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Starting Your Research Series

Using search boxes

Remember, databases have tools that help you find what you need. When you search in a database, you’ll enter your search terms into the search boxes. The database will search for exactly what you type in. Enter in the terms that are at the heart of what you want to find. For example, if your research question is “Does playing video games have an impact on whether a person is violent,” you would enter these terms into the search box:

  • Video games
  • Violence

Some databases give you multiple search boxes, or let you add more by clicking a plus sign. 

You can put video games AND violence in one box (see Illustration A), or put video games in one box and violence in another (see Illustration B).

Illustration A:                                                                                                             Illustration B:

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Remember: databases search for exactly what you type in, so check your search to make sure you don’t have any typos.

Click the Next button to learn more about using filters.