UC Health

Plan Your Research

1.    State your topic

2.    Analyze your topic by breaking it down into concepts

3.    Identify potential keywords for each concept

4.    Identify potential resources

5.    Determine possible “limits” (research articles, years, language, ages, etc.)

Run Your Search

1.    Search each concept separately - Thesaurus vs Keyword approach

2.    Combine your concept searches using AND or OR

• AND - Articles that contain BOTH concepts

• OR - Articles that contain EITHER concept

3.    Apply limits after you have done your initial searches (research articles, years, language, ages, etc.)

4.    Try  pearl searches to find additional concepts and articles