Search Effectively - ENGLISH 1005 - College Writing and Research - Research Guides at University of Northern Iowa

Basic Search Tips

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. So you'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas - the KEYWORDS.

Example Topic: How are debates surrounding censorship and free speech affecting US institutions of higher education?

The specifics of your topic will matter when selecting sources, but for searching you only need the most essential components.

Keywords: censorship, "free speech", "higher education"

How are debates surrounding censorship and free speech affecting US institutions of higher education? with the keywords and phrases censorship, "free speech", and "higher education' highlighted

Most words have synonyms that mean the same, or very similar, things. For each keyword in your topic, try to come up with at least one synonym. Not all keywords will have synonyms, but many do!

Example:

Keyword: 'higher education" Synonym: "postsecondary education"

Keep an Eye Out

Sometimes scholars use terms that you might not be familiar with, or which might mean something very specific within the discipline. While searching, look for unfamiliar terms or words that show up a lot. Try searching for those and see if you find more relevant sources.

Onesearch with green arrow pointing to the refine my results section Most library databases have search tools built in. Try some of these:

Subject: Think of subjects as official hashtags. Use them to find sources about that subject.
Date Range: Limit your search to sources published between specific years.
Peer Reviewed: Limit your search to scholarly journal articles.
Full Text: Make sure all of the results are available to read in full.

Look on the left and right of your search results, or for an "advanced search" page to find these tools - and more!

Person standing in front of a board with academic documents

You can evaluate any source using the 5 W's:

Who: ...wrote it? Are they an expert?
What: ...is the purpose of this resource?
Where: ...was this information published? ...does the information come from?
When: ...was this published or last updated?
Why: ...is this resource useful? ...is this resource better than other ones?

Advanced Search Tips

Venn diagram with the phrase "free speech" on in the left circle, the Boolean operator AND in the middle, and the keyword censorship in the right circle

Use the operator AND to find only sources that mention both keywords.

"free speech" AND censorship

This search will bring back fewer results than searching either keyword on its own.

Venn diagram with the phrase "book bans" on in the left circle, the Boolean operator OR in the middle, and the phrase "controversial speakers" in the right circle

Use the OR operator to expand your search with additional keywords.

“book bans” OR "controversial speakers"

This will find sources that include either word, so you'll see more results than by searching for just one keyword.

search in a database for democracy AND "higher education" AND ('first amendment" OR "free speech")

Use the “QUOTES” strategy to search for several words in a phrase.

"first amendment"

This will bring back results that only use that exact phrase.