A Guide to Comparative Cultural Studies and Humanities Research: Develop A Search Strategy

Databases don't work the same as a Google search--there are certain strategies that will ensure you receive the results you need.

Link main ideas together with AND:

• "prescribed burning" AND "soil health" 
  

Link related terms together with OR:

• "prescribed burning" OR "controlled burning" OR "prescribed fire"

Capitalize words such as AND, which help the database construct the search, to tell the database that the word is a "search operator" and not a keyword.

AND narrows your search

This example returns results with both terms: "prescribed burning" AND soil

OR broadens your search

This example returns results with either term: "soil quality" OR "soil health"

In many databases, the * character is a wildcard that tells the database to search for multiple characters in place of the *.

• burn* = burn AND burning AND burned 

• bear* = bear AND bears AND bearable

(the bear example illustrates how truncation can lead to some unexpected results)

NOT excludes results that use a specific term

This example returns results with "prescribed burning" but not "Cerro Grande" : "prescribed burning" NOT "Cerro Grande"

(Cerro Grande is the name of a particular wildfire that was originally lit as a prescribed burn)