How do you find the most relevant/recent research on your topic and be reasonably confident you haven’t missed any important studies? You need to create a search strategy, which is a systematic way of locating relevant materials on your topic.
The steps below yield a big payoff in terms of searching efficiently and effectively.
1. Focus your topic: What is the question you're trying to answer? For example, does soda pop consumption affect body weight?
2. Select keywords and concepts for your topic. List only terms that are crucial to your topic (primarily nouns) and their synonyms: soda pop, soft drinks, heaviness, body weight
3. Choose appropriate databases and check for subject headings (preferred search terms). For example, the MeSH term for soda pop is carbonated beverages.
4. Write a search statement (This is what you would type in a database search box): carbonated beverages AND body weight
5. Run your search and evaluate the results.
6. Revise as necessary. If you have too many hits, set (additional) limits; for too few hits use additional synonyms or broader search terms.
Bastyr Library content may be used, remixed, tweaked, and built upon non-commercially, as long as BU is credited, and new creations are licensed under the identical terms.