Help Center

Search Strategies

Learning how to craft sophisticated search queries will decrease the amount of time you spend researching and improve the relevance of your search results. Below are some common strategies for improving your searches. Please note: Not all databases support the same search features. If you get an error message, no results, or too many results, revise your search or ask a librarian for assistance.

Boolean Characters, Phrase Searches, and Truncation

Using Search Boxes or Parenthesis to Group Concepts

grouping search strategies in the same search

Using parenthesis rather then search boxes to group concepts. E.g. (celtic or irish) and (myth* or folklore)

Database Limiters

You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles published in the last 10 years using the database limiters.

Bibliography Mining

Image of an article's bibliography, which is a great place to find additional articles and books on your topic/

Cited By Searches

Click the "cited by" link in Google Scholar of a list of authors that have cited the work since it was published.