Neuroscience Research Guide

Beginning the Search

Unlike Google or other internet search engines, library databases work best when you enter keywords or "search strings" rather than phrases or sentences.

Keywords represent the main ideas and concepts in your research topic. Since each database can categorize the main concepts of your research  under a different subject heading, it is important to brainstorm different words authors may use for your topic so that you have alternate search options if you have difficulty finding resources.

There are a few types of keywords that you can work with, depending on your topic.

• Narrow
• Broader
• Related
• Similar

Having a range of keywords can help you find many different types of information. 

How do I use keywords?

You can put keywords together to search for information in library databases. 

Search Order

Databases follow the commands you type in, so be aware of the order of your keywords and Boolean operators: 

• Databases usually recognize AND as the primary operator, and will connect concepts with AND together first.
• If you use a combination of AND and OR operators in a search, enclose the words connected by OR together in parentheses.
• Examples:
  • ethics AND (cloning OR reproductive techniques)
  • (ethics OR morals) AND (bioengineering OR cloning)

​Truncation

Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.

• To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end.
• The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
• Examples: 
  • child* = child, children, childhood
  • genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically
• Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: * and ?

Wildcards

Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word.

• This is useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning.
• Examples: 
  • wom!n = woman, women
  • gr?y = gray, grey​

Search History

In many databases you can view your search history. This is important because it can keep you from duplicating an unsuccessful search, allow you to combine searches, and track your successful search attempts.

You can also set up alerts so the database will alert you to new articles/resources that match one of your searches.

Use Operators to get more out of Google

Quotation marks:

Use quotation marks around a phrase to search for words in that exact order. For example "College World Series Schedule"

Site:

Use the site code to find results from a specific site. For example College World Series bracket site:ncaa.com

Filetype:

Use filetype to find files like Word documents, PDFs, or PowerPoint presentations. You need to know the file extension like pdf, docx, or pptx. For example college world series statistics filetype:pdf

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