When conducting research in a database it's important to be thoughtful of the specific search terms you are using, and how they might impact your results.
Consider alternative terms or synonyms that describe your key concepts, and that could possibly improve or change your search results.
| Key Concept |
Synonyms or Alternative Ways of Phrasing |
|---|---|
| Women | Female OR Gender OR Sex |
| Wage | Salary OR Income OR Employment |
Adapted from Teaching Information Literacy by J. Burkhardt & M. MacDonald.
Structure a search statement that you can use while doing research in a database. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT), and utilize some of the advanced search functions available to you.
Always use the advanced search interface and some combination of the following techniques to increase the effectiveness of your searches:
| Search Technique | What It Does |
| Quotation marks | Searches for exact phrase |
| Truncation (usually an *) | Searches for all forms of a word |
| Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) | Lets you broaden or narrow your search |
| Database thesaurus or index | Allows you to pinpoint the exact indexing terms the database uses |
