Research Guides: ENSP 400: Capstone in Environmental Science and Policy: Search Tips

Search Tips

Use your project scope document to create a list of searchable keywords. Add keywords listed in relevant articles to this list. Make sure to include synonyms!
Keep track of your search strings. Many databases will show you your search history, and even let you save searches!
If you find relevant references in an article, look them up by title in Google Scholar and read that article for more information. Chain down the literature.
- This goes for news articles too. If they mention a report or scholarly article, try to find that original document. There may be more information in there that is relevant to your research!
Web of Science and Google Scholar will let you see if another article has cited the article you're reading. Chain up the literature.
If you are struggling access an article's full text try using the Reload Button.

Search Techniques

Searching techniques to limit or expand your results

Boolean search	AND OR NOT	Find all the words Find any of the words Find documents which have the first word, but not the second word	internet AND education internet OR intranet internet NOT html
Phrase search	"..."	Search for an exact phrase by using quotes around the phrase	"environmental health"
Truncation	*	Find all forms of a word - the asterisk * is used as a right-handed truncation character only.	Searching for econom* will find "economy", "economics", "economical", etc.
Wildcard	?	Replace any single character, either inside the word or the right end of the word. ? cannot be used to begin a word.	Searching for wom?n will find "woman" and "women."

Keywords/synonyms

It is important to realize that if you search a database with a certain word or phrase and you don't retrieve results to your liking, it doesn't mean that there are no other articles in that database on your topic. It may mean that you need to try other related words in your search, such as synonyms. For example, try automobile or auto instead of car.

Develop a Search Strategy

Searching Strategies

Choosing your topic can be a difficult process - it is important to pick a topic that is not so narrow that little if anything has been written about it, yet it is also important to pick a topic that is not so broad that there is too much information and it is impossible to develop a coherent and focused thesis.

Let's say that ....

Steps:

1. Divide your research question into concepts and connect them with the Boolean operator AND.

cucumber AND waxing AND Salmonella

2. Brainstorm some synonyms and connect them with the Boolean operator OR:

cucumber* OR "Cucumis sativus" OR “gherkins”, etc.
Species identifiers?
Use USDA Plants, ITIS - Integrated Taxonomic Information System, or IPNI - International Plant Names Index
Similar technical terms?
Look them up in NALT - National Agricultural Library Thesaurus

3. Your final search strategy could look like:

(Cucumber* OR "Cucucmis sativa" OR gherkin*) AND (wax* OR "edible film*" OR "edible coat*")
AND (Salmonella OR "Bacillus cholerae*")
NOT juice

Try using the Search Strategy Builder from Georgia State University to explore your own concepts!

A brief video tutorial on how Boolean operators work.