HD 327: Research Methods in Human Development

Use your research question to identify keywords and related terms for your topic.

Example of position paper topic: 

The green house model of elder care to increase quality of life and overall well-being.

Keywords:

1) Use keywords instead of long sentences

Search with question/statement: Green houses are an alternative to traditional nursing homes that demonstrate improved quality of life and overall well-being.

>> This usually ends up in a search with no results

Try the following strategies to improve your search queries.

2) Use the Advanced Search

Using the Advanced Search will allow you to build a stronger search query.  The advanced search can be found below the main search box on the Library homepage. 

3) Use Boolean Operators and Drop Down Menu

• AND - Limits your search (fewer results)
• OR - Expands your search (more results)
• NOT - Limits your search (fewer results)
• Use drop down menus when you are searching for a specific author, title, publication, or subject heading for more precise searching.

4) Phrase searching

• Add "quotation marks" around specific phrases
• Creates unique search term
• Focuses your search (fewer results)
   

5) Truncation/Wildcards

• Use wildcard (*) to truncate word so that more variations of word are found.  Truncation symbols vary by database but may include *, !, ?, or #.
• Expands your search

Example: child* returns results for child, childs, children, children, childhood, 

Example:  colo*r returns color or colour

6) Search Limiters

Use Search Limiters to further narrow your search by date, format, and other aspects of a publication.  Search limiters are located along the left side of the search window.

Search limiters

• narrow to Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journals
• narrow by Publication Date (e.g. 2007 - 2013)
• narrow by Resource Type (book, ebook, article, etc.)
• narrow by Publication Type (publication name)
• narrow by Content Provider (database)