Research Strategies

University of Maryland - Eastern Shore

Frederick Douglass Library

Research Strategies Guide

There are several steps which should be followed when conducting research. this guide covers how to:

	Get Started
	Prepare Your Search
	Run the Search
	Analyze Your Results
	Build on Successful Searches
	Terminology

Step 1: Getting Started

Before you begin conducting research, you should determine your goals. What is the purpose of the research? What do you hope to accomplish? Steps one through three will help you get started.

Define your topic in the form of a question or statement.
Consider what limits to apply to the topic (i.e. a specific time period, a specific age group, a specific aspect of the topic)
Determine how many references you need to retrieve?

Once you have a general idea what you want to write about, you should identify general concepts. You can do this by answering the following questions:

What general terms relate to your search?

Are you interested in the work of a specific author or various authors in the field?

Are there specific journals related to your topic?

You are now ready to choose a database. The Frederick Douglas Library has over 120 databases on a variety of subjects. How do you know which database to choose?

By using the "Databases" link on the library's home page, you can retrieve a listing of databases for broad subject areas: Arts & Humanities, Business & Economics, Education, General/Reference, Health & Medicine, Science & Technology, or Social Sciences). By doing three simple things, you can determine if the database is right for you.

Determine the databases subject. Check the database description, fact sheets, and help.
Check the titles of the journals it contains. Are they right for you?
Ask a reference librarian to help you find a suitable database.

You are now ready to move onto the next step in the research process.

Step 2: Prepare and build your search

Once you have identified your topic and which databases you will use, you are ready to formulate a search. You do this by:

Identifying your search terms. Be careful not to make them too broad or too narrow. For example, the term "dog" is very broad. It would retrieve every article relating to dogs. The search string "ten year old male shar-pei" is too narrow. By making the search too specific, you may get no hits.

Try to use synonyms.

Use tools such as dictionaries, thesaurus, taxonomic lists, and controlled vocabulary lists.

Combine terms to narrow a search with AND (public AND education). This will retrieve only documents with both words.

Broaden a search using OR (public OR private). This will retrieve documents with the word public, documents with the word private, and documents with the words public and private.

Check the database you are using to see how results are displayed (i.e. by date, relevancy, or other criteria).

Do a quick initial search to get the focus of what you need.

Step 3 Run the Search

A well-thought out search should retrieve a variety of articles. It may help you to narrow or broaden your search as appropriate.

Step 4: Analyze your results

Do your search results meet your need? Look at the individual articles before you print them. The articles abstracts will provide a general overview of the their content. If you think an article is useful, you may print it, save it to a disk, or email the results. If you email the article, it is a good idea to put something on the subject line which will jog your memory so you do not accidentally delete it.

Remember to print or write down the relevant citation information. Most PDF documents to not include complete citation information which is necessary to cite the article correctly. You may retrieve this information by clicking on the title of the article in the results list and printing the page which opens. Most HTML documents found in the library's databases will print with the citation information on the first page of the article.

What do you do if the results are not what you expected? There are several options.

Check your spelling.

Check the precision of your terms.

Did you use controlled vocabulary? (a list of words or terms which may be used as subject headings or descriptors.)

Did you use a taxonomic list? (classification of a particular science or subject in relation to its general laws or principles)

Does your search contain misleading terms?

Check the database you chose to determine whether the database adequately covers your topic. If it does not, try a different database.

After you have done one or all of the previous six things, you are ready to rerun your search.

What do you do if you get too many results?

Generally when you receive hundreds or even thousands of hits, the search string needs to be refined. Your search is probably too broad. There are several things you can do to decrease the number of hits to a manageable number.

Limit your results by choosing a specific field (i.e. article title, author, and so on).

Narrow the search terms.

Increase the preciseness of the search by using more "AND" and fewer "OR" (i.e. the search string “public AND private AND education” will retrieve only those documents which contain all three words.

Re-run the search after making adjustments

What do you do if you get too few results?

Sometimes one does not receive enough results. It may be because little research has been done in the area; however, more often it is because you need to rethink your search strategies. Start with the following suggestions:

Check the spelling of your terms

Make your terms more general.

Broaden your search strategy. "(Public OR Private) AND education" will retrieve all documents with public education as well as those with the term private education.

Rerun the search using broader terms

Search additional databases.

Step 5: Build on your successful searches

Why is it important to build on successful searches? Because it can provide you with even more information on your topic. You should examine the citations for other relevant documents and ways to search. There are several places you go within the articles and their abstracts to find further information.

You may find additional search terms by looking at the article's subject terms.

Examine the article's bibliography for related articles. If you find promising articles search for them or request them through Inter-library Loan.

Complete an author search to find other articles by the author and/or co-authors.

If you follow these five steps, you should spend less time looking for information and improve the quality and quantity of your results. If you try these steps and still have problems retrieving information contact a Reference Librarian for additional assistance. Reference Librarians are available during regular library hours. They will also assist you via the telephone (410-651-7939) or email using the Ask A Librarian link on the library's home page.

Terminology

Taxonomic list— classification of a particular science or subject in relation to its general laws or principles

Controlled vocabulary— a list of words or terms which can be used as subject headings or descriptors.

AKD: updated June 2004