Effective Searching: Part 4 - Construct your search (Generic Web)

1. Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating 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 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search
This short slide deck will provide an overview of how
to pull your identified search keywords and
connectors together to form a logical search
protocol, and some initial guidance on evaluating the
results it returns.
It forms part 4 of a series covering some of the tools
available to you to construct an effective search.
Part 1-3 covered key concepts, and then broadening
and narrowing your search using different tools
including wildcards, proximity connectors and
truncation tools.

4. We will cover:
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the search history (where available)
(4) Evaluating your search
Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search

5. Let’s start with…
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the search history (where available)
(4) Evaluating your search
Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search

6. Grouping your search terms
When entering your search terms into an
academic database or search engine, you need
to think carefully about how they will be
interpreted…

7. Shakespeare AND (tragedy OR sonnet)
- will return results about Shakespeare’s tragedies or
Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Shakespeare AND tragedy OR sonnet
- might return results about Shakespeare’s tragedies, and
also anything about a sonnet (including written by others).
With brackets: 61,730 results in Discover (as at 10th Aug 2020)
Without: 111,392 results in Discover (as at 10th Aug 2020)
(486, 309 results if entered in reverse: tragedy OR sonnet AND Shakespeare)
Grouping your search terms

8. Shakespeare AND (tragedy OR sonnet)
- will return results about Shakespeare’s tragedies or
Shakespeare’s sonnets.
(Shakespeare AND tragedy) OR sonnet
- might return results about Shakespeare’s tragedies, and
also anything about a sonnet (including written by others).
Grouping your search terms
Why? Because where not given explicit direction, a database may group your
search terms differently to how you attended by treating some connectors with a
higher priority than others (in this case, the AND connector before OR).

9. Grouping your search terms
If you aren’t able to enter different
elements of your search into
different search boxes like (left)…
… remember to use parenthesis to
group your keywords together as
you want your search to be
understood.
Shakespeare AND (tragedy OR sonnet)

10. Now let’s look at…
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the search history (where available)
(4) Evaluating your search
Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search

11. Constructing your search
We have looked now at defining your research
question and identifying your key concepts.
We then looked at taking these key concepts,
and identifying the different keywords to describe
them, and how to include them in your search.
Now let’s pull all that together, step-by-step, to
see how you can use those tips to build a
coherent, focussed and efficient search around a
topic you are interested in.

12. Constructing your search
Think about your research question.
Define your Key Concepts around which you
wish to formulate your search.

13. Example
Examining the impact of
crime enacted by
teenagers in the
inner city
Constructing your search

14. Think about each key concept.
Think about all the keywords which you might
want to include in your search which describe
that concept, or an aspect of it you are
particularly interested in.
This will broaden your search to ensure you
don’t missing any relevant results which use a
slightly different spelling or alternative
terminology.
Constructing your search

15. teenagers
youth
juvenile
adolescent
crime
shoplifting
Anti-social
behaviour
theft
inner city
urban
cities
London

16. Think about each keyword.
Identify if you need to account for any
alternative spellings, word-stems, hyphenation
or plurals.
Constructing your search

17. teen*
youth OR
“young
person”
Juvenil!
adolescen*
crime
shoplift*
“Anti#social
behavio?r”
criminal*
“inner
city”
urban
city OR cities
London

18. Constructing your search
Now think about how best to combine your
identified keywords and key concepts.
This should help to narrow your search to return
only the most relevant results relevant to all of
the key concepts you have identified.
Use an ‘advanced search’ option or parenthesis
where appropriate.

19. Example
(teen* OR youth OR juvenil* OR adolescen*)
AND
(crime OR shoplift* OR “anti#social behavio?r” OR criminal*)
AND
(“inner city” OR urban OR cities OR London)

20. (crime OR shoplift*
OR “anti#social
behavio?r” OR
criminal*)
(“inner city”OR
urban OR cities
OR London)
(teen* OR
youth OR
juvenile* OR
adolescen*)
Only this focussed set of results
should be returned by this search.
Included:
• Teenage antisocial behaviour in
urban areas.
• Adolescent shoplifting activity
in inner city areas.
Not included:
• Crime in London (where it
makes no mention of teenage,
juvenile or adolescent
involvement).

21. Example
You could also try replacing an AND connector with a proximity
connector if you still get too many results…
(teen* OR youth OR juvenil* OR adolescen*)
AND
((crime OR shoplift* OR “anti#social behavio?r” OR criminal*)
NEAR/8
(“inner city” OR urban OR cities OR London))

22. Now let’s look at…
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the search history (where available)
(4) Evaluating your search
Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search

23. Using the search history
Many databases, including Web of Science,
Scopus, and the various databases available via
Ebsco and Proquest allow you to record, re-run,
combine, save and print your search history.
This offers additional opportunities to both (1) break
a search down into smaller chunks and (2) combine
or re-combine parts of a search in different ways
more easily.
It can be particularly useful when you want to search
for different parts of your search in different fields
(e.g. TITLE or ABSTRACT)

24. Using the search history
1) Combine
parts of
search to
review the
impact on the
number of
results.

25. Using the search history
2) Combine
searches in to
get the most
relevant results.
(Example: only
results where
keywords appear
in both the title
and the abstract)

26. Using the search history
3) Combine multiple
searches in different
facets (e.g. abstract
and/or title) which you
cannot easily combine
in the same way using
only the search boxes
themselves in a single
search.

