Details for each step are provided below.
*Google Scholar:
Access Google Scholar on the Databases page so you will see the option FindIt@TxState with your search results. This options allows you to see if the full text of an article is available through the library.
Example Topics | Keywords |
---|---|
Disparities in Black Maternal Mortality in America | Disparity, Black, Maternal, Mortality, America |
Effect of lifestyle factors on US Health | lifestyle, factors, US, health |
Most databases recognize the following commands:
Search Command | Result |
Boolean Command AND | Black AND Maternal AND Mortality brings back articles that mention all three concepts. |
Boolean Command OR | Black OR African American brings back articles that mention either concept. |
Boolean Command NOT | NOT abortion will exclude articles that mention the concept. |
Phrase Searching | "maternal mortality" returns articles containing the exact phrase in the order it is typed. |
Truncation | Medicat* returns articles containing words with the root medicat such as medicate, medicating, medication |
It is unlikely that you will find all of the articles you need with your first search string. You will have to try different search combinations using different keywords. There are a couple of places to find additional keywords in a database:
You can find additional terms in the subject terms found in an article record. If there is an article in the results list that looks useful, click on the title to bring up the article record then review the subject terms for any you might want to add to your search string.
You can also find additional keywords by searching for your existing search terms in the Database thesaurus.
The search string below will bring back articles that mention the following terms:
disparity or disparities AND Black AND maternal mortality
disparity or disparities AND African American AND maternal mortality
Once you have perfected your search string and returned viable looking results, you may need to filter the results list, especially if you have more than 20 results.
At the very least you will want to limit the results to Peer-Reviewed articles and publication date.
The example below shows the limiter for Peer-Reviewed in CINAHL Ultimate:
Many databases have tools that allow you to save articles or export them to a Citation Manager, and most databases generate a citation for articles. Be sure to...
If you are required to include your search strategy in your final paper, you will find the following tips helpful: