This guide provides a series of steps, each with information and guidance, to help you plan, executive and record an effective search strategy, to make efficient use of your time. It covers:
The guide below outlines the initial steps of analysing a question, breaking it down to clearly identify the core concepts around which to construct a more complete search. You may already do this subconsciously, but pausing to reflect can help form a structured approach to your research.
The guide below outlines the tools available to you when constructing a search to ensure your search returns the most relevant results, and tools to help filter out some of the results you don't otherwise need to see.
The guide below provides some tips and guidance on what to consider once you have identified some relevant and useful results; how to automate some of your search activity, to explore related research and commentary.
The guide below outlines the tools available to you when constructing a search to ensure you don't miss any key results simply because the author has used different terminology or spellings to what keywords you use in your search.
The guide below provides an overview of how to combine and construct the different elements of your search strategy to ensure you return the most relevant results, and how to evaluate your search approach and the results it returns.
Print or download our (2 page, A4) guide showing examples of the different tools you can use in our most heavily used databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, Ebsco, Proquest, Westlaw UK, LexisNexis, Discover and Google Scholar.
