University Library: Health Sciences: Searching for literature

Learning Guides

The Learning Skills Guides provide advice on how to activate your learning, how to write in an academic environment, and how to develop your study information skills, enabling you to research and learn efficiently. Use the link below to navigate through the guides.

Notre Dame Learning Skills Guide
These guides have been developed by the Notre Dame Study Centre.

Information Literacy skills help you navigate the vast amount of data available to you. Freshen up your skill set by reviewing some of these tutorials.

Evidence based practice guide
Use this guide to understand how to form a research question, search for relevant evidence, appraise what you find, apply the evidence to your practice and evaluate the success of the practice.
Using information sources
Take the confusion out of using eBooks, databases, encyclopedias, multimedia and newspapers - see this guide.

Use these tools to help develop and refine your search skills.

Searching in FiNDit
Watch this video for some quick tips on more effective searching in the Library's search tool FiNDit.
Search strategy guide
Need more help with your search strategies? See this guide for advanced tips and tricks for keywords, subject headings and Boolean operators
Credo Information Literacy Modules
Direct access to Credo Information Literacy Modules.

Online Tutorials

Need a refresher on how to quickly evaluate articles and websites? Try one of these tutorials, or check out the page on Evidence Based Practice under Topics:

UNC Libraries | Evaluate
The University of North Carolina is widely renowned for expertise in information literacy. Try out their fantastic tutorial on evaluating resources.
The CAARP Model
Watch this video for a quick introduction to the CAARP model: Currency, Authority, Accuracy, Relevance, Purpose.
BMJ How to Read a Paper
A straightforward guide to helping you understand the medical literature. Start with "Getting Your Bearings."

Cambridge Libraries: Reflective Practice Toolkit
This guide by Cambridge University Libraries will give you advice for intergrating reflective practice into your everyday life and academic work.

Boolean, truncation, phrase searching and wildcards

The Boolean search technique allows you to combine keywords with the operators 'AND', 'OR' and 'NOT'. They connect your search keywords/concepts together to either narrow or broaden your search results when searching databases. Using these operators, you are able to make your search more precise and save time.

AND: Narrows your search, combines different concepts, and retrieves results which contain both/all keywords.
OR: Broadens your search, combines similar concepts (synonyms), and retrieves results which contain either or both/all keywords. When using 'OR' wrap your synonyms in brackets.
NOT: Narrows your search, excludes unwanted terms from your search.

boolean operators illustrated

The truncation search technique allows you to search databases for variations and plurals of a word all at once. Using truncation will help you search faster because you do not have to manually type multiple endings of a word. The symbol for truncation is usually an asterisk (*), placed at the end of the root word, where the spelling of the word could change.
Note: Be careful where you place the *.
The keyword truncation 'commu*' will search commune,commute, communicate, community etc. which are unrelated words.
The keyword truncation 'touris*' will search tourist, tourists, tourism etc. but not tour or tours.

educat* = educate, education, educated, educational
adoles* = adolescent, adolescents, adolescence
contamina* = contamination, contaminants, contaminated, contaminate, contaminates

Phrase search technique allows you to search databases for an exact phrase. Using quotation marks (" ") around your search term will help you do a more precise search as it will only return results that contain the exact words in the same order.
Note: Only use phrase searching on widely accepted phrases. Be careful placing too many words in quotations, the database might not find any results.

"social media"
"climate change"
"job satisfaction"

Wildcard search technique allows you to search databases for alternate spellings and variations of a word by replacing a letter with question mark (?). It is useful for retrieving results with both US and UK spelling variations of a word. Using wildcard will make your search quicker because you do not have to manually type different spellings of a word.
Note: Wildcard symbols (? #, !) can vary by databases. Please check individual database help pages.

wom?n = woman, women

anal?se = analyse, analyze

Colo?r = color or colour

The key to successful database searching is to practice and use common search techniques along with Boolean searching. It is important to learn these so that you will be able to quickly retrieve relevant information. These videos by University of South Carolina Upstate Library explain some of the basic searching tricks and techniques that will enable you to create a more effective search.

Part 1: Boolean operators (AND OR NOT)
Part 2: Boolean & common search techniques

The interactive keyword tool from University of Wollongong helps you identify keywords in your assignment question and create a search string/query that can be copied and pasted into the search box of FiNDIt and most other databases. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage to use the tool.

Interactive Keyword Builder

The Credo Research Skills guide has been designed to give you a foundation in information literacy and critical thinking. Topics have been divided among six modules; each includes videos, tutorials, and quizzes. The Searching for Information module covers the basics of searching for information, including choosing the right source, identifying keywords, and employing search techniques.

The Health Research Readiness modules introduce you to essential health information resources and equip you with the skills to efficiently find, evaluate, and reference them. In Module C: Searching, you will learn how to use health databases and develop your search skills, including building advanced search strategies.

Module C: Searching

Health Sciences

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Boolean, truncation, phrase searching and wildcards

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