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PSY 3402: Experimental and Research Methods

4. Create a Search Query

Once you have your keywords, you need to combine them in a way the database will understand. You can:

  • apply boolean operators between your search terms
  • use the other search tools
  • Try subject databases like PsycINFO for psychology as other databases listed under Psychology

*Remember you may not find articles that take all your core concepts into account...that's OK.  Mix and match your terms in smaller groups to find articles that are related to your topic.  Check out the video bottom left for ideas. 

Search Strategies

Search by keywords and phrases. Maximize your keyword searches with Boolean searching:
  AND   internet AND teenagers all words must appear in the result list     
OR teenagers OR adolescents either word may appear in the results     
NOT    "social media" NOT facebook             must mention the phrase "social media", but excludes     
items with the term facebook     


Phrase Searching: use "quotation marks" to search for phrases.

Truncation: the asterisk (*) symbol is used most often in library databases.

psycholog* will search for all forms of the root:

psychology

psychologist

psychological

Review Subject terms. Those are listed in the databases and records of citations in search results. These can be useful for learning the preferred vocabulary of a discipline.