Finding information

A search strategy is an organised way to look for information. It helps you find accurate and relevant information about your topic. A good search strategy includes using keywords and similar terms, combining them with words like AND and OR, and applying filters such as date, type of source, or language.

Identifying keywords

Whether your assessment topic is broad or specific, you will need to find the main concepts in the question. These words or phrases describe your topic and become the keywords (or search terms) you will use to begin your search.

If you need help working out the keywords from your assessment topic, see understanding your question.

Note: You may need to try different combinations of keywords when searching to find information on different parts of your topic.

Searching and reviewing your results

Start your search by typing the keywords from your topic into the Library catalogue or a suitable database. These tools often have filters (also called limits) that help you narrow down your results. You can filter by:

• Date (for example, only show items from the last 5 or 10 years)
• Type of resource (such as books or peer-reviewed journal articles)
• Language (for example, English)

Once you get your search results, look through the titles and abstracts (short summaries) of the items. This helps you quickly decide if they are useful for your topic. Sometimes, your first search may not give you the best or most relevant results, even if you used the right keywords.

Expanding and refining your search

To improve your search and find more relevant information, here are some useful strategies.

Use alternative terms

Concepts can be described in different ways. For example, the word harm might also be referred to as risk or disadvantage. Think about other words (alternative terms, related terms, or synonyms) that mean the same thing, as these can help you find more results. To find alternative keywords, try these methods:

• Look up your keyword in a thesaurus
• Search for the word or concept in Google or Google Scholar
• Read the abstracts (summaries) of useful articles from your first search to find other keywords, phrases, or subjects.

This table shows some alternative terms we could use for the sample assessment topic:

Artificial intelligence	Benefits	Harm	Communication
Generative AI Machine learning Gen-AI	Advantages Opportunities Job efficiency	Disadvantages Privacy Job loss	Conversational AI Content creation Virtual assistants

Combining your search terms

When you search in the Library catalogue or a database, you can combine your keywords using AND and OR to get better results.

• AND makes your search more specific. It only shows results that include all the concepts you use. For example: Artificial intelligence AND communication will only show articles that mention both artificial intelligence and communication.

• OR broadens your search. It shows results that include either of the keywords. For example: Artificial intelligence OR generative AI will show articles that mention either artificial intelligence or generative AI.

Other search tips

You can use the tips below when searching in the Library catalogue, databases, or even Google.

Phrase searching

Phrase searching helps you find two or more words that appear together in the exact order. This gives you fewer results, but they are usually more relevant. To do this, put double quotation marks around the phrase. For example, “artificial intelligence” will only show results where those two words appear together.

Truncation

Truncation helps you search for words with different endings. To use truncation, add an asterisk (*) after the last common part of the word. For example, communicat* will find results that include communicate, communication, communicating and communicated.

Example of a search strategy

By using these techniques, you can build a search strategy that works across different databases. You might need to do several searches using different combinations of keywords to find useful sources for each part of your topic.

Still not finding what you need?

If you are getting too many or too few results, or if the results are not relevant, you may need to change your search strategy.