How to Find Sources

Once you've identified your keywords and decided which databases you want to search in, it is time to search. To get the best results out of your search, it is important to understand how search engines work, so you can make them work for you! Here is what you need to know.

Use Boolean Operators

Humans think in sentences and phrases, so we ask questions like, "What are the ethics of cloning?" Search engines think in keywords and Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT). Search engines reduce our questions to what they think are the keywords and automatically search for all of them. So, if we entered our question about cloning into a search engine, it would immediately disregard the words "what," "are," "the" and "of." The search engine calls those 'stop words' -- words that are everywhere and, therefore, are useless. The search engine would then search for information that contains the terms "ethics" AND "cloning." AND is the default Boolean operator. When a search engine combines two or more keywords using the AND operator, both (or all) those keywords have to be present in the article in order for the search engine to return a hit.

In order to get the most out of search engines, you have to use Boolean Operators to your advantage. Here's how:

• AND is not the only Boolean Operator. You can also use OR and NOT. Here are some examples: Suppose your research question is, "How do intake surveys impact patient satisfaction in palliative care?" You might start by entering the following into your search engine: intake survey and palliative care. That search will return results containing the words: intake, survey, palliative and care -- all four words must be in the article somewhere in order for the article to be considered a "hit."
• If you don't get enough results, try expanding your search using OR. If you use a combination of AND and OR operators in a search, enclose the words that you would like to join with the "OR"  operator in parentheses. For example, try entering: intake survey and (palliative care or hospice). Now you will get results containing the words intake, survey, palliative, care and hospice. You will get more results by using a synonym for palliative care.
• Suppose you are getting too many results, but many of them are related to surveys regarding the patient's organ donor directives and you are not interested in organ donation. You are interested in the impact of surveys regarding end of life care. Try limiting your search using the NOT operator by entering: intake survey and palliative care not organ donation.This will remove articles mentioning organ donation from your search results.

Use quotation marks

Let's look at the first search term example again: intake survey and palliative care. Some search engines will search for articles containing the phrase 'intake survey' and the phrase 'palliative care.' Some will just search for all four words: intake, survey, palliative, care.

In some cases, the order of the words or the connection between them makes a difference. To get a search engine to search for an exact phrase, put it in quotes: "intake survey" and "palliative care" will return articles with these exact phrases.

Use wildcards

Wildcards broaden your search to include various word endings and spellings. To use a wildcard, enter the root of a word and put the wildcard symbol at the end or in another appropriate place. The database will return results that include any ending of that root word. For example:

child* = child, child's, children, children's, childhood
genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically
wom*n=woman, women

Wildcard symbols may vary by database, but common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #