Effective Searching: Part 3 - Narrow your search (Generic Web)

1. Effective Searching 3: Narrow your search

2. 1. Effective searching overview: key concepts
2. Broadening your Search
- synonyms, wildcards, truncation tools
3. Narrowing your search
- proximity connectors, phrase searching,
exclusions
4. Constructing your search
- grouping, search history, evaluating your
search
5. Citation Searching
Presentations summary

3. Effective Searching 3: Narrow your search
This short slide deck will provide an overview of
what you should consider when constructing
your search, to try and focus your search on the
most relevant results.
It forms part 3 of a series covering some of the
tools available to you to construct an effective
search.
Part 1 & 2 covered key concepts and broadening
your search using OR, wildcards and truncation
tools.

4. Effective Searching
Define your
information need
• What types
of resource
do you
need?
• Identify
where to
search.
• Identify
your key
concepts.
Broaden
your search
• Be compre-
hensive.
• Ensure
nothing is
missed un-
necessarily.
• “Cast your
nets wide.”
Narrow your
search
• Be focused.
• Exclude any
‘noise’.
• Ensure you
can use
your reading
time most
efficiently.
• “Use the
right nets.”
Evaluate
your results
• Identify
gaps.
• Assess un-
expected
results.
• Review
search
terms with
new knowl-
edge.
Make your
results work for
you
• Be efficient
with your
time.
• Search
alerts.
• Citation
searching.

5. Effective Searching 3: Narrow your search
We will cover:
(1) Focussing your search
a) Combining search concepts
(proximity connectors)
b) Phrase searching
(2) Filtering your search
a) Excluding results
(NOT connector)
b) Searching in facets

6. Effective Searching 3: Narrow your search
Let’s start with:
(1) Focussing your search
a) Combining search concepts
(proximity connectors)
b) Phrase searching
(2) Filtering your search
a) Excluding results
(NOT connector)
b) Searching in facets

7. Combining search terms 1:
If your research question is focussed on the use
of Propaganda in President Habyarimana’s
Rwanda, you are likely to want to ensure that the
most relevant results are talking about both
concepts.

8. (a) Combining search concepts
Using the AND connector will return only those results which
include both the term Rwanda and the term propaganda.
AND
Combining search terms 1

9. (a) Combining search concepts
Some services will assume an AND between two terms even
if you don’t include it…
… but not all.
AND
e.g.
Combining search terms 1

10. (a) Combining search concepts
Examples include:
AND
Power Search: Requires use of
‘AND’ connector. If not included,
searches for terms appearing as a
phrase or where two terms appear
consecutively.
Including the ‘AND’ connector “combines search terms so
that each search result contains all of the terms”. Not
including runs a search against an account default setting
(At Durham, this is “appearing within 5 words of”)
http://support.ebsco.com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/help/index.php?help_id=35
Combining search terms 1

11. (a) Combining search concepts
So you may want to get into the habit of using it
even when not necessary…
1. Avoid mistakes
2. Make cutting & pasting your search
between databases easier.
Combining search terms 1

12. Combining search terms 2:
If you have already identified multiple alternative
terms to describe your key concepts (e.g.
teenager OR adolescent, attainment OR
achievement) you need to think carefully about
how you combine these elements within your
search…

13. b) Combining search concepts: multiple synonyms
(teen OR adolescent) AND (attainment OR achievement)
AND
Combining search terms 2:
AND
teen
OR
adolescent
attainment
OR
achievement

14. Combining search terms 3:
But sometimes, combining terms using the AND
connector can still return a large number of
results which don’t seem relevant…

15. c) Proximity connectors
truth AND reconciliation
Will return results where both terms appear,
anywhere within the document.
They could appear several pages apart and be
completely unrelated.
Combining search terms 3:

16. c) Proximity connectors
truth AND reconciliation
To account for this, some databases will allow you
to use a proximity connector instead of AND.
This will only return results where one keyword
appears within # words of another keyword.
Combining search terms 3:

17. c) Proximity connectors
truth w/3 reconciliation
WITHIN 3 WORDS – WILL BE INCLUDED
MORE THAN 3 WORDS – WOULD NOT BE INCLUDED
Combining search terms 3:

18. (b) Proximity connectorsSTOP WORDS
USUALLY IGNORED
(BUT NOT ALWAYS
– BE AWARE)!
Combining search terms 3:

