Learn more about search strategies in our Search Statement "Cheat Sheet" worksheet, linked below in English and Spanish. This worksheet reviews the use of Boolean operators such as "and" and "or," as well as other strategies like quotation marks and parentheses.
After creating your research question, create a search strategy:
How to Search in a Library Database versus Google
The biggest difference between an academic database and Google is the way we search. In Google, you can type a whole question or a whole sentence and results will return that are relevant to your search. While in an academic database, you need to hone in on a few keywords to return relevant results for your research. How do we find those keywords? We can show you how!
A good place to start brainstorming search terms is with your research question: Start by picking it apart, focusing on the words that represent the main idea. When you have a search term/phrase that contains more than one word, you will need to put it inside quotation marks. This is to ensure that all of the words appear in the search results in their intended order and not individually or out of context.
i.e.
Research Question: How does media affect girls' self-esteem and body image?
Main Idea Words: girls, media, "self-esteem", "body image"
OR
Research Question: Do college students who listen to classical music while they study have better test scores?
Main Idea Words: "college students", "classical music", "test scores", studying
Next you create additional search terms by looking for synonyms and related words for the search terms you identified. Then connect similar search terms with OR and different search terms with AND.
| girls | AND | media | AND | "body image" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OR | OR | OR | ||
| "young women" | AND | "social media" | AND | self-esteem |
| OR | OR | OR | ||
| females | AND | magazines | AND | self-image |
Potential searches might look like:
You can also mix and match from the columns (some combinations work better than others in different databases):
You can also create advanced search phrases combining OR for similar search terms and AND for different search terms:
If you are getting little to no results, you may need to simplify your search phrase:
Boolean operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms and phrases. The three Boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.
AND is used when you want two or more search terms to appear in the results.
i.e. girls AND "eating disorders" ; pollution AND "greenhouse gases" ; teens AND alcohol
OR is used when you have an alternative term that is interchangeable with another. In this scenario, you are okay with either term appearing in the results, or both.
i.e. girls OR "young women" OR females AND "eating disorders" ; pollution OR "climate change" AND "greenhouse gases" ; teens OR teenagers AND alcohol OR drinking
NOT is used when you continue to get search results containing irrelevant information, that you would like to exclude.
i.e. If you are doing a search for information on Jamaica the country and you keep getting results for Jamaica, Queens, you might change your search string to: Jamaica NOT Queens AND culture
Sample search strings using Boolean Operators:
ex. 1
Topic question: Is there a correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change?
Keywords: "greenhouse gases" ; "climate change" ; "global warming" ; pollution
Search strings:
"greenhouse gases" AND "climate change"
"greenhouse gases" OR pollution AND "climate change" OR "global warming"
ex. 2
Topic question: Do college students who listen to classical music while they study have better test scores?
Keywords: "college students"; "test scores" ; studying ; "classical music"
Search strings:
"college students" AND "test scores" AND studying
"test scores" AND "classical music"
Books and eBooks are found in FDU Libraries' Discovery Catalog. Unsure how to use the Discover Catalog? Visit our Discovery Catalog User's Guide to learn how to search the Catalog for a book, eBook, print journal, periodicals such as newspapers and magazines, DVDs, and more!
