1. Refine Your Topic
2. Transform Topic Into a Search
- Narrow your topic down to short phrases. Ex: How does exposure to combat during military service impact a person's mental health? can transform into words and phrases like "mental health," military, and combat.
- Also, brainstorm other phrases that are similar to the ones you chose. Ex: PTSD, depression, war, soldiers, violence, etc. These can be good to add to your search or to tweak your original search.
- AND and OR: If you want to have multiple words and phrases in your search combine them with an all caps AND if the search needs to have both ideas (ex: "mental health" AND combat) or an all caps OR if you are using multiple words to describe the same idea (ex: mental health OR PTSD OR depression). Sometimes databases show you multiple lines so you can put these different topics on different lines.
To learn more and get a bit of practice with this try our Searching Like a Master (Library Tutorial).
3. Choose Where to Search
- The library has hundreds of databases that are helpful for different things. Some focus on statistics, others focus on video content, and many are article databases that are especially helpful for one subject of research (ex: psychology). You can use the filters at the top of the Database List as well as the recommendations to find a good place to search for your topic. When in doubt -- ask a librarian for help.
