Research Guides: BIOL 4278: Seminar in Biology: Search Strategy

Search Strategy & Tips

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

Find more (broaden your results) with OR and wildcards:
yeast or fungi (finds either term)
genom* (finds genome, genomes, genomic, etc.)

Find less (narrow your results) with AND:
statin* and neoplasm* (finds both terms)

Find less with NOT:
fern not flora (excludes records that mention flora)

Sample search statement:
frog* and (malform* or deform*)

Limiters can help to improve the relevance and focus of results:

Narrow results with standard limiters (peer-reviewed, date; document type; language; etc.)
Some databases allows quotation marks for an "exact phrase"
In databases for a specific subject discipline, look for specialized limiters (such as role of organism in Biological Abstracts)
Try restricting some terms to the title or abstract field
Try restricting some terms to the subject or descriptors field. Subject terms can vary from database to database, but using them usually improves relevance so look for them in results displays and detailed records. Some databases include a subject terms thesaurus.