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Writing 2131
Search Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Walter Zimmerman
Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional
Communication Librarian
and Electronic Services Librarian
The D.B. Weldon Library
The University of Western Ontario
Kristin Hoffmann
Mathematics , Engineering, and
Statistical Sciences Librarian
The Allyn & Betty Taylor Library
The University of Western Ontario
Learning Outcomes
•
•
•
•
•
•
Find appropriate databases for subject
searching
Think like a searcher
Create successful search strategies
Read and understand a scientific article and
create an annotated bibliography
Create a properly formatted citation
Avoid plagiarism
The last three “bullet points” are not covered in this
PowerPoint presentation.
Searching Overview
Choose a topic.
Analyze the concepts.
Create a logical search strategy
using the available tools.
Choose an appropriate
database or databases.
Run the search & view the results.
Refine or expand the search.
Select and obtain the actual items.
Who is this?
George Boole (1815-1864)
• Inventor of Boolean algebra
• Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT
• You can use these in the library’s catalogue,
databases, & search engines
And who is this?
John Venn, Inventor
of the Venn Diagram
A and B
Polar bears AND global warming
A not B
Polar bears NOT global warming
A or B
Global warming OR climate change
AND = all of the terms must be
present to retrieve the
document
nightmares AND children
AND treatment
NOT = the term following the
NOT must NOT be present
“Blue Jays” NOT baseball
OR = at least one of the terms
must be present in the document
“Polar bear” OR “Polar bears”
OR “Ursus maritimus”
Teenagers OR adolescents OR
juveniles
Search Basics
• Searching is based on Boolean Logic
– AND
OR
NOT (sometimes called AND NOT)
• Most databases also use Phrase Searching and Proximity
Searching (sometimes called Positional Searching)
– “Phrase Searching”
– a NEAR b
– c WITHIN N d (where N is a number from 1 to 10)
• Searching also uses Truncation and Wildcards
– environment* Wom?n
• Sometimes, Parentheses are also necessary
– ( a OR b ) AND ( c OR d )
Details will vary by database but the concepts generally apply.
What’s a synonym for
“Thesaurus”?
Be creative - think of:
– variant spellings
– synonyms and closely related
words
– word endings/wild cards
– abbreviations
– category names and members of
the group
– opposites
– scientific/binomial nomenclature
and popular names
Thesauri
Many databases have their own thesauri:
MeSH (for PubMed)
SHE: Subject Headings for Engineering
INSPEC
PsycInfo
LCSH
When searching just one database, it’s best if you
can use the terms specifically chosen for that
database (e.g. MeSH for a PubMed search)
When your database does not have its own
thesaurus OR you need to search concepts that
are not in the thesaurus, you need to
•
brainstorm
•
use a regular thesaurus
•
use a thesaurus from a related subject
area to get ideas for terms -- and be creative!!!
Truncation
• Whenever possible and appropriate, use
truncation to retrieve multiple word endings
– nightmar*  nightmare, nightmares, nightmarish
– Canad*  Canada, Canada’s, Canadian, Canadians,
Canadiana…
– Adolescen*  adolescence, adolescent, adolescents
• “Bee” careful not to truncate too early!!!
– Bee*  bee or bees but also beer, been, beef, beet, beep, Beeb,
and that’s not including beech and beetle!
– Cat*  cat or cats but also catch, catchup, catalog, catalyst,
catcher, catchy, catapult, etc. (up to a MAXIMUM of 5
characters
after the– tCATastrophe!!!
in Western’s online catalogue)
In short
NOTE: Our online catalogue requires ** for 6 or more additional
characters after the root term. e.g. environment** to also retrieve
environmentalists and not just environment, environments,
environmental, environmentalism, and environmentalist
Wildcards
Similar to truncation but restricts results to
words matching the exact number of internal
or final letters
–
–
–
–
wom?n  woman, women, womyn, womin
Globali?ation  globalization, globalisation
Canadi?n  Canadian, Canadien
carbon fib??  carbon fiber, carbon fibre
Phrase Searches
• When it’s important for two or more words to be
found in an exact order, use “Phrase Searching”
–
–
–
–
“carbon dioxide”
“art therapy”
“natural history”
“reproductive cycle”
Positional Operators
• When terms only have to be near each
other, use positional operators
– nightmare* NEAR treatment*
– children WITHIN 4 nightmare*
– reproduct* W/5 strateg*
Four plus three times seven = ??
(4 + 3) x 7 = 49
or did I mean
4 + (3 x 7) = 25 ?
When you use more than one kind of logical
operator, you need to use parentheses to
indicate logical intent
Order of Operations
Applied to Search Logic
Parentheses should be used this way:
• (pollut* OR environment*) AND (law OR
laws OR legislation OR regulation*)
or else the logic is assumed to be:
pollut* OR (environment* AND law) OR laws
OR legislation OR regulation*
because search systems generally will perform
the AND operation first
And this is NOT AT ALL what you want!!
Choose a Topic
the effect of global warming on
reproduction in polar bears
Analyze the Concepts
Climate change and its
impact on polar bears with
respect to reproduction
Analyze the Concepts
Climate change and its
impact on polar bears with
respect to reproduction
Analyze the Concepts
Climate change and its
impact on polar bears with
respect to reproduction
Analyze the Concepts
Climate change and its
impact on polar bears with
respect to reproduction
Create a Search Chart
(class discussion)
Topic: How reproduction in polar bears
is affected by climate change-AND
Polar Bears
OR
Climate Change
Reproduction
Ursus maritimus
Global warming
reproducti*
polar bear
melting
Birth rate*
Climat* chang*
Putting it All Together
1.
2.
3.
