Help! I...
- Is your topic too broad? If your research is coming back with thousands of results but do not seem to be connected beyond one keyword you may have a topic that is too broad in scope. Consider limiting your research to one aspect of a topic. If "Universal Healthcare" has too many results, you can consider branches of the topic such as "Services covered under Universal Healthcare" or "Medical Rationing under Universal Healthcare."
- Use more limiters. Limit your results to a specific time frame or resource type. Make sure you have selected "Full Text Articles" to make sure you are omitting abstracts.
- Use more specific keywords. Consider alternatives to your keywords that are more specific. You will find more accurate results in searching for "1919 World Series" than "major league baseball scandals".
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Use "quotation marks" for exact-phrase searching |
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Search for keywords within specific fields - use the drop-down list beside the search box. |
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Use suggested topics, subjects and thesaurus terms for more refined searching |
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Use the available limiter options (left side of results page) |
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Use narrower keywords |
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- Is your topic too narrow? If your research is getting you too few results you may have to rethink your topic into broader terms. "The effects of cell phones on residents in Papua New Guinea" is not going to net as many results as "Effects of cell phones on humans".
- Are you using the right keywords? Resources are found by using keywords and can be precise depending on your subjects matter. Consider alternative ways of wording your search to try and find new results. If you are not having any luck finding resources on "ADD" try searching "Attention Deficit Disorder". If you can't find information on "Global Warming" try "Climate Change."
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Use "or" to look for versions of the same concept (synonyms, related words) |
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Use * [shift+8] after a word's root to search all endings |
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Use broader keywords |
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Research Tips
Once you have selected a topic, you must decide what exactly interests you most about your topic.
For example, you may have chosen "Healthcare" as a topic, but when you run a search for "Healthcare" in the Library databases, you get over 25 million results! In a situation like this you will need to narrow your search. Ask yourself "What do I find interesting about Healthcare"? Try adding some keywords to "Healthcare" to come up with a smaller, more manageable, set of search results.
You may also find that your research topic is much too narrow, or focused. Trying to look for articles about the effects of healthcare costs for the working poor in Hill County, will more than likely return zero results. In this situation you need to broaden your topic by taking away some keywords or being less specific about your research topic.
"Healthcare" = too broad
"healthcare costs for the working poor in Hill County"= too narrow
"healthcare costs for Texas residents" = manageable topic
As mentioned above, it’s important to choose a topic that is not too narrow or too broad. It is also helpful to select a topic where you can effectively explore relationships. For example, "Is there a relationship between healthcare costs and the worker's employment status?" Use your research topic or question to identify the main ideas, which will become your keywords.
keywords = "healthcare cost" "Texas" "employment status"
Searching the above takes the results list down to a more manageable 300 results.
As you continue searching, refine your search by adding or combining different keywords that further explore your topic. You may find you need to modify your question. Carefully read and evaluate scholarly research articles to determine their suitability and validity. Use information from selected articles to form a response to your question and guide future searches.
Understanding how to narrow or broaden your topic is a an important part of the research process. Learn to recognize when these steps need to occur and what to do to carry out these steps. Once you have developed a research topic, you will want to begin thinking about the type of information you need and the best approach to finding it.
