Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies

1. State your topic or research question in your own words.
2. Identify the most important keywords (usually the nouns) or short, commonly used phrases.
3. Think of variations (singular, plural) and synonyms for your terms. It may help to check Thesaurus.com.
4. Create an initial search statement using connectors or logical operators (especially AND, OR) and, if appropriate, wildcards.
5. Try it out in one or more databases and/or Library Catalog.
6. Look for other good keywords and subject terms in search results.
7. Try revised searches until you're satisfied with the results.
8. Depending on the volume of results, consider narrowing or broadening your topic.
9. If you're having difficulties, contact us.

Find more (broaden your results) with OR and wildcards:

multiracial or biracial or multiethnic*

Find less (narrow your results) with AND:
community and racial identity

Find less with NOT:
racial identity not african-american

Find less by selecting limiters (peer-reviewed, date, etc.).

Some databases require quotation marks for an "exact phrase".

If you're not finding enough, try simplifying your search, and remove less critical keywords or concepts.

(1:43) Learn how logical operators AND and OR work to help you get good results in library research databases.