Research Tips

Keywords are words or phrases used in OneSearch/databases to find information on a topic. Below are tips for identifying keywords in a research question. Once identified, visit the tabs for Phrase Searching, Boolean Operators, and Truncation and Wildcards to learn how to apply them.

Start by identifying the important concepts within your research question, look for nouns (person, place, thing)

Next, you will want to identify and list synonymous words and/or related concepts for each keyword - sources will use different words to refer to the same topic, it helps to identify these terms so you don't miss out on relevant search results

You've identified your keywords! As you search for sources using your keywords you will likely identify more keywords from your search results, you can revise your search with these new keywords and continue to adjust your search until you find enough relevant sources

If your keywords are made up of more than one term, it is recommended that you use quotation marks around these terms - this is known as phrase searching. By using quotation marks, you are keeping those terms together in a search so that OneSearch/database will search those terms as a phrase and not as individual search terms

• Phrasing Example: entering "Political Action Committees" in a search will retrieve results that contain the exact phrase of Political Action Committees. 
  • Without quotation marks, you will get results that include these terms separately, giving you a wide variety of results that may not pertain to your keyword of Political Action Committees.

Boolean Operators tell OneSearch and databases how you want your keywords to be connected in your search. They can help focus a search and can connect various pieces of information to find exactly what you are looking for. The three basic Boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT

AND connects different keywords. It limits your search results since you are telling OneSearch/database that you want all the search terms to be present in your search results.

Example: (funding AND "election process")

Using AND means that your search results will have materials that contain both the keyword funding and the keyword election process.

OR is used to combine two or more similar concepts (synonyms). It increases your search results since you are telling OneSearch/database that any of the search terms can be present in your search results.

Example: (funding OR financing)

Using OR means that some of your search results will only contain the keyword funding, some will only contain the keyword financing, and some will contain both. 

NOT is used to eliminate words from your search results. It should be used sparingly as it could remove relevant materials from your search.

Example: (funding NOT "Political Action Committees") 

Using NOT means that all of your search results will include the keyword funding and none of your results will include the keyword Political Action Committees

Truncation and wildcards are search techniques that can be applied to a search to broaden your results and allow you to look for variations of words. 

Using truncation lets you search for a word that could have multiple endings. The truncation symbol is usually an * and it is placed at the point where the spelling of the word could change. 

• Truncation can be useful when you know a search term has several endings, but all the variations represent the same concept. 
• Using truncation will help you create a comprehensive and efficient search because you will not have to manually type in and search every variation of a search term
• Example: entering music* in a search box will retrieve materials with the term music, musical, musician, musicians, musicality.

Using wildcards in a search lets you replace a single letter in a word. The wildcard symbol is usually a ? and it is placed where an alternate spelling may contain an unknown character

• Wildcards can be useful when a word is spelled different ways, but still has the same meaning
• Example: entering wom?n in a search box will retrieve materials containing woman, women.