Culture NOT religion

This should be used with caution. Eliminating one also eliminates articles which mention both.

Keywords may have variant endings - singular, plural and adjectives - all of which may be relevant to your subject. Using the singular form will only retrieve records which have the word in that form. In order not to miss any 'hits' (and to reduce the amount of typing!) use truncation.

Type in the start of the word plus the truncation symbol ($ * ? #) depending on which database you are using to retrieve all the variant forms of the word. For example:              

Chin* will give hits on China , China 's and Chinese
Cultur*  will give hits on Culture or Cultural    

Many databases use a thesaurus (i.e. a controlled vocabulary of terms or subject headings to ensure that all items on a particular topic have standard search terms assigned to them. Big, general subjects can also be broken down into subheadings, and your search using thesaurus terms can be more narrowly focused by selecting one or more of these.              

You may get too many references, too few, or none at all.

Too Many:

* add additional keywords with 'AND'
* use more specific keywords
* use thesaurus terms
* limit by particular fields

Too Few:

* check your spelling
* use truncation
* use all possible synonyms for your topic
* combine keywords using 'OR'

Pitfalls

Database searching is not an exact science. How do you know that you have carried out a totally comprehensive search, and that you have structured your search strategy correctly? The answer is you don't. Sometimes, the sheer volume of references forces you to be more specific and some key references may be missed. When in doubt seek professional advice; Ask the Librarian!