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Anatomy and Physiology Guide: Searching Effectively

Search Tips

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. So you'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas - the KEYWORDS.

Example Topic: What are the reasons children get ear infections?

The specifics of your topic will matter when selecting sources, but for searching you only need the most essential components.

Keywords: children, "ear infections," reasons or causes or factors
 

Tutorial - Finding Keywords

If you find you need to practice choosing keywords, try the Finding Keywords tutorial.

 

Most words have synonyms that mean the same, or very similar, things. For each keyword in your topic, try to come up with at least one synonym. Not all keywords will have synonyms, but many do!
Example: 

           Keyword:      infection                             Synonym:  virus, disease

 

Keep an Eye Out
Sometimes scholars use terms that you might not be familiar with, or which might mean something very specific within the discipline. While searching, look for unfamiliar terms or words that show up a lot. Try searching for those and see if you find more relevant sources.
Most library databases have search tools built in. Try some of these: 
  • Subject: Think of subjects as official hashtags. Use them to find sources about that subject.
  • Date Range: Limit your search to sources published between specific years.
  • ​Peer Reviewed: Limit your search to scholarly journal articles.
  • Full Text: Make sure all of the results are available to read in full.
Look on the left and right of your search results, or for an "advanced search" page to find these tools - and more!

You can evaluate any source using the 5 W's:

  • Who: ...wrote it? Are they an expert?
  • What: ...is the purpose of this resource?
  • Where: ...was this information published? ...does the information come from?
  • When: ...was this published or last updated?
  • Why: ...is this resource useful? ...is this resource better than other ones?
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