A search strategy is the combination of keywords and synonyms you choose and the way you connect them with AND, OR, and NOT. These are also known as Boolean operators. An example search strategy can be found near the end of this page. Developing good search strategies helps increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your database searches.
To focus your search and ensure you are getting sources that combine all aspects of your topic, use AND. Adding terms with AND will give you fewer results.
For example, car AND hydrogen AND environment will find sources that use all three of these terms.
To expand your search and find sources that use different words for the same thing, use OR. Adding terms with OR will give you more results.
For example, car OR vehicle or automobile will give you sources that use any of these terms, alone or in combination with each other.
To omit certain terms from your results, use NOT. For example. You may have done an initial search and found that many of the sources you found are related to Ford. This is great, but you are interest in other car manufacturers too. You want to filter out the articles about Ford so you can only see the ones about other manufacturers.
For example, car NOT Ford will discard any of the articles that mention Ford.
Other search tips:
Search strategy example: using the example keywords and synonyms below, one search strategy might be:
(car OR automobile OR vehicle) AND hydrogen AND environment*
Different databases may utilize distinct search functionalities and features. To maximize the effectiveness of your searches it is helpful to spend some time exploring the "Help" or "Support" information provided. For example, here is a screenshot of the help information available in Engineering Village. Notice there is a great deal of information pertaining to the database's "Search" functionalities.
