While it's tempting to type your entire research topic or question into the library database search box, it's important to understand that library searches function differently than a search in Google.  You will get better search results by focusing on just the main keywords of your topic.

Let's look at an example.

• Research question: Does texting while driving result in more accidents?
• Main topics: Texting, Driving, Accidents

Compare the two searches below. When we type the whole research question into the search box, we only get 11 results.

When we type just the three main topics into the box, we now get 3,124 results.

Let's take a look at a few more examples of identifying the main keywords from a research topic.

• Does a daily 30-minute exercise regimen reduce the future risk of heart attack in elderly patients?
• Daycare centers, instead of home-based daycare, are better at socializing young children.

In these examples, it can be tempting to use too many words in our search, such as " daily 30-minute exercise regimen" since it is all one concept, instead of just "exercise". It is always better to start your search broad and then slowly add in additional search terms. In the second example, we will likely need to do two searches. One that focuses on daycare centers and child socialization, and another on home-based daycare and child socialization.

Remember: You won't always find an article that exactly fits your research topic or question. You may have to read several articles to pull together enough information on your topic.

Different authors may use different terms to describe the same concept. It can be helpful to brainstorm synonyms for your main topics to help you get more search results.

Let's use the research question: What are the negative effects social media has on teenager's mental health?

Our main keywords are social media, teenagers, and mental health.

Learn how to combine all these synonyms in your search by visiting our Broaden Your Search topic.

Many databases assign subjects to articles to tell the reader what the article is about.  Using the subjects that are assigned to an article can help your narrow or broaden your search and get articles that are more relevant to your topic.

Let's say our research topic is how organizational culture and salary effect employee satisfaction. We can start with a broad search for: organizational culture and salary

As we scroll through our results, we can see that a common subject tagged on the articles is: Salaries and Fringe Benefits

We can rerun our search by swapping out "salary" for "Salaries and Fringe Benefits" to get articles that fit our topic even better.

We can also use the subjects tagged on articles to get ideas for additional search terms. Continuing the example from above, let's add in the concept of employee satisfaction.  We can browse through our results list to review the subjects on each article, or we can use the Subject limiter.

1. Click on the All Filters button beneath the search box.
2. Click on the word Subject to open the Subject list.
3. Click on Show More to see the whole list.

After reviewing the list, we could rerun our search using a new search term to get at the concept of employee satisfaction. Perhaps "job satisfaction" or "employee attitudes" would bring back articles that fit our topic better.