Search techniques

Start off with a general search using the main concept

If you find TOO MANY RESULTS, make your search more specific by adding another concept to your search statement. 

       Use AND to join search terms:      

If you find NOT ENOUGH RESULTS, try using different words to find more information.

      Use OR between synonyms to widen your search:    

Use double quotation marks around phrases.  Your search will look for these words only where they appear next to each other in this order.

   Example:   "social media"    "eating disorders" 

Check the Help screen of the database or search engine you are using as some do not require inverted commas around phrases.

Truncating a term will find all possible endings of a word and will find more hits.  The truncation character is usually an asterisk (*).

   Example:   child* will find the terms children, child, childless etc