Develop a search strategy
A search strate
egy begins byy making surre you fully u nderstand what you are being askedd
to write about. Before you start searchin
ng you shoulld be clear about the maiin topics or c oncepts that you want to
o
find
d information
n about.
Choose search terms
Identify keywords
From your research question you will need to identify your keywords. These will form yo ur initial search terms.
Ex
xample topic:
“Ho
ow relevant is Shakespe
eare in toda
ay’s multicultural societty?”
He
ere, your keyw
words are go
oing to be Sh
hakespeare and multicu
ultural.
Co
onsider alternative terms
Aftter you have identified yo
our keywords
s it is importa
ant to consider synonyms
s, related term
ms, or altern
native spellings.
Re
ere can be many differen
esearchers don't all use the same key
ywords as the
nt words to ddescribe the same thing or
concept. By co
onsidering altternative sea
arch terms yo
ou will ensure
e that you do
on’t miss literrature that us
ses slightly
diffferent langua
age. Your research question may use
e one particu
ular keyword, but other reeally useful articles written
on the same to
opic may use
e alternative terms.
Po
ossible synon
nyms for Sha
akespeare
Sha
akespeare’s,, Shakespea
arean, Bard,, OR even th
he broader topic, “Elizaabethan thea
atre”
Po
ossible synon
nyms for mullticultural
Cu
ulture, race, racial, ethnic OR ethnic
city
Ho
ow do you
u think of synonyms
s?

Try usiing a thesaurus to consid
der new searrch terms.

Are the
ere any acronyms for you
ur keywords?
? E.g. UK forr United King
gdom

Look back through your notes or backgroun
nd materials to see any alternative woords in use which you ma
ay
not havve considere
ed.
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Combine search terms
On
nce you have
e identified yo
our search te
erms you can
n then consid
der how to combine the t erms in a meaningful wa
ay.
Bo
oolean search
h logic helpss you to do th
his, enabling you to narro
ow or broaden your searcch by combin
ning or
exc
cluding terms.
Broad
B
search
h: OR
When
W
you are
e searching by
b keywords or subject te
erms, you
want
w
to be sure to find all possible varriations and a
alternatives
fo
or the same cconcept. To do this, combine search terms with
OR.
O This will d
do a broad search,
s
findin
ng EITHER o
of your terms
s.
Your
Y
results w
will be broade
er than if you
u had just ussed one word
d
or combined tthe words ussing AND.
Sha
akespeare OR Shakespearean
Narrow
N
searc
ch: AND
When
W
you havve considere
ed all synony
yms and alterrnative terms
s
fo
or each searcch term, you will want to combine you
ur topics, to
fin
nd research that covers both
b
or all off your search
h areas. To
do this, combine your sea
arch terms with AND. Thiss means you
u
want
w
to look fo
or BOTH keyywords; one as well as th
he other.
Your
Y
results w
will be narrow
wer than if yo
ou had just u sed one
ke
eyword or co
ombined the words using OR.
Sh
hakespearee AND multticultural
Using
U
(brack
kets) AND & OR
The
T search te
erms for each
h separate co
oncept are g
grouped
to
ogether with brackets. Th
his means yo
ou want to loo
ok for the
firrst term with one of the second
s
terms
s. Using bracckets
co
ombines the first term with one of the
e second term
ms. In this
ex
xample, your results will include Shakespeare in combination
n
with
w multiculttural OR rac
ce.
Shakespearee AND (multicultural
O
OR race)
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Ad
dvanced
d search techniqu
ues
Ad
dditional tecchniques ca
an help you to remove i rrelevant re
esults and check for
altternative sp
pelling.
“P
Phrase sea
arching”
This technique can narrow your search by removing
g unrelated results. Using
g “speech maarks” around
d your keywo
ords
will ensure thatt your keywo
ords will appe
ear next to ea
ach other as
s a phrase rather than thee words appe
earing
separately anyywhere in the
e article.
“multicultural soc
ciety” rather than multicu
ultural society
y
W
Wildcards
This technique will broaden
n your search
h to account for words off the same meaning but w ith variation
ns of spelling
g.
Wildcards use a symbol to substitute a letter in a wo
ord. A ? is th
he commonly
y used symbool but some databases may
difffer. Check th
he help scree
ens for more information..
organii?ation woulld retrieve orrganisation or organization
Trruncation
This technique will broaden
n your search
h to include v arious word
d endings. Offten a keywoord may featu
ure in plural
and singular fo
orm, or as a root word witth multiple en
ndings. An * is the commonly used syymbol but so
ome database
es
ma
ay differ. Che
eck the help screens for more informa
ation.
collaborat* would retrieve collaboration, c ollaborative, collabora
ate, collaborrates
Enhance your searches
Ke
eep up to date with research by setting
g up searc
ch alerts
Ma
any database
es allow you to save searrches you ha
ave ran. Whe
enever a new
w article is addded to the database which
ma
atches your search criteriia, you will be notified byy email or via a web feed. This allows you to stay informed of the
mo
ost recent de
evelopments in your topic
c.
Citation search
If you have found a useful article, some
e databases w ill allow you
u to search forward and s ee which ne
ewer articles
have cited your known articcle. This allow
ws you to fin
nd articles on
n a similar top
pic or researrch area with
hout having to
o
run
n a new searrch or enter keywords. Web of Sciencce, ScienceD
Direct, Scopu
us and Google Scholar alll have citatio
on
sea
arching available.
Keep track of your results
Keeep a note of all your search terms as you may uncover new terms as you search. Some searches may
return more relevant results than others so note down what works and what doesn’t.
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