CICS 237 Class Visit

To develop a research question that will give you targeted results, ask yourself a few questions: 

• Who -- who, or what population, is your research about? (IE: children, nationality, human or animal)
• What -- what about this topic are you looking for? (trends, causes, treatments, data)
• When -- is there a specific time period you are concerned with? 
• Where -- where does the research topic take place? (a specific country, urban or rural environment, natural or manmade)
• Why -- why is this research important? 

Text and imge modified from Choosing a Topic and Developing a Research Question, SNHU

Keywords are the words that you use when searching online catalogs and library databases. Select your keywords carefully; the more targeted they are, the more efficient your searches will be. 

• Keywords should represent the most important concepts in your topic.
• Try multiple variants or synonyms of your keywords. Sometimes you may have to do several searches to identify keywords related to your topic.
• If you find a good and relevant source for your topic, look for additional keyword synonyms in the title, abstract, and subject headings.

Modified from Choosing and Using Keywords Tutorial, CREDO Instruct

Image from: Tips for Using Keyword Searching Effectively, SNHU Libraries

Keywords should represent the most important concepts in your topic.

• Try multiple variants or synonyms of your keywords. Sometimes you may have to do several searches to identify keywords related to your topic.
• If you find a good and relevant source for your topic, look for additional keyword synonyms in the title, abstract, and subject headings.

Are you getting too many results? Narrow your search by:

• Put keyword phrases into quotations, IE: "artificial intelligence"
• Use AND between search terms; Use NOT to eliminate irrelevant terms
• Use fielded searches, IE: search in the Title or Abstract fields
• Use filters to narrow down by time frame, format, etc. 
• Try a different, more specialized database
• Review your research question, is it too broad? 

Are you getting too few search results? Broaden your search by: 

• Use OR between search terms
• Try additional synonyms for your keywords, look at subject headings of relevant results for ideas
• Nest synonyms together using OR, IE: (iphone OR smartphone OR mobile phone)
• Search Full Text or All Text rather than specific fields
• Use truncation to find word variants, IE: autis* will return autistic or autism
• Try a different, more general database
• Review your research question, is it too narrow? 

Image from Introduction to Boolean Operators, Slippery Rock University