Search Strategy

Databases and other research tools differ from the search engines you are familiar with. Learn to develop an effective search strategy to get the best research results for your topic.

Keyword Searching

A keyword search matches the terms you enter with records in a research database and can help focus your topic. More accurate keywords will get you more accurate results.

Turn your Topic into Keywords

Look at your research question or think about the main concepts of your topic and pick out the nouns.

Tips:

• Avoid words like impact, effect, improve etc.
• Spell out any abbreviations.
• Use quotations for an exact phrase match.
• Use parentheses to keep multi-word terms and phrases together.
• Don’t use full sentences or whole citations.
• Avoid punctuation like commas, periods or question marks.

Examples

Suggested keywords are highlighted in yellow.

Basic research question

How can carbon sequestration mitigate climate change?

No matter how complicated the question, selecting your keywords doesn’t need to be daunting. Just as in the above example, identify the key concepts.

Advanced research question:

In adults who are comatose after resuscitation from either in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, does temperature control at 32-36 °C or early cooling after cardiac arrest lead to a higher chance of survival?

The PICO Clinical Question format can help you identify keywords.

Find Synonyms

Brainstorm synonyms for the key terms you identified to make sure you are getting all relevent results. Consider terms which are broader or narrower, and ideas related to your topic. Most databases provide a thesaurus for this purpose. Look for thesaurus, subject terms, or subject headings on the search page.

In PubMed, look for the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) Database

Advanced Search

Advanced search gives you more control over your results by allowing you to combine keywords and apply limiters such as a date range, format, language and more. Use advanced search if your keyword searches are returning too many results or results that are not all relevant.

Combining Keywords

Combine your keywords with AND, OR, or NOT and select specific fields like title or author to search.

Research Help

Make an appointment, walk in, or contact us for a research consultation – we can walk you through the process of creating a search strategy and finding the results you need.