HECL 202 - Introduction to Research Methods

When searching for articles, you have two main ways to find relevant results: keywords and subject terms.

• Keywords are the words you think of that describe your topic. For example, if you’re researching pet ownership and anxiety, you might type “pets” and “anxiety”. The database will look for these words anywhere in the article—title, abstract, or full text.

• Subject terms are the official tags the database assigns to articles. For example, the same article might be tagged with “Pet Ownership” and “Anxiety Disorders”. Searching by subject term ensures you find all articles categorized under that topic, even if the authors used different words.

Tip: Start with keywords to explore your topic, then check the subject terms in your best articles. Using both together will give you the most accurate and comprehensive results.

Boolean operators are words or symbols that are used in conjunction with words to refine searches. 

Here are six helpful ones to use: 

1. AND - narrows 
   1. Ex: ADHD and boys (this narrows down our results to only include ADHD and boys) 
2. NOT - excludes
   1. Ex: ADHD not boys (this narrows down our results to include things about ADHD excluding those that mention boys) 
3. OR - expands
   1. Ex: boys or males or guy (this expands our our search to search for multiple possible terms) 
4. * - expands 
   1. Ex: rac*  (using the asterisk in replace of an ending on a word will expand your search to include results that have any ending on the base word.)
5. " " - exact phrase
   1. Ex: "executive functioning" (this pulls up results that are stated in the item exactly as written) 
6. ( ) - confine
   1. Ex: (ADHD or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) AND (boys or guys or males)     - (this will instruct the database or search engine on what parts go together in your search phrase