What are the most important concepts in your research question? What are different terms for each concept?
Keyword 1: bullying, cyberbullying
Keyword 2: intervention, intervening, peer, peers, interpersonal, bystander, helping, empathy
Keyword 3: adolescents, adolescence, middle school, youth
Construct a search. Keep track, you'll probably try many different combinations
AND = Terms must be present, narrows results
OR = any of the terms may be present, broadens results
* = wildcard looks for different endings
Example:
teen* : finds teen, teens, teenage, teenagers
adolescen* : finds adolescence, adolescents
1. Do a search and pay attention to how the results were tagged with subject words. Jot down other descriptive terms from article titles and abstracts.
2. A really good thesaurus like the ones ERIC and PsycINFO have can help you find related, narrower and broader terms. Along with basic searching tips, both of these short handouts with video links show you how to take advantage of the thesaurus.
Find It @ USC Libraries | Subject Specific Databases | |
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Find It gathers metadata (all the info that describes something) from a LOT of sources--publishers, database creators, library catalogs, etc. The same thing might not be described the same way. Because it is so wide-ranging and diverse, to get the most out of Find It try a lot of different searches using a variety of keywords. |
A database like ERIC, Education Source, PsycINFO, PubMed or SPORTDiscus concentrates on the literature of a discipline. Databases add value by assigning consistent descriptors/subject terms. Because a specialized database represents a smaller universe, a big part of searching effectively is making sure you are including terms the database uses. Look and see if your database has a thesaurus. |
Advanced Search in Find It @ USC Libraries
Use Advanced Search to enter more complex searches with OR for synonyms on the same line. Be sure to capitalize OR, otherwise the same search techniques you use in other databases (* for a wildcard and "quotes around phrases") apply.
Control the number of results and relevancy by changing where your terms are searched. Anywhere searches the entire dissertation if there's a PDF. Anywhere except full text searches the title, abstract, subjects
Connect to content we've paid for.
Scroll down the search page to find limits, including:Age Group (Childhood to Very Old), Population Group (Human, Animal, Male, Transgender, Female, Inpatient, Outpatient), Methodology.