Determine the key ideas and terms in your topic. | Example: I am interested in how Blake's depiction of animals has influenced twentieth and twenty-first century artists. |
Think of synonyms or related terms. | animals OR monsters OR name of specific animal |
Select useful resources to search. | Databases > Subject > Literature (other subject areas may include History - United States) |
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"| "twentieth century" |
Join similar terms with OR | "twentieth century" OR "20th century" |
Join dissimilar terms with AND |
(animal OR lion) 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: Animals in literature | SU: Blake, William, 1757-1827 Exhibitions |
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. |
You may find leads for various resources by looking at course syllabi, bibliographies, archives at universities, and digitized resources from organizations. Here are a few sample searches to illustrate how you might use the free web in a savvy way.
To read about citation trails and how they can help your research, click here for a guide: https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/article-networks
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