Always think about different ways to say the same thing. Start with keywords to describe your topic, within results, read the abstract and look at the subject headings to identify additional keywords to use and revise the search (if needed).
Retrieve too many results? Limit to scholarly articles, limit words to the subject
Search Strategies:
Start with keywords (place phrases in quotes), use connectors (or / and) and look for the subject headings specific to each database.
—
Place quotes around a phrase.
Using quotations marks means that the database will search for the entire phrase, not the individual words.
"Black Panther Movement"
"Ku Klux Klan"
"Algerian National Liberation Front"
"Scottish National Party"
"Chechen separatists"
"national identity"
"Tamil Tigers"
"civil war"
_______
Use the * for truncation
When you put an asterisk at the end of a search term it searches for words with any possible ending.
war* = war or wars or warfare
cause* = cause or causes
conflict* = conflict or conflicts
separatist* = separatist or separatists
group* = group or groups
origin* = origin or origins
beginning* = beginning or beginnings
goal* = goal or goals
characteristic* = characteristic or characteristics
—
use - or - to connect synonyms
"Ku Klux Klan" or KKK or "white nationalism"
"Algerian National Liberation Front" or LFN
history or origin* or beginning*
—
use - and - to connect concepts
Kurds and Turkey
"Black Panther Movement" and (history or origin* or beginning*)
Chechen and separatists
"Tamil Tigers" and "civil war"
("Croatian nationalists" or Ustaše or HDZ) and (origin* or history or ideology)
Other keywords to use:
history
nationalism
nation
representation
rights
liberation
structure
ideology
Databases provide access to scholarly journal articles, popular magazines, newspapers....
Access the databases from this guide or from the Database Finder page and search by specific database name or browse by subject.
There are two main databases everyone can use
Academic Search Ultimate (multidisciplinary)
International Political Science Abstracts (unfortunately, there are a limited number of users at one time)
Add other databases depending on the national group and country.
Examples:
America. History and Life with Full-Text (for United States and Canada)
Historical Abstracts with Full-Text (for any place outside of the United States and Canada)
Index Islamicus
American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies
Bibliography of Asian Studies
Index to Jewish Periodicals
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies
Military and Government Collection
Race Relations Abstracts
All of these are databases are within the EbscoHost platform, so you can search them together by getting into one database, clicking on - choose databases - and adding them. When you search them together you remove the duplicates. Save yourself time, do not search the databases individually.
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
Depending on the national group or movement and the number of results retrieved, will determine whether you need to add additional keywords and/or change the search field.
The search field defaults to - Select a Field which is just a keyword search.
Example: "Vlaams Belang"
Databases = Academic Search Ultimate, Historical Abstracts, International Political Science Abstracts
Example: "Irish Republican Army"
Databases = Academic Search Ultimate, Historical Abstracts, International Political Science Abstracts
Too many results?
change search field to AB Abstract
or
change search field to SU Subject
or
add additional word/s
origin* or beginning* or history
and
nationalism
There are two main databases within Proquest that will be useful for your topics. Similar to Ebsco, get into one database first and then add the other by clicking on - change databases.
PAIS
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
In addition:
Ethnic Newswatch
When searching, change the search field from Anywhere to either Abstract - AB or Anywhere except full text - NOFT
Example: "tamil tigers" and "self determination"
Databases: PAIS, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Ethnic Newswatch
Change search field to: Anywhere but fulltext - NOFT
Example: ("Croatian nationalists" or Ustaše or HDZ ) and (origin or ideology or history)
Databases: PAIS, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Ethnic Newswatch
Change search field to: Anywhere but fulltext - NOFT
Sometimes you will not see a link to the fulltext but will see:
Make sure you click on the link, it is possible we will have the article in fulltext or it might be in print or we might not own the item (then you could request it via Interlibrary Loan (if you have the time, it will take a few days to get a scanned copy)
IF YOU DO NOT FIND WHAT YOU NEED PLEASE EMAIL ME.
Results from the Find@UMD - in this case we have the fulltext
Another example
Results from the Find@UMD - in this case we do not have the fulltext, request vis Interlibrary Loan
