Library Research Tutorials

Basic Search Tips

• Boolean Operators: Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine or exclude search terms from your search results.
  • AND will narrow your results to sources with each of your terms (e.g. college AND students AND disabilities)
  • OR will expand your results to include sources with either term in your results. Use OR when including synonyms of your search terms. This is a great tool when you are not sure of the exact language used on your topic. (e.g. ADHD OR Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder OR Neurodivergent)
  • NOT will narrow your results by excluding specific terms in your results (e.g. neurodivergent NOT student)

• "Phrase Searching": Place quotation marks (“ ”) around a phrase to narrow your search to only include results with an exact phrase, rather than searching for each separate word. This is a great tip but be careful because it can sometimes limit your search too much and you won't have enough results.
  • Example: social media (results will include sources with words social AND media)
  • Example: “social media” (results will include the phrase social media)

• Wildcard*: Place an asterisk (*) at the root of a word to signal to the search engine to search for variations of a word. In other words, it will expand your search results to include words with the same beginning but different endings to your search term.
  • Example: Chican* (search results will include Chicana, Chicanx, Chicanos…)
  • Example: environ* (search results will include environ, environmental, environmentalist...)

Advanced Search Interface

Always start a search from the “advanced search” option if it is available. 

The advanced search interface allows you to craft a more specific and targeted search than the basic search interface will allow.

Engage with the interactive image to the right to see how to best utilize the main features of the advanced search box.

• use the multiple lines to group together and separate search concepts
• use the drop-down menus to connect search concepts with Boolean operator
• use the drop-down menus to search specific fields of materials

Find Alternate Search Terms

There are a lot of reasons your initial search terms might not produce the desired results (using the wrong search terms, search terms are too narrow or too specific). If you are not finding enough relevant results, try using alternative terms. You can find alternate terms in a variety of places.

• Encyclopedias: browse reference entries related to your topic for the language used by experts. Sometimes reference entries include a list of keywords toward the bottom.
• Abstracts: scan the abstracts of articles you have found, are they all using a specific term?
• Subject Headings: browse the subject headings in your search results to see if any might be more specific search terms.
• Dictionaries and Thesauri: look up your keywords to find synonyms.
• Syllabus, course readings, lecture notes: browse the language your professor and experts are using to discuss your topic.

Citation Mining: Follow the References

Have you found the allusive “perfect” source? Or have you found one paragraph in an article that is really helpful? This is when citation mining comes into play.

Citation mining is when you look for new sources by reviewing the citations of a source you already have found. This can be done in two basic steps:

1. Look Backwards: Review what sources an article or book has cited. This answers who they built their research upon and it's where you can often find foundational studies on a topic.
2. Look Forwards: Find out who has cited your source. This answers what has come next in the research on a topic? Did your source contribute to the field or was it disproved? Google Scholar is a great tool to find out who has cited a specific article or book.

Most databases will provide a ‘Cited By’ or ‘Times Cited’ link for their materials. These links will direct you to materials that have cited that particular work. If the database you are using does not have this feature, try looking the article up in Google Scholar. The screenshots below provide a visual of these 'Cited By' links in a ProQuest database and Google Scholar.

Screenshot from ProQuest Database Illustrating Citation Mining

Screenshot from Google Scholar Illustrating Citation Mining

Subject Headings

There are many ways to describe or label a topic, and this can make searching difficult. Subject headings help organize information by taking the different synonyms for a related topic and linking them to one predetermined term. This is the same concept and function as the social media hashtag (#), which exist to organize related information and to help people find related content. You can find subject headings in the filter options of most database search results pages and on the source's records. For visuals and more information on finding these areas, see the OneSearch and Database sections of this course.

How to use Subject Headings

• Filter Search Results: Did you find too many results with your search? Most databases have a filter (or refine) option using Subject Headings. Use the filter option to narrow your results to sources that include subject headings relevant to your topic.
• Learn the Language: Browse subject headings to find new keywords for your topic.
• Finding Similar Sources: If you find an article you like, look at the subject headings. Often databases will include a hyperlink with the listed subject headings. Click on the link and the database will take you to all the articles that also have that subject heading.