Designing your search strategy

Be careful about...

In this tutorial :

*

quick

and

1

easy

where

*

Designing an effective

search strategy

Where

you search

to search...

Step

Identify the

How

main topics

...

*

Kate Williams

Education Librarian

to choose

search terms...

how

So much information is online

you search

but...

good quality

not necessarily

How

*

best

to search...

relevant

academic literature

what

search terms

you use

these will form your search terms

....

if you are finding too much material

...

*

will suggest new possible terms

further reading

specific papers and articles

*

and

New searches

useful for:

Where

Keep a note of all your search terms

Narrower terms

You have been asked to find research that investigates bullying in secondary schools. Describe contrasting methods of research that could be conducted – one more quantitative in nature and one more qualitative. In your description, pay particular attention to the differences in sampling procedures between the two.

to look for information

Step

3

...

if you are not finding enough material

*

books and general works

*

useful for:

Broader terms

...

..

private schools

state schools

EDUCATION AND RELATED SUBJECT DATABASES

behaviour problems

comprehensive schools

aggression

sixth forms

peer relationships

http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

n

a

r

OxLiP+

r

o

discipline problems

w

e

r

t

e

r

a

t

l

e

m

d

r

s

t

r

e

r

h

m

t

s

o

*

secondary education

high schools

11-18 education...

/

terms

related

and

foreign terminology

*

Advantages

Bullying

Secondary Schools

synonyms

SUBJECT-SPECIFIC DATABASES

alternative spellings

Consider

*

wide range of academic publications

... think about

indexed by experts

synonyms

EDUCATION SUBJECT DATABASES

British Education Index

Australian Education Index

ERIC

Step

2

b

high quality material

r

o

can be searched by subject

a

d

e

t

r

e

r

e

r

m

s

Antisocial

Behaviour

s

Schools

*

SCOPUS

Web of Science

PsycINFO

may not have a subject thesaurus

CROSS-DISCIPLINARY DATABASES

SO

RELATED SUBJECT DATABASES

...

use your

list

search terms

of

synonyms

useful

and

*

SEARCH ENGINES

cannot search by subject

May

including "scholarly" ones

SEARCH ENGINES

miss important

research

*

Google

Google Scholar

Yahoo

cannot limit searches in useful ways

You could also...

Browse key journals in your area

Contact us

kate.williams@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

education.library@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Go to our website for more details

www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/education

Watch the rest of the tutorials

For more help

methods

of searching

Use

Use your own

Combine

or

keywords

phrases

search logic, or

Specify

5

where

you want them

(e.g. title or abstract)

4

synonyms / related terms

Keyword

*

boolean logic

Step

...

natural

language

OR

high school secondary school secondary education

Decide

how

with

for

Step

Thesaurus

OR

high school secondary school secondary education

*

subject

Search by

to search

search engines

topic

/

OR

Finds material

about

for

academic

your topic

concepts

Combine

databases

Citation

*

Combine

your search terms

use...

with

search

citations

Trace

References

>

more

>

subsequent

to

references

recent

research

carry out an

effective search of the literature.

terms

how

AND

where

AND

&

combine

choose

to

&

how to

tools

OR

bullying antisocial behaviour discipline problems

You now have the

OR

bullying antisocial behaviour discipline problems

Truncation/ wildcards

...but remember

Search for multiple spellings or endings

use the

synonyms / related terms

thesaurus

combined with

OR

where possible

to find

education OR educating OR educational OR educate

AND

use

educat*

concepts

combined with