1. Keywords
&
Boolean Searching
Adapted from
University of Gloucestershire
2. The Research Process
Define your keywords
Find the relevant information for your
project using books, journals, websites etc
Critically evaluate the information you
have retrieved
Cite and reference any sources used in
your project correctly
3. Keywords - what and why?
Define the topic
Success of search dependent upon
key words
“Brainstorm” initial keywords to
think of related or alternative terms
Use thesauri, dictionaries, index or
content pages from relevant books
TRUNCATE & WILDCARDS
4. categorise your keyword terms, e.g. learners libraries social networks
Subject Related Broader
Synonyms
terms terms terms
E-safety, learner
motivation,
Learner/s, engagement, learner
college(s), learning styles, behaviour,
academic, library school(s), classroom
student(s),
(ies), social university(ies), management,
pupil(s), activity
network(s), behaviour (ies), conduct,
online, social management, performance,
learning, peer community (ies)
learning Maslow, group (s),
OFSTED,
Facebook,
twitter
5. Bized (2003) Motivation Mind Map [online] [cited 21 Jul 2004] Available from http://www.bized.ac.uk/educators/16-19/presentations/business/2003_4/271003_map.htm
6. BOOLEAN OPERATORS…..
AND – looks for two terms in a
the same result, i.e. both recruitment n On-line
d
OR – looks for either of two
candidates O applicants
terms, not together
R
NOT – excludes a terms recruitment
NOT redundancy
7. TIPS & TRICKS for Better Results
•Brackets – grouping search instructions
(recruitment OR selection) AND disability
•Phrases
Search for a whole phrase by using speech marks
“Recruitment policies for disability”
•Truncation or wildcards
• * After a stem will look for all variant endings
Child* (child, children, childish, childhood, childbirth etc.)
•Wildcard
• ? In the middle of a word looks for variant spellings
m?n (men, man, )
Editor's Notes
For example, if you were looking at the development of practices in human resource management over the past thirty years, your search would have to include both the terms 'personnel' and 'human resource management'. In the 1970s, 'human resources management' was not a recognised term. If you were searching for literature at that time you would need to use the term 'personnel management'. In the same way in education the term dyslexia replaced word blindness as the commonly used term.
Some people may find it helpful /easier to make a mind map of the key words and concepts – this one is on the same topic – motivational management theorists. Is everyone familiar with the idea of mind maps? Does anyone use them? I do – especially when writing an assignment or report.
Brackets or parentheses are used to group sets of related keywords together in a search string. Brackets are placed around the keywords, separated by OR, to instruct the database to process this part of the search first. The database will then combine this result with the second part of the search.(recruitment OR selection) AND disability = recruitment OR selection AND disabilityN.B. The effect of removing the brackets from the search string would be to search for articles about recruitment or about selection and disability: ‘recruitment” OR “selection AND disability”By using a symbol, frequently an asterisk (*) at the end of the words this enables the database to search for alternative word endings ('impact *' will therefore search for articles contain the terms 'impact, impacts, impacting'). This technique is called truncation and it is used to broaden your search and so retrieve more articles.
