Part 4 (of 5) Overview of effective search strategies. - PART 1: Overview, Key concepts and keywords - PART 2: Broadening your search - PART 3: Narrowing your search - PART 4: Constructing your search - PART 5: Citation searching Part 4 covers: - Grouping your search terms - Constructing your search - Using the search history - Evaluating your search

1. Effective Search Strategies for Researchers -4
Academic Liaison Librarian (Research)
Contact details

2. Part 4
“PublicDomainPictures” https://pixabay.com/en/connect-connection-cooperation-20333/46814

3. Constructing your search
(1) Grouping your search terms
(2) Constructing your search
(3) Using the Search History (where available)
(4) Evaluating your Search

4. Grouping your search terms

5. 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 sonnets (including written by others).
With brackets: 79,572 results in Discover (as at 8th Aug 2019)
Without: 133,120 results in Discover (as at 8th Aug 2019)
(621, 243 results if entered in reverse: tragedy OR sonnet AND Shakespeare)
Grouping your search terms

6. 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 sonnets (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).

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

8. Constructing your search

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

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

11. Constructing your search
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.

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

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

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

15. 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.

16. 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)

17. (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).

18. 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))

19. Using the search history

20. Most databases will provide a Search History function, which
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.
Using the search history

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

22. 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)

23. 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)

24. 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.

25. 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)))

26. Example – facets and search history

27. 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.

28. Evaluating your search strategy

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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

32. 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

33. Evaluating your search strategy
• 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/

34. Evaluating your search strategy
© 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.

35. 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.