1. How do I search for my topic?
- Identify the keywords of your topic and use those as your search words
- Each article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make them searchable - you want your search words to match those tags
- Words like factors, effects, issues, relationships are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words
Example: The topic for your literature review is: racial disparities in infant mortality. Your policy memo will make policy recommendations to reduce these disparities.
- Search: rac* disparit* "infant mortality"
- rac* searches for race and racial
- disparit* searches for disparity and disparities
- "infant mortality" searches for infant mortality as a phrase, not separate words
2. How do I focus the search hits to meet my assignment requirements?
- Use Refine Your Search options to focus your search hits to just peer-reviewed articles
- Peer-reviewed articles:
- Click on Peer Review
- Under Content Type, click on Journal article
- Current/Recent articles:
- Under Publication Date, move the scroll bar over to 2006 to present
- Articles with a Public Health Perspective
- Under Discipline. click on Public Health
- Articles with a Policy perspective
- Under Subject Terms, click on subjects like health policy & services, health policy
3. I have too many irrelevant search hits. How do I focus them?
- Add "United States" to your search to focus your search hits to articles about the United States
- Look through the Subject Terms in the Refine Your Search sidebar and click on the subjects that interest you
- When you find an article that looks interesting, look at its assigned tags
- Add any relevant tags to your search
- This will also help you develop your research questions and search for articles about your specific research questions
