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Adelphi University

Databases for Articles

Improving Your Search Strategy

Improving Your Search Strategy

After you have done some background reading and formulated your research question it is time to begin searching in some of our databases for articles.  This tutorial will help you learn how to select keywords and improve your search strategy.

Click the image to view the video.

Article Databases

Resources good for Question #2 and #3

Allows you to search for articles using keywords for newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals.

Search Strategy Builder

Search Strategy Builder

Try it!

 

The Search Strategy Builder is a tool designed to teach you how to create a search string using Boolean logic. While it is not a database and is not designed to input a search, you should be able to cut and paste the results into most databases’ search boxes.

Concept 1 AND Concept 2 AND Concept 3
Name your concepts here
Search terms Search terms Search terms
List alternate terms for each concept.

These can be synonyms, or they can be specific examples of the concept.

Use single words or short phrases

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

Now copy and paste the above Search Strategy into a database search box.

The Search Strategy Builder was developed by the University of Arizona Libraries and is used under a Creative Commons License.