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Sociology 195 (Golash-Boza)

Strategies

Here are parameters to consider as you form your research inquiry.  Will you focus on one or more of these areas? 

Place / Location

Person / Organization

Time Period

 Event

Concept(s) / Themes

Has the place name changed?

Does the place have more than one name?

Can the place be represented by narrow or broader locations 

Does a person, group or organization feature prominently?

What is the time frame?

How is the time period represented? e.g. by a date range, event, or period of time

Is a specific event or a series of events important? 

Are you focusing on a specific event which is part of a larger event?

Is your event generic? Does it span multiple places/times?

What are the crucial concepts?

How are these concepts represented in text?

Phrase Searching

 

" "

To search for specific phrases, enclose them in quotation marks. The database will search for those words together in that order.

Examples:

“platelet disorder”

“salt intake”

“high energy drinks”

“temporomandibular joint disc”

Boolean Operators (AND/OR)

 

AND, OR

Join together search terms in a logical manner.

AND - narrows searches, used to join dissimilar terms
OR - broadens searches, used to join similar terms

Examples:

#1
asthma AND gene

#2
“joint pain" OR “joint stiffness”

#3
asthma
AND
jogging OR running
AND
bronchoconstriction

 

Truncation

 

TRUNCATION

Truncate a word in order to search for different forms of the same word. Many database use the asterisk * as the truncation symbol.

Example:

Truncate the word child* to search for child, childhood, children etc.

Add the truncation symbol to epilep* to search for epileptic, epilepsy etc.