Public Health - Guide to Internet & Library Sources

In order to successfully use the databases for a research assignment, you should always make sure to define your research question and create a thoughtful search string. Here are some steps to keep in mind:

1. Define your research question or statement. A well-developed research question will be clear, focused and relevant.
2. Break your research question into a few key concepts or keywords. Typically, you will have between two and four key concepts or keywords related to your research question.
3. Consider possible synonyms or related terms for your concepts or keywords. To ensure that you are considering all of the different ways that you can describe a concept, make sure to identify synonyms or related terms to broaden your search.
4. Create a Boolean search string. Use AND, OR, or NOT to narrow or broaden your search by including or excluding keywords and concepts.
5. Select an appropriate database. Different databases will be better suited to specific topics. For example, CINAHL, PubMed, and Health Source: Nursing & Academic Edition are good options for allied health topics. SportDiscus covers topics relevant to sports medicine, fitness and nutrition. Academic Search Complete, on the other hand, is a great interdisciplinary resource that covers a broad range of topics. Choose the database that best fits your research topic, but consider exploring multiple options.
6. Set your limiters or filters. Each database will have built-in limiters (or filters) to narrow your search results by various parameters.

   Examples: Publication Date, Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Sources, Full Text

7. Review your results and continue to refine and adjust your search string. Depending on your results, you may need to revise your search statement to make it narrower or broader. You might also identify stronger search terms or related concepts to add to your query.

A Boolean search allows you to combine keywords or phrases with operators such as AND, NOT, and OR to limit or broaden your search. Try breaking up your research question or topic into two or three key concepts, then:

• Connect key concepts with AND (Using AND narrows your search by combining terms)
• Use OR to find keyword synonyms or related terms (Using OR broadens your search to include results that contain either of your keywords)
• Or use NOT to exclude concepts (Using NOT will narrow your search to eliminate keywords)

A proximity search allows you to ensure that your search terms appear next to one another or within a certain number of words. In other words, proximity searching will search for two or more words that appear within a certain number of words from each other.

In the EBSCO databases (CINAHL, Academic Search Complete, APA PsycInfo, etc.), there are two proximity operators that you can use: near and within.

Near (N#) will find the words within a certain number (#) of words from each other, in any order (i.e., one word does not have to occur before another).

Example: care N3 reform

This will search for the words “care” and “reform” within three words of each other regardless of the order. You will see results about reforms in health care, primary care reform, and so forth.

Within (W#) will find the words within a certain number (#) of words from each other, in the order you entered them (i.e., the first word must appear before the next). 

Example: kidney W3 failure

This will search for the words “kidney” and “failure” within three words of each other in this specific order. You will see results about kidney failure, kidney transplant failure, and etc., but not failure of the kidneys.