See Search Tips to learn about keywords, Boolean operators, truncation, quotation marks, limiters, and subject terms. There are also strategies to find known items.
- Note key concepts that relate to your topic.
- Find an appropriate search tool. Consider your subject matter, discipline, type of information needed, etc.
- Construct a search.
- Use AND to join dissimilar terms.
- Use OR to join synonyms or related terms.
- Use truncation to pick up various endings of a word.
- Use quotations to search for a phrase.
- Incorporate appropriate limiters as needed before conducting the search or after viewing the results list, such as date, type of article, etc.
- Skim results; read abstracts to determine an article's relevance.
- Use subject terms to direct you to other articles with the same tags.
- Revise search as needed. Consider using other terminology you discover from titles and descriptors.
- Locate full-text of the article either through a HTML/PDF link, UCe-Links button, or Request (ILL) through UC-eLinks.
- Review a relevant source's reference list to locate other articles, books, or authors who have written on the same topic.
- If you're not finding information that exactly matches your topic, use pieces of information from sources that are related.
