Formulating A Search Strategy
Formulating A Search Strategy
oOnce you have identified the concepts you want to search and have
carefully chosen your keywords, device how you will combine and
them into the search box of your selected search tool.
oThe following search techniques can be used to create an effective
search statement when searching in both research databases and web
search engines;
Using search techniques to create
your search statement
1. Phrase searching
oPhrase searching is a useful technique if you are searching for a term
that is more than one word.
oIf you are searching for a phrase and find you are getting some
irrelevant results, try putting your phrase in quotation marks.
oThis tells the academic database that you only want to see results
where the words appear next to each other in a sentence.
oThis can increase both the precision of your search and the relevance
of your results.
oExample: “sustainable development”
Using search techniques to create
your search statement
2. Boolean Operators
oYou can use Boolean Operators to combine your search terms
together to either narrow or broaden your search.
oThe main Boolean operators are OR, AND, and AND NOT (or just
NOT in some databases).
oThese will make your search both thorough and precise and produce
the most relevant search results.
oThe next slides will demonstrate how to use each of the operators;
Using search techniques to create
your search statement
Boolean Operator “OR”
oUse the operator OR to combine two or more alternative terms for the same concept.
oThis will give you results which contain all terms.
oUsing OR will increase your number of results and make your search more thorough
and comprehensive.