Welcome! This guide is a starting point for your research in Sociology and Criminology.
Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)
Truncation (*)
The "*" replaces any number of characters and will find all forms of a word root. For example, "therap*" will find therapies, therapies, therapist, therapists, theraputic, therapeutically, etc.
Wildcard (#)
The "#" replaces extra charactors that may appear in alternative spellings. For example, "colo#r" finds both color and colour.
Wildcard (?)
The "?" replaces one character. For example, "ne?t" finds neat, nest, or next, but will not find not.
Searching academic databases is a bit different from using Google or a search engine. Here are few tricks and tips.Brainstorm First!
Let's say, you're researching the way women talk to their doctors. This is great topic, but if you just type the phrase -- "The way women talk to their doctors" -- into an academic database, you'll get poor results. Instead, you need to brainstorm key terms and think of solid nouns that describe your topic. Create specific terms and use synonyms. Here are ways you can break down this topic:
Use boolean operators
Boolean operators are commands that tell the database how to look up your terms. See the column to the left for explanations on how to use them.
Here's an example of a good search, built with solid search terms and Boolean operators:
Subject headings are your friend
When you find a good article, look at the subject terms (also called subject headings). These are tags or labels that an expert assigned to the article that sum up what it's about. Some databases also include author-supplied keywords. These terms are often linked and will lead to similar articles, providing you with even better results.
Here's what subject terms look like in EBSCO databases:
