In short
- Use your subject’s databases, found in your library’s subject guide.
- Break your question into two or three key ideas, each with a few synonyms.
- Join ideas with AND, synonyms with OR, and put phrases in quotation marks.
- Use filters, read the titles and abstracts, and save the good ones as you go.
Typing the whole essay question into a search box gives you either thousands of results or none. Databases work best when you give them the key ideas, joined in the right way. Ten minutes learning how saves hours of scrolling.
This lesson is part of step 3, find and save sources, which has a table of the usual databases for each subject.
Build a search in five steps
Pick out the key ideas
From the question, take two or three ideas that must be in a useful source. “How far does social media affect young people’s sleep?” gives: social media, young people, sleep.
List other words for each
Authors use different words for the same thing. Social media: Instagram, TikTok, “screen time”. Young people: adolescents, teenagers. Sleep: insomnia, “sleep quality”.
Join them
Use OR inside each idea and AND between ideas. Put phrases in quotation marks so the words stay together.
Filter
Date range (the last ten years, if the brief asks), peer reviewed, language, and subject or source type.
Read, then refine
Scan the first twenty titles. Too broad? Add an idea or a filter. Too few? Add synonyms or drop an idea.
A worked example
The question above, as a database search:
("social media" OR "screen time" OR Instagram) AND (adolescen* OR teenager*) AND (sleep OR insomnia)
The asterisk finds word endings in most databases: adolescen* finds adolescent, adolescents and adolescence. Brackets keep each group of synonyms together.
Useful tricks
- Subject terms: many databases tag articles with fixed terms. Open a good result, note its subject terms, and search with those.
- Follow the trail: a good source’s reference list points back to older work; “cited by” in Google Scholar points forward to newer work.
- Search alerts: most databases can email you when new work matches a saved search, which helps on long projects.
- Link Google Scholar to your library in its settings, so you can open what your library pays for.
Keep a search log
Write down each database, the search you used, the filters and the date. It stops you repeating searches, and for a dissertation it becomes part of your methodology.
Common mistakes
- Searching in sentences. Databases match words, not questions. Use the key ideas.
- Stopping at page one. Refine the search instead of scrolling for ever, but do look past the first few results.
- Not saving as you go. The good result you found on Tuesday is hard to find again on Friday.
Save what you find in KanBananza and Peel
- The tab’s gone, and the details with it. On any web page, right-click and choose Save as a source. KanBananza reads the page’s own details (title, authors, date) on your computer. Free
- You have a DOI, not a page. Press + Add a source and paste the DOI. With Full Bananza it is looked up for you and the details fill themselves in. Free Full Bananza
- It’s a PDF. Open it in Peel’s reader and highlight it: each highlight is saved as a quote with its printed page number. Peel, free
For your level
GCSE and A level
Your school library may have access to databases or online encyclopedias; ask the librarian. For the EPQ, Google Scholar and open access journals are a good start.
University
Book a session with your subject librarian. They know which databases your course uses and can help you build a search.
Dissertations
Search more than one database, keep a full search log, and set alerts so you see new work while you write.
Questions
What is a library database?
A searchable collection of academic work, like journal articles, conference papers and book chapters, usually for one subject or a group of subjects. Your school or university pays for access, so you can read the full text with your library login.
Which database should I use?
Start with your library’s main search, then your subject’s databases. Your library’s subject guide lists them. Google Scholar is useful too, especially when it is linked to your library.
Why do I get too many results?
Your search is too broad. Join ideas with AND, put phrases in quotation marks, and use filters like date range, peer reviewed and subject. Then read the titles of the first twenty or so and refine.
Why do I get no results?
Your search is too narrow, or uses words authors don’t use. Drop one idea, add synonyms with OR, and try the subject terms you see on a good result.
Can I use sources I can’t get the full text of?
Not from the abstract alone. Ask your library about an interlibrary loan or document supply, check the author’s page or an open access copy, or choose another source.
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