Keep track of your search and your results. Remember research is a process and you may try many things before you find what works best for your topic.
Keep track of your search terms and jot down other words you find while perusing the articles that result from your searches.
The "search history" option under the search box can also help with that.
Email, print, or save articles that might be useful for your research, even if you're not sure that you're going to use them.
Save to a Folder! In most databases, you can add items to a folder to temporarily save them during your current search session. Remember to check it and email/print anything from the folder closing the browser.
Create an account in EBSCOhost (My EBSCOhost) databases or sign in to Primo so you can save your searches, search results, and return to them later.
Let's say you are looking for information on the history of inclusion in the United States.
1. Begin by breaking your search into key concepts.
inclusion and United States
2. Brainstorm to identify other synonyms for these terms. For example:
inclusion United States
inclusive USA
mainstreaming American*
You may also want to add your history concept as a 3rd component.
3. Use the terms in #2 in your search. Combine the synonyms with the word "or"
For example: inclusion or inclusive or mainstreaming
4. Select a database such as Education Source or ERIC. Use the Advance Search mode to take advantage of the line structure by putting each concept with your synonyms in a separate line.
5. After your first search, review your results. Make use of the Subject Headings option on the left of your screen to find other articles or use it to narrow down a large search results set.
Once you have collected some articles, take a closer look at them.
Read and review what you have. Do you have enough information to support your topic?
If you don't like what you have or you don't have enough good information, go back to your search. Try some new keywords or a different database.
Explore some of the subject headings from the articles that you do want to use.
If some of your articles have bibliographies you might want to look at some of the sources listed in those bibliographies.
If you're stuck -- ask a librarian for help.
Reading these sections of an article/book will help you determine if the item you're looking at is relevant to your research.
Limiters allow you to restrict your search results to a documents that have particular characteristics. You can take advantage of these to focus your search so you retrieve results more closely matching the parameters of your assignment. Common limiters are as follows:
Other ways to refine a search:
i.e. Limit your terms so that they only appear in the abstract