Hints for Online Searching

1. What are the key concepts/phrases (keywords) you want to search?

    

2. Do any of your keywords have synonyms or other alternative terms you should consider searching?

    

3. Will some of your keywords have variants that you will need to include in your search?
   • spectr* —> spectra, spectral, spectroscopy, spectrometry, spectroscopic
   • Do not truncate in SciFinder

      

4. How will you adjust the search/topic if you get too many or too few results?
   • Boolean Operators: and | or

    

5. When searching these resources....
   • Know what’s being indexed:
     • all scholarly journals, or a mix of scholarly journals and popular sources likes magazines and newspapers 
     • journals only, or other types of materials like books/book chapters, conference papers and patents
     • all sciences vs. certain disciplines within the sciences
   • Know where the database’s help menu is located.
   • Know how to truncate, how to combine search terms to narrow/broaden the search.
   • Know how to limit to English language materials if needed.