GTY 362: Data & Decision Making: Methodical Searching

Find a method that works with you to keep track. You can try this Search Log. It is divided into the three parts of methodical searching.

• Developing your search strategy
• Tracking your searches
• Tracking information about your resources

AND, OR & NOT

      AND, both terms must be in the hits

      OR, either terms can be in the hit (good for

      synonyms)

    NOT, removes hits with the not term (Google products use the minus (-)      sign.) 

As part of proximity searches, you can specify how close, and in what order, you want the search terms to appear. The proximity operators are usually composed of a letter (N) or word (NEAR) and a number (to specify the number of words appearing between your search terms). For EBSCOHost databases use the letter (N) and Google products use AROUND(#).

Nesting also called Grouping keeps alike keywords together, and uses the OR within the parentheses and AND between. For example,

(older adults OR elderly OR geriatric OR geriatrics OR aging OR senior OR seniors OR older people OR aged 65 or 65+  AND (assisted living facilities OR assisted care facilities OR long term care OR nursing home) 

Places to find similar articles are

Reference list of the article

'Similar Articles' in PubMed

'Cited by' in Google Scholar

1. Click on the 'Cited by' link in the last line of the entry.

2. If it is a large number, click box below title and use a simplified search to limit your results.