27. Example – facets and search history
((TITLE:(teen* OR adolescen*)) OR
(ABSTRACT:(teen* OR adolescen*)))
AND
((TITLE:"inner city") OR (ABSTRACT:"inner city")
OR (TEXT:("inner city" OR urban)))
AND
((TITLE:(criminal OR crime)) OR
(ABSTRACT:(criminal OR crime)))

28. Example – facets and search history

29. Contact your Library for help with constructing your search. It is always
helpful if you can first:
• Let us know what your research topic is.
• Let us know what you are looking for (journal articles, data,
newspapers etc.)
• Let us know where you have already tried to search.
• Let us know what keywords you have identified and (if relevant) any
search protocol you are working to.
• Let us know any specific problems or concerns you have.

30. Now let’s look at…
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the search history (where available)
(4) Evaluating your search
Effective Searching 4: Constructing & Evaluating your search

31. Evaluating your search strategy
Always review your results to check if anything
unexpected is appearing.
It could be down to a simple typing error, a
misplaced bracket, “AND” or “OR” connector, or a
keyword you haven’t accounted for.
The following example shows a search strategy
where the author’s search might not have quite
achieved the results they expected…

32. EXAMPLE: intended search protocol;
(deprived[Title/Abstract] or
deprivation[Title/Abstract] or
income[Title/Abstract] or
poverty[Title/Abstract] or
education*[Title/Abstract] or
"social class*"[Title/Abstract]
or "socio*economic
class*"[Title/Abstract] or
"socio*economic status"[
Title/Abstract] or "socio*economic
position"[Title/Abstract] or
"socio*economic factor*"[Title/Abstract])
AND (urban[Title/Abstract] OR
rural[Title/Abstract])
Christie, A (2014) Are there intervention-generated
inequalities in type 2 diabetes care? A systematic
review and analysis of routine data. Doctoral thesis,
Durham University. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9445/
EXAMPLE: intended search protocol and results returned.

33. ACTUAL Search step #4 of 12 steps
(for one database)
(deprived[Title/Abstract] or
deprivation[Title/Abstract] or
income[Title/Abstract] or
poverty[Title/Abstract] or
education*[Title/Abstract] or
"social class*"[Title/Abstract]
or "socio*economic
class*"[Title/Abstract] or
"socio*economic status"[
Title/Abstract] or "socio*economic
position"[Title/Abstract] or
"socio*economic factor*"[Title/Abstract]
OR (urban[Title/Abstract] AND
rural[Title/Abstract]))
Christie, A (2014) Are there intervention-generated
inequalities in type 2 diabetes care? A systematic
review and analysis of routine data. Doctoral thesis,
Durham University. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9445/
EXAMPLE: impact of using the wrong AND and OR connectors

34. Evaluating your search strategy
Durham authored thesis
Publisher, peer-reviewed journal
article
You can find some published
examples to help think about your
topic and approach:
http://bit.ly/2xE1iu4

35. Evaluating your search strategy
In addition to checking the accuracy of your search
connectors, do think carefully about the keywords
you have selected, and the results you are
presented with.
Re-evaluate your search terms used once you have
read some of the results you have found. This might
help you refocus your search by adding or remove
keywords.
And also ensure you aren’t only getting results which
confirm a particular hypothesis, or present a topic
form only one point of view.

36. • Resources are interconnected
and they evolve
• Prior knowledge shapes the
narrative we go on to create.
• As you knowledge expands, use
this to update your search
strategy.
– New keywords
– New sources to search
– Different or broader search concepts
– More focussed and defined topic.
“012” https://pixabay.com/photos/tree-root-forest-impressive-nature-3385957/
Evaluating your search strategy

37. © Kris Straub
Critically evaluate the results that you find…
… but also think about how the keywords you choose might emphasise or obscure
some results due to your own unconscious bias or limits of your (current) knowledge.
Evaluating your search strategy

38. So in summary:
Constructing/Evaluating your search - Summary
– Combine your search terms using parenthesis to control how an
academic database or search engine will interpret them.
– Construct your search logically, step by step.
– Review the results you find; are they what you expected? If not,
evaluate each component of the search to ensure it is doing what
you intend.
– Adapt your search as your knowledge of the subject area changes.
– Critically evaluate the results you find; are they too much like what
you expected? Has your selection of keywords limited the results
you are getting based on your own unconscious bias?
See our ‘Evaluating your Research’ pages for additional guidance.
Summary

39. 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.

40. Effective Searching 5: Making your results work for you…