The first step in developing a search strategy is to write the research question.
In what ways has urbanization affected ecological health of the Cahaba River?
The second step in developing a search strategy is to identify the key concepts in the research question.
| Concept #1 | Concept #2 | Concept #3 |
|---|---|---|
|
urbanization |
ecological health |
Cahaba River |
The third step in developing a search strategy is to brainstorm keywords related to the concepts.
| Concept #1 | Concept #2 | Concept #3 |
|---|---|---|
|
urbanization polystyrene fluorescence microscopy fluorescent dye Nile Red |
ecological health fish food chain |
Cahaba River freshwater sediments
|
Tip: Look for keywords as you find sources on your research topic.
The fourth step in developing a search strategy is to combine the keywords using the techniques below.
AND – use to find all of the terms and get fewer results
OR – use to find any of the terms and get more results
NOT – use to find the first term but not the second term
" " – use to find the terms next to each other in the order given as a phrase
* – use to replace multiple characters in the term
? – use to replace one character in the term
( ) – use to specify the order in which to combine the terms
Use the techniques below to develop a search strategy.
Boolean Operators
Proximity Operators
Truncation & Wildcard Symbols
Parentheses
Ohio State University Libraries. (n.d.). Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. Pressbooks. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub
/choosingsources/chapter/search-statements
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.