3. Create your search strategy
Search techniques
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, join them together using search techniques to create a search strategy.
Watch the video below for an introduction to common search techniques.
Combining search techniques
Below is an example of an advanced search option you’ll find in most databases. It has multiple search boxes with the Boolean operator, AND, listed on the left-hand side. Each concept has been entered into a search box and joined by AND.
Click on the plus icons to learn about each search technique demonstrated.
Activity overview
This interactive activity shows an image of the Library advanced search bars filled in with an example search as follows:
(behaviour OR behavior)
AND “metal alloy”
AND corro*
There are 3 selectable icons that explain each of the search techniques used in this advanced search.
Technique 1: Grouping your words (Quote marks)
Use Quotation marks to search for words in an exact order. This is called phrase searching.
Technique 2: Grouping your words (Brackets)
Brackets can be used to group keywords together, so they are searched first.
Technique 3: Using symbols
Add an asterisk to the end of a keyword to find variant word endings. This is called truncation.
Activity: Review search techniques
Answer the questions below to check your understanding.
Tip
Always use capital letters for your Boolean operators AND and OR.
Create a search strategy
Activity: Building a search strategy
Let's build a search strategy using the keywords you came up with on the previous page. We've listed the search terms you entered below:
Here is a search strategy that we came up with:
innovat* AND (”water sanitation” OR ”water purification”) AND (”Third World” OR ”developing world”)
This is just one example. Searching involves trial and error, and you’ll need to do a few searches to find the best resources.
Remember! You can group your concepts together using brackets or if you are using an advanced search with multiple search boxes, you can group them within a search box like below:
innovat*
AND
(“water sanitation” OR ”water purification”)
AND
(”Third World” OR ”developing world”)