Now that you have your topic and question in hand (or close enough to continue searching, at least), the next step is to break it down into concepts and keywords. We’ll be using these keywords to construct a search in scholarly article databases such as Academic Search Complete.
Students = Students or undergraduates
College = college or university
Mental health = Mental health or stress or anxiety
Accessibility = Accessibility or access or availability
After breaking down your question into keywords, we take them to one of the recommended databases and start searching.
Using the keywords from the previous step, we can construct a search that will try to find articles that contain all of these words. Use one concept per box. The more words we add, the smaller the number of results will be.
These databases work a little differently than open web search engines like Google. The most important thing to remember is that these databases are very precise and will only look for the words we use. If you are not finding anything useful, then we’ll need to try different words. Which is why we spent some time figuring out other synonyms ahead of time.
We can use OR to expand our search and look for multiple words at the same time. For example, this search is now looking for sources that contain college or university instead of just one. Use this to search for the different synonyms you identified at the same time.
Too few results?
Too many results?
Results not relevant?
Take a moment to see how your research is going. If things feel more difficult than they should be, you might need to go back to a previous step and refine your question or keywords. When you encounter a setback while researching, remember to not be hard on yourself and take a little time to consider your next steps. Above all else, do not panic. You can always talk to a librarian to help get unstuck.
No full text available? Only have the citation? You can use EasySearch or the Journal Finder to see if we have the article in a different database. If we do not, we can still order it for you through Interlibrary Loan.