When starting your research, it's important to consider the terms you are going to use to help find relevant sources. Before you begin searching in Google Scholar or a library database, take a few minutes to brainstorm keywords. You won't use every keyword in every search, but it's helpful to have a few written down that you can swap out as you do your research.
Your keywords could include:
scientific names and colloquial names for your topic - e.g., Utah Juniper, Juniperus osteosperma
names of processes or methods you're studying - e.g., sequence analysis
synonyms - e.g., drought, hydraulic damage
broader and specific terms - e.g., Grand Junction, Western Slope, Colorado, mountain west
names of comparable or similar species, including broader family names (to use if you can't find anything specific about the species you're searching for) - e.g., piñon pine, conifer
connecting terms that describe what you want to know about your topic - e.g., impact, influence, effect
time periods, using a specific date for a specific event, or broader terms for a general time period - e.g. "Victorian age," "Cold War"
Need more help? Here's a useful video by Winona State University's Krueger Library about how to get keywords from your research question:
A great place to start your search is on the library's website. Our Search All function will allow you to search the majority of the library's holdings using a combination of your keywords.
When doing your search, you can also use Boolean operators. Boolean operators are small words (AND, OR, NOT) that can give you more control over your search results. These three words used with your keywords can help narrow, broaden, and focus your results.
Narrowing your search: if you're getting too many results, or results that are too general
AND: By adding AND to your keywords, results will include both key terms. The more you include AND, the fewer results you'll have.
Example: If your research question is, How does the amount of rain affect deforestation in Brazil? you could search "rainfall AND deforestation AND Brazil."
NOT: The Boolean operator NOT will also limit the results returned. It should be used sparingly.
Example: If your research question is exploring the effects of pollutants on Mexico but your results keep coming back with results on Mexico City, your search will look like pollutants AND Mexico NOT city.
Broadening your search: if you're not getting enough results
OR: Including OR into your search terms expands your search results -- casting a wider net for resources you want to see.
If your research question is Are teens who spend time on social media more depressed? pull out the key terms teens, social media, depressed. But maybe you're also wanting to see results that include synonyms. Your search may look like teens OR teenagers OR adolescent.
This helpful video from Lehman College shows strategic ways for you to use your keywords to get more or fewer results:
For more tutorials about how to search in the library database, check out our guide Library Research Tutorial or Advanced Research Strategies.
A great way to find sources is to use the existing web of citations between academic sources, called backward and forward citing.
Backward citation means looking at the references page of a book or article and visiting the articles your source cites that are relevant to your topic. This is a great way of getting a handle on the scholarship surrounding a topic.
Forward citation means finding sources that cite the article you're currently reading. Google Scholar has an excellent tool to do this: just copy and paste the title into the search bar, then select the "cited by" link beneath the result. This will generate the articles that have cited this article in their references page.
You can find more details in the video below: