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Research Basics

WCU Research
Resources

Selecting a Topic

Evaluating Resources

Search Tips

Keywords vs. Subject

Terms

Boolean Operators

Search Limiters

Advanced Search

Cite Your Resources

Annotated
Bibliographies

Intro to Scientific
Literature

PICO(T)

Qualitative and
Quantitative Research

Keywords vs. Subject Terms

It is important to perform searches using the correct language and terminology to yield the best results.

Keywords are natural language search terms, including phrases. Frequently, when performing a

keyword search, people enter their first idea about a topic or a word or phrase from their thesis

statement or main idea behind their research. While this type of searching will likely produce some

results, subject headings will likely produce more accurate and useful results. Subject headings are

the terminology that field-specific and information professionals use to describe ideas. Searching with

subject headings (which are often listed on the detailed record of articles and other resources) will

produce results that are more likely to be in the intended field of study, scholarly rather than popular

sources. An example of this would be the concept of “high blood pressure”; popular sources would use

that keyword phrase, but professional medical sources would use the subject heading “hypertension”.

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Boolean Operators

Boolean operators assist in the search process by establishing a special link between two or more

words or phrases. Boolean operators are:

AND – Example: looking for a link between low blood pressure and heart disease, you would

search: “low blood pressure” AND “heart disease”. This search would return all results that
contain information about both topics.

OR – Example: looking for any information available about different types of skin cancer, you

would search: “skin cancer” OR “melanoma” OR “basal cell carcinoma” OR “squamous cell

carcinoma”. This search would return all results that contain information about any of these
topics.

NOT – Example: comparing Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, but don’t want to include information

about gestational diabetes, you would search: diabetes NOT gestational. This search would

return all search results for diabetes, but eliminate search results that contain information

about gestational diabetes.

Remember when using a search phrase to put the phrase between quotation marks so the search

recognizes the phrase as a single search term.

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Search Limiters

Search limiters are used to narrow search results and make the search better match your information

needs. After performing an initial search, there are three search limiter boxes that will appear to the left

of the search results:

Format: The West Coast University Library has four major format types: articles, books
(including eBooks), journals/magazines (online), and a media collection (see your local

Library staff member about media resources). Primarily, you will use the article format for most

assignments. The book format includes both print books and eBooks. When looking at a print

book record, be sure to check the Availability to see which branch or branches of the Library

own the item. Checking only the eBook box will eliminate all other formats; not all of these

eBooks will qualify as scholarly sources – check out the publisher (university presses are

always academic) and information about the book to ensure that it is a scholarly source. You

can also search whole issues of periodicals, most of which are eJournals or eMagazines.

Refine Your Search: There are further ways to reduce your search results. The Author list

presents you the authors within the search results with the most publications. The Publication

Year area allows you to limit for a specific year or year range. The Language list allows you to

limit search results by the language in which they are recorded. The Audience list allows you to

select whether you want information accessible for all ages (Juvenile) or adults only. The

Subject list breaks down the results by subject headings.

When searching for scholarly articles, it is always recommended to select “Full-text” and “Peer-
reviewed” from the Content Type area, and “English” under Language in the Refine Your Search box

(unless you are fluent in another language, including field-specific language). Also, note that whenever

you change the search in the search bar, you are performing a new search and will need to

reselect any of these search limiters that you have checked.

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Advanced Search

Advanced Search offers even more options with which you can limit your searches before the search.

There are four boxes within Advanced Search:

Select a database to search: This is a required field that begins with searching our major

library catalog, Worldcat.org. If this is all you want to search, you do not need to change this

field. However, you can expand your search to include more databases: CINAHL Plus, Health

Source Consumer Edition, Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition, InfoTrac Newsstand,

MEDLINE, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, ProQuest

Nursing & Allied Health Source, and SPORTDiscus. For more descriptions of these databases,

see the WCU Research Resources tab. Remember, more databases means more results and

greater variety among the results.

Enter search terms in at least one of the fields below: This is a required field because this

is where you actually enter your search term/phrase. You can select what parts of a record to

search for your search term, such as author or title, or just use keyword for a more general

search. You can use multiple search terms and they will be searched like there is an “AND”

Boolean operator between them.

Peer-reviewed articles: This is an optional box, but an important one. You can limit the

search to only return peer-reviewed articles. While this can be a useful step, notice that

selecting this option will not return any other format of resources.

Other search tool selections: Additional selections are optional. The Held by Library

list allows you to select which library to search (note that e-resources are shared so choose the

general “West Coast University” option for those). Year allows you to set up a date range for

your results. Format allows you to select a type of item, like eBook or DVD, to search, excluding

all others. Language allows you to select what language to use to limit results.

The major search limiter that is not available in Advanced Search is “Full-text” – you will have to

select that option after you receive your search results.

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