1 Created by Julie Anne Kent, Hons., B.A., M.L.I.S.: Updated January 2011

LIBRARY INFORMATION COMMON Search Strategies: In-class Worksheet

Research Guide: http://rdc.libguides.com/biology

Constructing a Search Strategy

1. State your research topic as completely as you can. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

2. Think about your topic and circle two or three of the most important concepts in your search topic above.

3. Write each concept in a top space, then list synonymous or related terms, if applicable. If a thesaurus is available for your database, use appropriate terms from it as well.

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

AND/OR AND/OR AND/OR

AND/OR AND/OR AND/OR

AND/OR AND/OR AND/OR

Example: I would like to find literature on academic achievement of children of single parent families.

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

academic achievement children single parent

AND/OR grades AND/OR adolesce*n? AND/OR sole support*

AND/OR performance AND/OR youth AND/OR

Search statement: (academic achievement or grades or performance) and (children or adolescen?) and (single parent+)

4. Select the database(s) that best cover your topic.

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Research Strategy Worksheet: Locating Resources in Five Steps

2 Created by Julie Anne Kent, Hons., B.A., M.L.I.S.: Updated January 2011

LIBRARY INFORMATION COMMON Search Strategies: In-class Worksheet

Research Guide: http://rdc.libguides.com/biology

1

Write down your

research question.

Underline two or

three concepts that

are essential to the

question.

Example: How does violence in the media affect young children?

2 Write each concept

in its own box.

Example: violence

AND

Example: media AN

D

Example: children

3

Use these columns

to list synonyms or

other words that

have similar

meaning for each

concept.

Example: aggression

_________________

OR

_________________

OR

_________________

AND

Example: television

_________________

OR

_________________

OR

_________________

AN

D

Example: teenagers

_________________

OR

_________________

OR

_________________

4

Construct your search using Boolean operators, truncation, and parentheses. Use this search in steps 5 and 6.

Example: (violence or aggression) AND (media or television or movies) AND (children or youth or teenagers)

Tips for Searching

Too many records? Add an additional concept with AND (Example: poverty AND crime)

Too few records? Add another search term with OR (Example: college OR university)

Too many records on an unrelated topic? Eliminate a word with NOT (Example: virus NOT computer)

Use a truncation symbol (* ? !) to search for variants of a word. Right-hand truncation is the most common form of truncation. It allows you to search for the first few letters of a word and retrieve additional letters to the right. Examples: (violen* OR aggressi*) AND (child* OR teen*)

5

Need Articles from Journals, Magazines, or Newspapers? Search Databases (Loop, Library Tab, FIND SUBJECT,

open Subject Guide, FIND ARTICLES TAB, review list of databases available to you)

Which databases are most relevant to your topic/question? List the names of relevant databases.

1) 2) 3)