Library Research Basics 
for Nursing Students

Search Techniques

Keyword & subject searches | Omit unnecessary words | Capitalization | Quotation marks & phrase searching | Truncation | Wildcards | AND | OR | Requiring or excluding words form search results | Nesting | Limits | Field searching | Proximity commands

1. Keep in mind the difference between keyword searches and subject searches. 

• Keyword searches look for exactly the words you enter anywhere within the database (author, title, notes, etc.). They do not look for synonyms, or other ways to express the same topic. If you enter "latinos," you will find only this - not results that include "chicanos" or "hispanics." 
• Subject searches rely on descriptions that are given to resources by catalogers or indexers (information professionals) so that you can find all resources on a topic under one heading. This means that if the subject heading is Latinos, you will find all materials about Chicanos and Hispanics there too. The hard part can be finding the "correct" subject heading for your topic.

Switching your search from a keyword to a subject search is an effective way to narrow a search and find more on-topic results. In CINAHL, a subject search is called an "(MW) Word in Subject Heading" search, and it would narrow a search for "medication errors" to 2,214 items that are really about that topic. 

Alternatively, if you are finding too few results, switching from a subject to a keyword search can help. 

2. Omit unnecessary words

Many people accustomed to searching the Web have difficulties in constructing effective searches in article databases and library catalogs. One reason is that natural language searches ("what is the GNP of China") that work well on the Web do not work in other search tools. When searching, use only words directly related to the topic being researched. 

communism in Romania
seniority in the Senate
effects of caffeine on the memory of mice

• Words like "effects," "impact," and "significance" do not work well as search terms - even when you do want to learn about the effects of medication errors on patient health. 
• "In" is an especially bad word to include, as some computer systems interpret it as commanding them to look for certain information in a particular field. 

3. Capitalization
Doesn't matter unless it does!

• Doesn't matter with the NMSU catalog or article databases (texas)
• Does matter with some search engines (Texas)

4. Put quotation marks around phrases
Only works with phrases that are commonly used as phrases

"animal rights" 
"united states" 
"partial birth abortion"

Symbols (*, !, $, #)  for truncation vary among databases. 

librar* - searches for librarian, librarians, library, libraries, librarianship
psycholog* - searches for psychology, psychologist, psychologists, psychological

6. Wildcards
Allow you to search for possible variations (often spellings) within words

Symbols (*, !, $, #)  for wildcards vary among databases. Fewer databases support wildcards than support truncation.

wom*n - searches for women and woman

7. AND
Allows you to connect two or more search words or phrases. Effective way to narrow searches and lessen the number of results.

Some databases allow you to use the AND command without capitalizing, others do not. 

cats AND diet
teenager* AND "binge drinking" 
"european union" AND "single currency"

8.  OR
Allows you to search for several variants on a search concept at one time. Works best with keyword searches. 

"european union" OR eu
e-commerce OR ecommerce OR "electronic commerce" 

It's usually best to use OR only in the same search with an AND command. See Nesting, #10 below.

+ requires that all items in a list of results contain certain words or phrases
- requires that none of the items in a list of results contains the excluded word or phrase

• "binge drinking" +"date rape"
• dolphins -football

Do NOT include a space between the + or - sign and the search word following it. 

10. Nesting
The order of search terms linked by AND and OR can make a big difference. Most computers go from left to right, processing things in the order they come to them - so it's important to indicate any units you want the computer to consider as units

diet AND (felines OR cats)

("single currency" OR euro) AND ("european union" OR eu)

cloning AND (legal* OR law*)

11. Limits
Allows you to restrict results to items meeting certain criteria 

• Being of a particular type (newspaper articles versus journal articles)
• Being in a particular language (English, French, Spanish, etc.)
• Being published/produced within a particular time frame (1995-2000)

CINAHL lets you limit your search in a number of helpful ways. 

• The Full Text limit will unnecessarily narrow your search and should not typically be used. 
• The Year of Publication limit will allow you to focus in on recent materials. 
• Author is helpful when you want articles on a topic written by a particular individual. 
• Publication allows you to limit your search to articles on a topic published within a particular journal. 
• Journal Subset allows you to search a topic in groups of journals having a common focus -- such as Africa or Consumer Health. The Double Blind Peer Reviewed, the Editorial Board Reviewed, the Expert Peer Reviewed, and the Peer Reviewed limits are all options for getting at high quality research studies. 
• Publication Type is another good way to limit a search. You can select Care Plans, Case Studies, Clinical Trials, Research, Review, and other options. 
• The Language limit allows you to focus in on materials written in a particular language (e.g., English or Spanish). 
• The Gender limit refers to the sex of the subjects described in the article. You can focus in specifically on male or female patients. 
• The Age Group limit refers to the age of the subjects described in the article. There are categories for fetus, newborn, preschool child, and many other age groupings. 
• The Special Interest limit lets you focus in on a particular field of Nursing care (e.g., Sports Medicine or Wound Care). There is an Evidence-Based Practice limiter here. 

12. Field Searching
Allows you to search for information within particular fields within a record. 

Title = cloning AND "united states" 
Author = wilson OR smith
Abstract = marijuana AND legal*

Searching for your keywords in the article title, for example, is an effective way to narrow a search. Only those articles really about a topic are likely to use words related to that topic in their titles. 

13. Proximity Commands
A variety of commands that allow you to search for words that, while not always appearing as exact phrases, often appear close to each other.

george w/1 bush - finds George Bush and George W. Bush

NEAR, ADJ (=Adjacent), and W (=Within) followed by a unit of measure (2=2 words)

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Page created by Kate Manuel
Page last updated Tuesday, February 03, 2004