Use * for alternate word endings
e.g., sustainab* retrieves sustainable, sustainability etc.
Use the different search lines to enter key words (not sentences) describing the different components of your search topic
Redo your search adding new keywords you find in article abstracts and subject terms given to the articles by the database
Use or between synonyms or alternate concepts
e.g., greenhouse gases* or ghg* or carbon dioxide
Use fewer search terms. Each time you put in another search term (unless they are synonyms combined with or) you will get fewer results. Start with a small number of keywords and then add more terms or try different terms based on your results.
Use quotation marks around words you want searched as a phrase
e.g., "greenhouse gases"
Databases usually offer ways to Limit or Refine your search results, such as:
To Scholarly/Peer-reviewed journals
By publication date range
To journal articles only (or books, dissertations, etc)
Some databases also have specific limits, such as:
Methodology
Age Groups
Gender
Add more search terms:
Each time you put in another search term, you will retrieve fewer results.
Start with a small number of keywords and then add more terms or try different terms based on your results.
Use the different search lines to enter more key words (not sentences) describing the different components of your topic
In the articles that are good, look for other for terms used in title, abstract, and subjects in that seem to focus on your interest
The Library subscribes to many databases that have or link to scholarly articles
♦ Multidisciplinary databases, such as Academic Search Ultimate and Web of Science Core Collection
These index articles in scholarly journals as well as other types of publications.
You can limit your search results to only journal articles.
♦ Discipline-specific databases, such as CAB Abstracts, CINAHL, FSTA, Education Research Complete,
PubMed, BIOSIS, and SciFinder-n, take broader views of scholarly/professional literature
and also index publications types such as dissertations, books and book chapters, conference proceedings,
and technical reports.
Most of these databases will allow you to limit your search results to only scholarly journals.
♦ Find a variety of publication types including scholarly journal articles.
♦ Does not have a way to limit results to only scholarly journals, so pay attention to what you have retrieved.
Did you have a highly relevant article that answers part of your research question? Use that to find other references.
♦ Look backwards in the literature by looking up references from a publication's works cited section.
♦ Look forward in the literature by seeing who cited an item.
Web of Science databases, Google Scholar, and some other databases and publisher websites give you Cited By references
(the ones they see in their own universes) so you can identify more recent articles that cited the one you like.