Developing Search Strategies

1
Developing Search Strategies

• Jill Crawley-Low,
• Veterinary Medicine Library,
• University of Saskatchewan
• 
  

2
Developing Strategies for Searching Electronic
Resources

• clearly define the question concepts
• consider the vocabulary
• organize the terms
• construct the search statement
• decide which databases to search
• execute the search

3
Clearly Define the Question

• example of a precisely worded question
• are there articles on mycorrhizal symbioses in
  vascular plants written in the last 5 years?

4
Identify the Main Concepts in Your Question

• are there articles on mycorrhizal symbioses in
  vascular plants written in the last 5 years?
• mycorrhizal symbioses
• mycorrhizas
• vascular plants
• 2000

5
Consider the Vocabulary

• forms of keywords mycorrhiza, mycorrhizal,
  mycorrhizas
• synonyms mycoflora, fungal flora
• truncation
• ? replaces one character
• replaces more than one character

6
Organize the Terms

• free-text or index searching
• Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
• Parentheses

7
Boolean Operators

• most search engines dont allow natural language
  - use keywords or key phrases and combine them
  with Boolean operators
• and retrieves records containing both terms
  (narrows a search)
• or retrieves records containing either term
  (broadens a search)

8
Parentheses

• allow you to control the order in which keywords
  or key phrases are searched
• all search statements containing and plus or
  in the same sentence must use parentheses to
  control search order

9
Free Text or Index Searching

• enter keywords or phrases
• e.g. vascular plants or mycorrhiza
• search for terms in specific fields
• e.g. king in au, vascular plants in ti

10
Construct the Search Strategy

• are there articles on mycorrhizas or
  mycorrhizal symbioses in vascular plants written
  in the last 5 years?
• (mycorrhizas or mycorrhizal symbioses) and
  vascular plant? and pygt2000

11
Determine Which Databases to Search

• Microbiology Abstracts Algology, Mycology
  Protozoology references in biological life
  sciences, medicine, and microbiology
• http//www.csa.com/factsheets/microbiology-c-set-
  c.php
• Web of Science - citation databases contain the
  references cited by the authors of the articles,
  also use these references to do cited reference
  searching- find articles that cite a previously
  published work
• http//scientific.thomson.com/media/scpdf/ba_qrc_
  11_15.pdf
• Biological Abstracts - coverage of worldwide
  journal literature in the life sciences including
  agriculture, biochemistry, biotechnology,
  ecology, immunology, microbiology, neuroscience,
  pharmacology, public health, and toxicology
  http//www.biosis.org/media/pdf/qrc/BIOSIS_on_Silv
  erPlatter_QRC.pdf