It is always a good idea to think of different ways to say the same thing. Start with keywords to describe your topic. Then, within the results, look at the abstract and subject headings to identify additional keywords to use.
Using Quotation Marks
Using quotations marks means the entire phrase will be searched, not the individual words.
"distributive justice"
"global distributive justice"
"global justice"
"global rights"
"human rights"
"wealth inequality"
Using *
When you put an asterisk at the end of a search term it searches for words with any possible ending.
justif* = justify or justification
global* - global or globalization
obligation* = obligation or obligations
equal* = equal or equality or equalization
disparit* = disparity or disparities
wealth* = wealth or wealthy
liberal* = liberal or liberals
environment* = environment or environments or environmental
minorit* = minority or minorities
Using OR
When you use OR between search terms, the database will search for any of them. This is useful if there might be multiple ways to refer to your topic or when any of the words will do
global* or international or worldwide
compatriot* or foreigner*
obligation* or duty or duties
fairness or equality or justice
justif* or justice
poor or poverty or "low income"
rawls or pogge or singer
Using AND
When you use AND between two search terms, the database will only show you search results that contain all of those search terms.
rawls
and
equality
--------
rawls
and
equality
and rights
and
global*
---------------
"distributive justice"
and
compatriot* or foreigner*
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"global poor"
and
obligation* or duty or duties
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
poor or poverty poor or poverty
and and
global* global*
and and
equal* equal*
and
rawls
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"distributive justice" "distributive justice"
and and
global global
and and
liberal* liberal*
and
rawls
------------------------------------------------------------------------
pogge singer
and and
"global justice" "global justice"
and
environment
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"global justice"
and
poverty or poor
and
rawls
and
liberal*
------
fairness or equality or justice
and
housing
and
egalitarian