(”polar bear” OR “polar bears” OR “ursus
maritimus”) AND
(“global warming” OR “climat* chang*”) AND
(reproducti* OR “birth rate*” OR fertility)
Polar Bear
Global warming
Reproduction
“Polar bears*”
Climate change(s)
Reproductive
“Ursus maritimus”
Climactic Change(s)
Birth rate*
Fertility
Finding Appropriate Databases
Browse by Program (Librarians’ content)
Databases by Title (if you know the name)
Life Sciences
Life Sciences
More Databases
Your Choice
For a more focused search, choose
Browse by Program
For a broader, more multidisciplinary
search, choose Databases by Title
Life Sciences
SCOPUS
Conservation Biology
Web of Science
Zoological Record
Google Scholar
OR
BIOSIS Previews
OR
Aquatic Science and
Fisheries Abstracts
Scholars Portal Search
JSTOR
Academic Search Complete
ProQuest Research Library
Multidisciplinary Databases
Web of Science
Scopus
ScholarsPortal Search
Google Scholar
Applied Science and Technology
Abstracts
ProQuest Research Library
Expanded Academic Index
Academic Search Complete
JSTOR
Your Turn! (5-10 min)
• Create a search chart for a topic that interests
you (aka a topic for your WRI 2131F
assignment!) Jot down as many keywords as
you can think of.
• Find the “Browse by Program” page that
corresponds with your topic. Who is the
librarian responsible for that subject area?
What is the first listed database?
Four Searches
• Scopus
• Web of Science/BIOSIS
• Google Scholar
• Scholars Portal Search
Let’s Try Scopus First
This search found 59
items so let’s add the
term reproducti* to find
reproduction or
reproductive in addition
to the other two
concepts.
Refined Search with the Addition
of the reproduction term
Click on “Get it @ Western”
to check
To get the
electronic
whether we have the items
electronically, in
print, both, or neither. copy
To get the
location of
a print copy
If You Want, Click on the Tower
to Go Live to Scopus*
* Make sure you’re on campus, or have used the off-campus access option.
Test Your Search Elsewhere
• Keep track of your keywords & save your
search strategies
• Repeat the same search in other pertinent
databases
• For more thorough results, try all the
recommended databases in your field
• For broader results, try multidisciplinary
databases
Let’s try Web of Science
Clicking on “All Databases” will
allow you to search Web of
Science together with BIOSIS, the
major biology database.
Web of Science Search
Note the need to
change default
search of “Author” in
the second line to
“Topic” for a basic
keyword search.
 With 144 items found, it’s time to go back and add the “reproducti*” term...
...or refine the results with the categories or subject areas at the left.
Getting the Article
All citations have a Get it @ Western button...
...and some also have a direct link to the full text.
Let’s Try Google Scholar
Google Scholar Search
("polar bear" OR "polar bears" OR "usrus
maritimus") ("climate change" OR
"climate changes" OR "climatic change"
OR "climatic changes" OR "global
warming") (reproduction OR
reproductive)
Google
requires that
the logical
“OR” be in all
caps.
The “AND” operator is
unnecessary in Google
searching and any space is
assumed to be the “AND”
operator.
("polar bear" OR "polar bears" OR "usrus maritimus") ("climate change" OR "climate changes" OR
"climatic change" OR "climatic changes" OR "global warming") (reproduction OR reproductive)
Click on Recent articles to
search only recent years
Click on “Cited by nn” to see
newer articles that cite this one.
For best
results in
obtaining fulltext, click on
Get it @
Western.
ScholarsPortal Search
• You can search from one to several dozen
databases at one time
• Search terms are searched broadly by
default but you can narrow down results
by changing fields searched first to
keyword and then to title or subject
• Let’s start by going to Zoological Record
First Search Attempt –
Zoological Record
We are searching
anywhere in the record
for all three concepts.
Search Terms in Scholars Portal Search
The search in Zoological Record found only11
results, 9 of them peer-reviewed journal articles,
so let’s search more databases with the same
search terms.
Selecting ALL Natural Sciences Databases
Search Results
The search in all Natural Science
databases found 45 results, 33 of them
peer-reviewed journal articles.
Restricting some or all of the
concepts to “keywords” means that
each concept must appear at least
once in the title, abstract, and/or
descriptors (i.e. subject headings.)
From Where Did the Results Come?
Results by Database
Things To Remember
• Databases use many different kinds of
search software
• Each one has some sort of assistance
available
– Search Help
– Search Examples
– Search Tips
– Help
Look at these
tips until you
are familiar
with the
software.
This session is about the general “rules” for
creating good searches so always check the Help to
make sure of the details!
Summary
• Searching is a skill that can be learned
• Choosing the appropriate database(s) is as important as
creating a good search strategy
• Brainstorm and/or use a thesaurus to find the best terms
• Proper use of truncation/wildcards, positional as well as
Boolean operators, and parentheses where necessary, will
create the best searches
• Help is generally available on search software screens –
check it for database-specific information such as
truncation symbols, field names, sortability of results, etc.
• Help is also available from staff at the Service Desks in
each library or by phone
Writing 2131
Search Tips, Tricks & Techniques
Walter Zimmerman
Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional
Communication Librarian
and Electronic Services Librarian
The D.B. Weldon Library
The University of Western Ontario
[email protected]
519-661-2111 ext 84763
Kristin Hoffmann
Mathematics , Engineering, and
Statistical Sciences Librarian
The Allyn & Betty Taylor Library
The University of Western Ontario
[email protected]
519-661-2111 ext 86217
Need More Information?
Walter Zimmerman
Electronic Services Librarian
Research & Instructional Services
The D. B. Weldon Library
The University of Western
Ontario
London, Ontario N6A 3K7
519 661-2111 ext. 84763
Zimmerma AT uwo DOT ca