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Common search techniques

The search techniques used in databases and search engines will vary but the following are
some of the search techniques that are most regularly used in both databases and internet
search engines.

Defining the topic or splitting up the subject

A database is unlikely to understand and produce results for a complicated topic. The best
way to get useful results is to split your topic into different concepts and then bring these
together using the search techniques described later in this document.

Splitting the topic up will also help you to understand what you need to search for. For
example, if you were asked to find information about the topic below it would break down as:

The design of housing

in the United Kingdom

Design

Housing

United Kingdom

At this stage thinking about the type of information you need books, journals,
newspapers, websites etc. - will also be useful as it will dictate where you go to find the
information e.g. library, databases, web pages to carry out your search.

Keywords
When you have your topics you should think about what keywords to use. A database or a
search engine wont do any thinking for you and authors can use any term they wish.

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This means you should think of, and search for, all possible terms. For example, searches
for computer and PC will produce different sets of results.

Consider the following issues and any others you can think of:
Synonyms e.g. car can also be automobile
Related terms e.g. wireless networks and mobile networks
alternative spellings e.g. aeroplane and airplane
international terms e.g. lift and elevator
acronyms e.g. NASA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration
former terms (i.e. non pc versions) e.g. Native American and Indian
changes of place names e.g. Myanmar and Burma
variations of root words and plurals e.g. nurse, nurses, nursing
broader and narrower terms e.g. instead of looking for the artist William Morris look
for the arts and crafts movement and vice versa

A thesaurus can help by suggesting a variety of keywords, ideas for terms and can enable
you to perform very specific searches. If provided a thesaurus is worth investigating.

In addition to creating a list of keywords you should also think about how the terms can be
linked together within the search as well different ways of combining keywords can
retrieve different results.

Phrase searching
It can often be useful to make sure that you are searching for a phrase. This can be very
valuable as it makes your search more exact. For example looking for human resource
management will return more specific results than just searching for management.

Ensuring that your keywords are, where necessary, regarded as a phrase is done if different
ways in different databases and search engines so always check help sections. However it
is often done by including the terms in speech marks, single quote marks or (brackets).

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Boolean Searching using AND, OR and NOT
This is used to combine terms (both single words and phrases) together in a variety of ways.
Always check the help sections of your database or search engine for variations in the way
the searches are performed.

OR will return results containing either term this broadens out your search and
allows you to search for different ways of describing the same thing at the same time.

search term 1 OR search term 2 e.g. law OR legal

This diagram represents an OR search - any highlighted section shows a set of results
that will be returned.

AND will return results including both terms this narrows down your search and
makes it more relevant, this is your best way of finding useful results.

search term 1 AND search term 2 e.g. diet AND nutrition

This diagram represents an AND search - any highlighted section shows a set of results
that will be returned.

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NOT or AND NOT will return results that have the first term but that exclude the
second thus narrowing down your search.

search term 1 NOT search term 2 e.g. computer programming NOT java

This diagram represents a NOT search - any highlighted section shows a set of results
that will be returned.

Using parentheses (brackets)

Your search can be expanded upon by using parentheses (brackets) to create more
complex searches. This is often referred to as doing a nested search. This is an example of
a search for:
The history of sculpture in the United Kingdom

history AND (sculpture OR sculptors) AND (United Kingdom OR Britain)

More commonly though databases will offer the option for you to use different rows to enter
the search terms in e.g.

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Truncation and Wildcard
This is where you use a symbol to replace letters either within or at the end of words. It is
regularly used for variations in spelling, single and plural terms, and variations of a root term.
The symbol used can vary so check the help sections but the most commonly used is the *
symbol. For example:

market*

market, marketing, marketer, and so on

engine?

engine, engineers, engineering and so on

wom*n

woman and women

Field searching
This helps you narrow down the search by just looking within one field for the search term.
Fields include authors, article title, abstract, year, journal title and so on. This can help when
tracking down a specific article rather than just looking to see what is available on a topic.

Focusing or limiting a search

Databases and search engines often offer the chance to narrow down or refine your search
by applying predefined limiting options. These are frequently choices such as:

date

language

place

publication
type

and many
more

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Broadening out or narrowing down
This may be necessary depending on the number of results you retrieve.

Too few and you may need to widen the search. For example if computer graphics has too
few results try the broader graphic design.

computer graphics

graphic design

Alternatively if your topic is too broad you may be need to narrow it down. For example if
photography is returning too many results try commercial photography.

photography

commercial photography

Using advanced search pages

Always check out these pages as they often offer unique ways of narrowing down your
search or simple ways of using some of the search techniques described on this handout.

Using useful citations and tracking down references

Once you have found a useful/relevant article on your topic it may be useful to look at the
subject terms and keywords that are linked to it. These may give you ideas of new terms to
search for.

Additionally tracking down the references used in a relevant citation can give other useful
material. The reverse to this is also true. If other articles have cited the article you are
looking at they are probably pertinent as well.