2 Developing a Search Strategy
Scholarly Communication – “Research builds on Research”
Researchers communicate the findings of their research through a number of paths, such as conference proceedings and articles published in scholarly, usually peer-reviewed, journals. Researchers must be aware of, build on, and acknowledge other research relevant to their area of investigation. They search for relevant information in the scientific “knowledge base” by exploring the research literature – via database searches.
Though the database journal coverage can overlap to some extent, no single database or web search engine can search the entire universe of scientific knowledge. A comprehensive search will always include multiple databases. There are many different databases, each with a unique, defined scope or focus. Some databases cover a specific disciplinary area or areas, while other databases are multidisciplinary, covering most areas but including a broad but selective list of quality journals.
For this class, for other classes, and for your own research in the future, you will need to search the literature for articles from appropriate scholarly journals. Choosing an appropriate database (or databases) is the first step in searching the literature. The second step is creating a good, logical search strategy that will effectively identify the relevant research materials that you need.
Developing Good Search Strategies
A search strategy is an organized structure of key terms used to search a database. The search strategy combines the significant concepts of your search question into a logical search string to retrieve relevant, useful results. Your search strategy should consider all possible search terms and variations, keywords, subject headings, and phrases.
Steps for Building Good Search Strategies
- Find the KEY concepts in your topic or research question
- Use Boolean search connectors between terms to build your concepts and create you search strategy
- Build your concepts by adding related terms, phrases, synonyms, keywords or subject headings
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Each database works differently, so you need to adapt your search strategy for each database. You may need to develop a number of separate search strategies if your research covers several different areas.
Searching is iterative! Your first search attempt is an exploratory search. It is a good idea to test your strategies and refine them after you have reviewed the search results.