CribSheet for search strategies

This is rather brief, some people prefer a longer discourse.

Command	Details & Example
Exit	Exiting means that the licence gets freed for another person to use; on pay-as-you-go databases this stops the billing. Use a button or command marked Exit, Quit, Logout, Logoff, Bye.
Strategy Development Concept maps	A bit of advance planning can help avoid missing key material. One technique of blocking out, or outlining a search is to: 1. Write out the title of what would be the ideal article answering the question being asked. EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FUELS ON GREENHOUSE GASES 2. Look at the title and separate the several concepts by drawing lines between them. | | EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FUELS ON GREENHOUSE GASES | | | | 3. Beneath each concept write a few commonly used synonymous terms or phrases. The computer will only retrieve what you ask it to; it is necessary to search for variations of the words used to express the concepts. | | EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FUELS ON GREENHOUSE GASES | coal | carbon dioxide (ignore) | oil | methane | natural gas | | hydrogen | | electricity | | | 4. Turning this into a search, the terms listed vertically will be connected by logical ORs (broadening the search) and the different columns will be connected by logical ANDs (narrowing the search). These operators are listed below. A search for the topic in the outline above would look like: (fuel or fuels or coal or oil or "natural gas" or hydrogen or electric*) and ("greenhouse gas" or carbon dioxide" or methane) The "effect" concept is not searched because it adds nothing to the search topic. Note that the search lists some of the more common fuels and greenhouse gases as well as fuels considered harmful and beneficial.
Select / Change Database	Select one or several databases, some are partitioned by year. You can often select several at once, but remeber that different databases can have different standards.
Connectors Boolean and other operators	case sensitive or insensitive? (Do you search witches and macbeth or witches AND macbeth?). Symbols or words? (Do you use and or & ?) The boolean operators define the relationship between the words you are searching. word1 AND word2 Both words have to be present for the reference to be retrieved word1 OR word2 If either word is present the article will be retrieved word1 NOT word2 If word2 is present, the article will not be retrieved In systems which retrieve and display based on relevance the standard boolean operators might not be used, instead you might see: + or * to denote levels of importance or if a term must be present - otherwise presence is optional. ! to exclude a term (same as boolean NOT)
Proximity Phrases & more	case sensitive or insensitive? (Do you search canadian adj constitution or canadian ADJ constitution?) Proximity operators define relationship of terms much more specifically than boolean operators. As records get larger they become more useful. While Boolean operators are consistent, proximity operators are not. Some variations you might see: (default) adjacent, same order ground water adjacent, same order "" "ground water" adjacent, same order ADJ ground ADJ water in same field W/F utilities W/F deregulation Watch for phrases that are also single words (groundwater or "ground water")
Parentheses Allowed?	Anything within parentheses is processed first; use this to keep similar concepts together in the search. (nickel or copper) and alloy and (sulfur or sulphur) Nesting?       ((A and B) or (C and D)) and X
Truncation wildcards	To search for several terms all with the same beginning, all are connected by OR. Rightmost, any number * COMPUT* Internal ? WOM?N Can you use truncation in proximity searches?     acid* rain
Field Specification	Some Put queries in appropriate boxes, only choices might be Author, Title words, or Words Anywhere. Others Default is words anywhere, otherwise: Field Abbrev=word AF=WATERLOO DE=GENE SPLICING Check for lists of fields for each database in the online help.
Limit restrictions on search	Limit functions are used for restricting searches to particular languages or date ranges.
Refer to Previous Queries	If the database system allows it - otherwise questions must be asked in one large query. Use parentheses to keep like concepts together.
Save Search Save search strategy for re-use	Often there is no direct facility to save search strategies. If you have access to other programs on the computer, consider Highlight the search, copy (Ctrl-Insert) and paste (Shift-Insert) to Notebook, save. Reverse the procedure to re-run the search.
Index Display See what the computer is searching	This allows you to find terms no matter what format has been used. eg. Author's names could be spelled out in full, use initials, or both. Usually there is a way to mark the terms you want to use and to transfer them to your search.
Thesaurus find related subject headings	A Thesaurus function allows you to find similar subject headings, both broader and narrower.
Browse Table of Contents	Used in current awareness services, this is similar to scanning the table of contents of a journal issue.
Methods for displaying, printing, saving or e-mailing search results varies widely from system to system. These are a few things to watch for.
Display Results Onscreen	Results of searches are displayed onscreen. If you are using a web interface you are often restricted to 10-20 at a time. Watch for ways to change the display format, to include abstracts or subject headings (descriptors). There are usually ways to mark (flag, collect) the references you want to work with more or, you can mark all the records.
Print Results On paper	Once you have marked the references you want to work with more you have a couple more steps. Sometimes you can print directly, other times you ask for a "display for printing" which is more suitable for printing.
Download Results	Once you have marked the references you want to work with more you have a couple more steps. Sometimes you can save directly, other times you ask for a "display for printing" which is more suitable for saving.
E-Mail Results	Database suppliers allow results to be e-mailed to an address as an alternative to printing/downloading.
Link to Holdings link to local catalogue	This is a feature we hope to get going shortly. In some cases there is a link to the catalogue, in others there is a note with the citation that we hold the journal.
Document Delivery	Some database services operate a document supply operation. You identify an article, give them your credit card number and they fax or mail you the article.
Database Help coverage, fields
Help	Many systems have either or both a context-sensitive help and a lengthy tutorial.

