Which of the following is the best reason to search for articles in an online academic database

Explore the database and see what's there.

Remember, your initial seraches are a guess about how the author has described the topic in the title and abstract. You are trying to match your keywords to their words. 

1. Run some exploratory searches in the database using different keywords from your list.

2. Browse your search results. In most databases, you will need to click on the title to read the abstract.

3. Look for relevant articles.

4. Look for subject headings.  Most databases assign subject headings for each article. These indicate the main topics of the article. If there is an appropriate subject heading for one of your concepts use it to search instead of your keywords! For more information, click on the Subject Searching tab.

5. Revise, Revise, Revise. Initial searches can often be improved. Evaluate your results and then search again using alternative keywords or appropriate subject headings found in your initial results.

Setting Up the Search:

1. As a general rule, start with broad searches. Cast a wide net and explore your results. After you have determined the best keywords/subject headings, start to limit your search.

• Start with only 2 of your concepts. Prioritize your concepts and begin with the two most important concepts.
• Don't use any limiters initially (date restrictions, peer-reviewed, etc.) See the Using Limiters tab for more information.

2. Most databases have multiple search boxes near the top of the page.

• Enter each of your core concepts separately.
• If you don't see the individual search boxes, click on the Advanced Search option (PubMed).

Here is an example of how to set up a keyword search using the our search example.

 1. Type in your keywords.

  First search box:

Obesity

  Second search box:

"soft drinks"

     Please note: This term is searched as a phrase with quotes. See the Keyword Tips tab for more information about phrase searching as well as truncation. 

2. Click the Search button.

Page 2

Proximity Searching

This is similar to phrase searching but broader. Instead of requiring the words to be right next to each other, you are instructing the database to search for the words near each other. How near?  That is up to you.

Proximity searching varies slightly by database/vendor. 

EBSCO databases: 

n# (speech n3 therapy)

ProQuest databases:

NEAR/#   (speech NEAR/3 therapy)

EMBASE

NEAR/#

PubMed:

Does not offer proximity searching