| Determine the key ideas and terms in your topic. | Example: I am interested in how Shakespeare's plays reflect interest in environmental issues of their day. |
| Think of synonyms or related terms. | floods OR fires OR deforestation |
| Select useful resources to search. | Databases > Subject > Literature (other subject areas) |
| Construct a search strategy. Start with keyword searching. | Many databases default to a keyword search field. |
| Look for a phrase, using quotation marks. |
"literary criticism"| "king lear" |
| Join similar terms with OR | "twentieth century" OR "20th century" |
| Join dissimilar terms with AND |
("green theatre practices) AND ("20th century" OR twentieth century) |
| Truncate a term (usually *) | femini* to search for feminine, femininity |
| Take advantage of controlled vocabulary. Look for subject terms or descriptors. | SU: Shakespearean actors & actresses | SU: SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616, in literature |
| Limit your search if needed e.g. by date, by format, the field being search. | Too many results? Consider searching in a title or abstract field rather than the full-text. Looking for primary materials during a specific time; limit by date. |
| Examine the bibliographies for relevant materials. | Skim through the citation. Then look up the known items using a search tool like UC Library Search. |
| Find a great article? See who else has cited it. | Web of Science and Google Scholar are useful for determining who has referred to (cited) an article. See the Cited By box. |
Found a great article and wonder who has since cited it?
Try Web of Science. (Works for Humanities subjects too!) Look up article by Title. Find article citation in the results list. Click on Times Cited link.
Try Google Scholar. Type in the article title. Find article citation in the results list. Click on Cited By link.
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