Not in Quick Search
Indexes scholarly research from across a wide variety of disciplines within the sciences. Citations included from Science Citation Index Dates covered: 1996-present
Not in Quick Search
Indexes biomedical literature. Citations with some links to full-text from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Dates covered: 1946-present
Not in Quick Search
Covers scientific, technical and health-related disciplines in the physical sciences. Full-text, peer-reviewed journals. Dates covered: 1823-present
Select Search Terms
Identify key terms for your research question along with synonyms, narrower terms, and broader terms.
Try different combinations of the terms you identified to do some preliminary searching. Keep track of what terms you use and how effective they are (see Documenting the Search).
Widen or narrow your search depending on the results you are getting. If you are not finding any useful results, try brainstorming different key words.
Once you find a highly relevant article, pay attention to the terms it uses to describe key concepts. These can be used to search for further relevant results. You can also use the article to look backward and forward.
Looking backward: read the literature review in the article. See what/who is referenced and look at some of their articles.
Looking forward: Use a citation index such as Web of Science or Google Scholar to see who has cited the article.
Document the Search
Understand which searches are effective and which are not.
Keep from repeating searches.
Conduct a thorough search.
How to document:
Use a tool you're comfortable with such as spreadsheet software (Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets) or a word processor (Microsoft Word, Google Docs).
At a minimum, you should note: the database you used, the search terms, the filters, and number of results.
Use a citation manager like Mendeley to keep track of sources.
