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Psychology  Tags: psychology  

Library guide for Psychology
Last update: Sep 07th, 2009 URL: http://latrobe.libguides.com/psychology  Print Guide  RSS Updates

Identifying search terms             Print Page
  
 

Library Guide: Contents

 
 

Identifying search terms

Think about your search strategy BEFORE you start looking for books or journal articles on your topic. This leads to better results and saves you time.

Identify your search terms 

  • Use these search terms to locate resources in the Library catalogue, databases or internet search engines such as Google Scholar.
  • Think of alternative words/phrases. For example, genetically modified organism$, gmo$, genetically modified plant$
  • If you are unsure that you understand the meaning of words or terms given, use a dictionary or other texts for clarification.
  • Use AND to combine keywords e.g. transgenic plant and impact will find all records containing these words anywhere 
  • Use OR to find any of these words: genetically modified plant$ or genetically modified crop$ or transgenic plant$
  • Wherever possible, truncate words to search for plurals or variants e.g.  austral* will bring up Australasia, Australasian, Australia, Australian. Most OVID databases (Medline, Biological Abstracts etc) use the $ truncation symbol, while most other databases use the * symbol for truncation. 
 
 

Helpful hints

  • Read the question carefully. Often it is very helpful to draw up a concept map.Write your question down on a large piece of paper or on a whiteboard.
  • Think of synonyms (other words that mean the same) and add them to your map.
  • Now look at the task or instruction words in the topic. These verbs tell you what is required of you. Task words include discuss, report, define, examine, evaluate, contrast, compare.  This glossary of task words from the University of NSW may be useful.
  • Be guided by the limitations that have been set for the assignment – a paper of 2500 words requires a greater depth of research than one of 500 words.

 

 
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