CI 3338: Social Studies in the Elementary and Middle School

DATABASE SEARCH TIPS

Searching databases for articles can be a bit tricky. 

The following search techniques can help improve your search results.  

Keyword Searching

• Select the most important concepts of your research question to use as search terms.

Search Commands AND, OR, NOT

• Adding the search commands AND, OR, NOT to your search string conveys specific commands to the database.

Search Command: Phrase Searching

• If you place quotation marks around a phrase the database will only return articles that contain the exact phrase in the order it is typed.

• If you don't place quotation marks around a phrase it is possible that you will retrieve articles that mention both terms, but not together.

• The example search below commands the database to only retrieve articles that mention "extracurricular activities" as a phrase.

Search Command: Truncation

• If you place an asterisk at the root of a word, the database will search for the term with any possible ending.

• The example search below, commands the database to retrieve articles that mention any of the following terms:
  • achieve
  • achieves
  • achieving
  • achiever
  • achievement