Some Notes on Generating Lists of Search Terms

The need to use synonyms varies from database to database. If the database only has free text terms, you must attempt to come up with as many variations as the authors might have used. Some databases, such as Medline or PsycLIT, have predefined subject headings which remove much of the need for long lists of synonyms. Don't be afraid to leave out redundant concepts; they can hamper complete retrieval because you are requiring that the words be there. Effective searching is a balancing act between finding too much or too little. A couple of rules of thumb for most bibliographic information systems are: If everything retrieved is exactly on topic, you are likely to have missed some references. The closer you get to retrieving everything on a topic the more irrelevant material you will retrieve along with it. Some people ask about how extensive a list of keywords they should have. DO List mandatory terms; What makes your topic unique? DON'T list redundant terms as separate topics. DO list components of topics. (eg., fruits or apples or pears or peaches or . . . Most databases don't have anything indicating that an apple is a fruit). DON'T list anything that doesn't describe your topic in some way. DO make use of features specific to the database such as hierarchical subject codes or weighted subject headings. DON'T list all possible synonyms. if you try to get every last reference you are liable to retrieve large amounts of irrelevant material DO restrict some searches to specific fields where appropriate (publication year, author, cited reference) DON'T enumerate all aspects of a topic if you want them all. Use WELLS instead of DEEP WELLS or SHALLOW WELLS. DO watch for words that could also be phrases. eg., DATABASE is also DATA BASE (a hyphen counts as a space). REMEMBER to include singulars and plurals. REMEMBER to include British, American and other variant spellings. Abbreviations should also be spelled out, UK or UNITED KINGDOM. Some concepts, such as HIGH TEMPERATURE are relative and not always well described. Search for all other aspects first then see if there is some standard indexing that can be incorporated if necessary. Database indexing policies are to assign the most specific subject headings possible. To search for articles about any fruit you must also search for apples, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, limes, etc. List at least the most common ones. Try looking for opposite terms (antonyms).

 

Critically Reviewing What You Got

Even the best planned searches can produce unexpected results. If the percentage of unwanted material is low, it may be better to print it and weed it out manually later. Or, you may find that you got too few references when you know there should be more. If nothing fits what you thought you searched for, look at: What is common about the material that you like? [ Combine the common keywords with the set using AND.] What is common about the material you don't like? [ You could use NOT to take something out but remember that this can also eliminate some good references. Try to use AND instead.] What is missing? [ Find more variations on your concepts and use OR to bring them in.] Could you be missing something without noticing it? A search for SULPHUR and WINE will turn up a few references, leading you to believe that's all there is. However, if you include the variant spelling (SULPHUR or SULFUR) and WINE you will increase what you get. Are there references you are aware of that did not appear? Search for them specifically and see why they were not retrieved. If they are not in the database it is a strong indication that you must look further. Review the search terms in light of what was retrieved. Is one of the terms being used in a different sense? It may be necessary to step back from your subject when looking at the words; e.g., a worm means something different to a mechanical engineer, to a computer scientist, or to a biologist. Multidisciplinary databases, such as Science Citation Index can contain many such confusing terms. Look for a good article, then look at the subject headings. This is one of the best indicators of how the subject headings (often called descriptors) in the list are being interpreted by the indexer. Is anything being published on this topic? Searches for topics with little literature or for a new area can be difficult. Conversely, is this a topic that used to be popular but little work is being carried out now. For older material you might have to use the print indexes. Is this the correct database to search? Search for only enough terms to cover many of the possibilities, letting the logic operations drop non-related materials from the answer. By searching for specific terms you are requiring that those terms be present in the record. Omitting some concepts is retrieval by implication.

 

Doug Morton