CCCS Research Help Toolkit (Updated for 2025)

A Search Strategy is a method of preparing to do research.  Having a search strategy will help you find better sources faster.  These strategies will work in any environment (Google or databases), but they work best in databases. Use the following steps to create a good search strategy. 

1. Determine the keywords of your topic or research question (databases don't like full sentences or questions; they prefer keywords)
   1. Keywords are the most important words that you are searching for
      1. Example: How harmful is global warming to the artic circle 
         1. Keywords: harmful global warming arctic circle
2. Find synonyms for your keywords (this helps you have some options as you search)
   1. Example: global warming > climate change
3. Phrase searching
   1. Put quotation marks around terms that go together to force the database to search for those words in that exact order
      1. Example: "Global warming" or "climate change" 
   2. Only use phrase searching if those words are used often in that order and are always together
      1. Example of incorrect use of phrase search: "global warming climate change bad" 
         1. Since those words are not put together in that order, you will receive zero results
4. Boolean Operators
   1. Three words make up Boolean Operators
      1. AND
         1. Example: global warming AND arctic circle
         2. Only results with all the words included will show
         3. AND gives you fewer results
      2. OR
         1. Example: (Global warming OR climate change)
            1. Results with either phrase will show
            2. Place parentheses around the terms connected with OR 
         2. OR gives you more results
      3. NOT
         1. Example: global warming NOT pollution
            1. All results that include global warming that do NOT include pollution will show
5. Wildcard
   1. The asterisk * is a wildcard that allows for searching versions of a word without having to type them all out
      1. Example: harm* 
         1. Results that include harm, harming, harmful, and any other use of "harm" will show
6. Search String
   1. A more advanced method of putting your search strategy together into one search
      1. Example:( "global warming" OR "climate change") AND "arctic circle" AND harm*
         1. This will search for
            1. global warming AND arctic circle AND harm* [meaning any version of harm]
            2. climate change AND arctic circle AND harm* [meaning any version of harm]
7. Building and using a good search strategy takes practice and patience.  

Be sure to contact a librarian for help with your research!