TSEM 102: Green Eating on a Blue Planet (Pruett)

Searching a scholarly database works a little differently than the typical Google or web search that you are probably used to. Here is the process you can take to come up with an effective search strategy:

1. Identify the main concepts in your search. These are your keywords.
2. Brainstorm synonyms and related terms for your keyword concepts. Think about how other researchers might describe your main concepts.
3. Put your keywords together using AND, OR, and NOT as necessary. Each main concept gets its own search box, and synonyms / related concepts are separated with OR.
4. Adjust your search using database filters / limiters (restrict to peer reviewed articles, adjust the date range, etc.). These options usually appear on the left side of a database results screen.
5. Search again based on what you learned from your first search. Try using keywords that you found from the articles in your first set of search results or brainstorm additional keywords that you think will help. Don't be afraid to ask a librarian if you get stuck; we're here to help!

Here is an example of what a scholarly database search would look like for the following research question: What are the environmental impacts of a vegan or vegetarian diet? Note that the quotation marks tell the database to search those words as a phrase (so we'll find articles that say "environmental impact" as a phrase, rather than articles that say "environmental" in one paragraph and "impact" in another, for example).

If you find an article that you would like to come back to, do not copy and paste the URL from the top of your web browser. Database URLs change frequently as articles are added and removed, so the URL you copy may not work later. The safest option is always to find and download the PDF and save it in a safe place. However, you can also create a permalink, which is a stable URL that will work for you later. 

Creating permalinks in Cook OneSearch or an EBSCO database is easy: on the article page, look under the Tools column on the right and click on the word permalink. Then, copy and paste the URL it creates into a safe place.

Other databases may not have a permalink icon for you. If you find an article and you don't see an option to save a permalink, you can use the Cook Library's Proxy Builder to create your stable URL. Copy and paste your URL into the first box, and a stable URL will be created for you in the second box.

The video below demonstrates how to use ScienceDirect to find research articles. ScienceDirect is designed to be fairly straightforward to use, which makes it a great resource to start with for anyone who is new to database searching.