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).
Using Quotation Marks
Using quotations marks means that the database will search for the entire phrase, not the individual words.
"African American*"
"African American Women"
"Black Women"
"Women of Color"
"Black Power Movement*"
"civil rights"
"voting rights"
"birth control"
"criminal justice reform"
"Critical Race Theory"
Using *
When you put an asterisk at the end of a search term it searches for words with any possible ending.
Black* = Black or Blacks
"African American*" = African American or African Americans
feminis* = feminism or feminist or feminists
female* = female or females
Latin* = Latin or Latino or Latina
intersectional* = intersectionality or intersectional or intersectionalism
suffrag* = suffrage or suffragette or suffragettes or suffragist
Using OR
When you use OR between two search terms, the database will search for any of them. This is useful if there might be multiple ways to refer to your topic
.
"Black Women" or "African American women" or "Women of Color"
"African American*" or Black*
politics or political
policy or policies
activist or activism or "social movement*"
stereotype* or myth*
women or female* or woman
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.
"African American women" or Black women" or "women of color"
and
politics or political or government
and
stereotype* or myth* or stigma or discrimination
---------
"African American*" or Black* or "women of color"
and
politics or political or government
and
women
and
stereotype* or myth* or stigma or discrimination
----------------------
"African American women" or Black women" or "women of color"
and
politics or political or government
and
activism or activist* or "social movement*"
---------------
"Critical Race Theory" and intersectionality
-----------
feminis*
and
stereotype* or myth* or stigma or discrimination
------------
intersectionality
and
stereotype* or myth*
-----------
intersectional*
and
stereotype* or myth* or stigma or discrimination
----
what might a search strategy look like if you were trying to find articles on African American women and the suffrage movement? And what databases might you use?
Depending on what sources you are using (databases, specific databases, google, worldcat..) the search could be conducted in a number of ways.
Name in quotes
first - last
"Myrlie Evers"
"Grace Lee Boggs"
"Shirley Chisholm"
Some databases:
Change the search field to PE People and last name, first name
Academic Search Ultimate example:
When searching for people/women, you will need to add additional words, such as aspects they are known for:
politics
activism
racism
discrimination
inequality
class
AND - words such as:
interview
biography