Watch the video below for using subject headings for a more powerful search strategy.
Once you've brainstormed keywords for your research question, think about what operators you may use. Operators are a way of combining keywords to get the best results from your search.
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"QuotationMarks" |
Put quotes around phrases when you want that phrase to be found in that exact order Ex: "Deepwater Horizon" |
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AND
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Use AND when you want to find articles or other information that contains both/all keywords Ex: "Deepwater Horizon" AND crisis management
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OR |
Use OR when you want to find articles or other information that contains at least one of the keywords Ex: crisis management OR campaign |
There are a few types of resources that you may need to search outside of the library to find. For example, if you're looking for a website resource, you'll need to use Google or a similar search engine to find your resource and evaluate it's credibility. You can apply many of the search strategies we've learned when you're searching Google. Use the tips below to help bring back more relevant results:
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"quotations around a phrase" Ex: "Deepwater Horizon" AND "brand reputation" |
Just like when you're searching in library databases, by putting quotations around a phrase or multiple words, you're telling the search engine that you want to see those words in that order. This brings back fewer, but more relevant results. |
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site:URL Ex: site:epa.gov "deepwater horizon" |
Use a site search to use Google's search engine to search for content on a particular website. For example, by searching the fhsu.edu URL in addition to a keyword, I make sure that my results are related to FHSU instead of any other university. This strategy would also be helpful if you want to search the company's website for any information or statements they've released about the crisis, |
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.org or .edu or .gov Ex. "deepwater horizon" .gov |
By specifying the end of the URL Google responds with results that more closely match that type of website. For example, maybe I was wanting to find information about the environmental impacts relating to Deepwater Horizon, I might find that data on a government website like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). |
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filetype:pdf Ex. deepwater horizon filetype:pdf |
You can tell Google what type of file you're looking for in order to search for uploaded documents relating to your keyword search. The following file types might be helpful when:
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