19. Truth w/5 reconciliationTruth /5 reconciliation
Truth N5 reconciliation
Truth adj5 reconciliation
Truth NEAR/5 reconciliation
NOTE – DIFFERENT DATABASES WILL USE DIFFERENT SYMBOLS FOR
PROXIMITY CONNECTORS. EXAMPLES INCLUDE:
All of the above could be used for a similar purpose:
Finding results where ‘truth’ appeared within 5 words of ‘reconciliation.
But some databases might use ‘N5’ to achieve this where another database might
use ‘w/5’ or ‘adj5’.
Combining search terms 3:

20. Combining search terms 3:
Some databases (such as JSTOR) use proximity connectors
differently – and this can impact on how you run more
complex searches.
“A search for debt forgiveness~10 will give you results that include both
the words "debt" and "forgiveness" within 10 words of each other.”
https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115012261448-Searching-Truncation-Wildcards-and-Proximity
This can mean some searches won’t work in JSTOR which
would work in another database. For example, if you need to
search for a phrase (e.g. “duty of care”) in proximity to
another term (e.g. ‘snail’).

21. Phrase searching
Sometimes it might be useful to search for only
results which include a specific phrase.
This could be when searching for:
• Commonly used names of people or organisations
• Specific events
• Widely recognised terminology and/or
methodologies.
E.g. “duty of care”, “Ottobah Cugoano”, “Charity
Commission”, “sudden infant death syndrome” or
“free radical polymerisation”

22. “ Truth and Reconciliation Commission”
Put the phrase you are searching for in
speech marks...
Phrase searching

23. “ Truth and Reconciliation Commission”
Phrase searching

24. {Truth and Reconciliation Commission}
Phrase searching
… does it differently

25. {Truth and Reconciliation Commission}
Exact phrase
Phrase searching
… does it differently

26. {Truth and Reconciliation Commission}
“Truth and Reconciliation Commission”
Exact phrase
Approximate or ‘loose’
phrase
Phrase searching
… does it differently

27. Effective Searching 3: Narrow your search
Now let’s look at:
(1) Focussing your search
a) Combining search concepts
(proximity connectors)
b) Phrase searching
(2) Filtering your search
a) Excluding results
(NOT connector)
b) Searching in facets

28. Excluding terms
Sometimes you might run a search, and notice a
lot of the results returned are irrelevant because
they focus on a related topic you are not
interested in.
You may therefore want to exclude all results
from your search which mention a particular
word.

29. “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” NOT “South Africa”
Will return results where the phrase “Truth and Reconciliation
Commission” appears, but exclude those results which also
include the term “South Africa”…
Excluding terms

30. “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” NOT “South Africa”
… but be careful with the NOT connector.
It might exclude results which offer a comparative view, or
results where the excluded term appears only in a reference or
footnote, which may still be of interest.
Excluding terms

31. Excluding terms
This can sometimes have a dramatic impact on the
number of results you find and need to review…
… so be careful with the NOT connector.
It might exclude results which offer a comparative view, or results where the
excluded term appears only in a reference or footnote, which may be of interest.

32. Searching within facets
• In addition to narrowing your search by choice of
keywords and connectors…
• Consider carefully where you search for terms
appearing within a document.
• Use the filters provided, or search in particular fields
(title, subject, abstract)
• If you only search for results where your most
important terms appear in the title or abstract, you
will likely have fewer results to evaluate and they
should be more relevant.

33. Searching within facets

34. Searching within facets
Once you have
your initial search
results, you can
use the filters
offered to limit
your results
further by date
published,
subject area, type
of publication and
more.

35. So in summary:
Narrowing your search - Summary
– Focus your search copyright AND photographs
– Proximity searching negligen* w/5 PwC
– Phrase searching “duty of care”
– Excluding terms property NOT intellectual
– Faceted searching e.g. in ABSTRACT only
Terminology and symbols vary, depending on which
database or catalogue you are using
Summary

36. Effective Searching
Define your
information need
• What types
of resource
do you
need?
• Identify
where to
search.
• Identify
your key
concepts.
Broaden
your search
• Be compre-
hensive.
• Ensure
nothing is
missed un-
necessarily.
• “Cast your
nets wide.”
Narrow your
search
• Be focused.
• Exclude any
‘noise’.
• Ensure you
can use
your reading
time most
efficiently.
• “Use the
right nets.”
Evaluate
your results
• Identify
gaps.
• Assess un-
expected
results.
• Review
search
terms with
new knowl-
edge.
Make your
results work for
you
• Be efficient
with your
time.
• Search
alerts.
• Citation
searching.

37. Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search