Keywords or search terms are necessary when searching library databases. Whereas you can type an entire sentence into Google and still get thousands of results, a library database will not! Instead you must use keywords or specific search terms in order to retrieve the best results.
There are two main steps to identifying keywords. Take a look at the following example.
Example Research Question: What is the impact of coral reef destruction?
These are often the who, what, where, when, why words in your topic.
Main concepts: coral reef, destruction, and impact
These are often synonyms, or different words that mean the same thing. Since you are searching in an academic database, which contains a high percentage of scholarly content (information written by experts for experts), consider how your instructor or another expert might describe the topic. Another way to determine a good keyword is to look at the vocabulary authors are using in a good article you find and use similar terms in your search.
Keywords for coral reef: coral reef, coral reef habitat, coral reef ecosystem
Destruction: destruction, dying, bleaching
Impact: impact, effect, consequence, human impact
Once you have identified your keywords, you can begin to enter your search terms into the search box(es). Since you usually have multiple concepts that you want to include (ex. coral reef, destruction, impact), you can use Boolean operators to connect them.
Boolean Operators, the words AND, OR, and NOT, are used to connect and define the relationship between your keywords and main concepts. Using Boolean operators in a search will help to narrow or expand your search results. See the image below for how you can use Boolean operators while searching.
There are several other search strategies that you can use to narrow or expand your search results. These may work slightly differently, such as using different characters, depending on the database you are searching, but the most consistent strategies are given below.
If you have any questions about using these or any other of the search strategies discussed on this page during your research, meet with a librarian.
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QuotationsQuotations are used to combine keywords into a keyword phrase. This is particularly useful in narrowing down your results. By putting quotes around two or more words, they will have to appear in the exact sequence within your results. Ex. “coral reef” will return results that use that exact phrase and don't contain only the words coral or reef. These words may still appear separately in the article, in addition to appearing as the phrase. |
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TruncationTruncation uses an asterisk (*) to leave a word open to variant endings. Putting an asterisk at the end of a root word will retrieve all forms of that word. Ex. destr* will return results that include destroy, destruction, and any other destr___ words. |
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WildcardsQuestion Mark Wildcard The question mark (?) wildcard is used to replace an unknown character within a word. The database will return all words with the ? replaced by a letter. Ex. wom?n will return results for both woman and women. |
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Pound/Hash Symbol WildcardSimilar to the question mark wildcard, the pound or hast symbol # wildcard is used when there are alternative spellings of a word. The databases will return results with all words with or without the additional letter. Note that some databases will do this automatically, however, some results may be excluded. Ex. colo#r will return results for color and colour. Note: Truncation and wildcards cannot be combined in one word. |
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Google SearchThere are also a series of Google specific search strategies you can use to limit domain types (.com, .edu, .gov, etc.), find similar sites to those you already know, and more! Check out this page for more information on searching in Google. |