NUTR 10 Research, Review & Report Assignment

• Identify keywords and their synonyms for your selected topic
• Start with a keyword search to get an idea of what and how much information is available on your topic
• If a keyword search returns too few results, try a broader search term to retrieve more records
• If a keyword search returns too many results, try a narrower search term to retrieve fewer records

When you search for scholarly or peer-reviewed articles in library databases, you must select keywords with care.

Searching in library databases works differently than searching with Google in your web browser. Typing a question or phrase describing a topic into a library database will likely give zero or few results, because...

Databases don't understand sentences and will only return results containing all of the words you put the search box.

To search databases you need to break your topic down into concepts or specific keywords that are most important to the search.

The key parts of this research question are: capital punishment, deterrent effect (or just deterrence) and homicides.

A good search has no more than 3 to 4 keywords.

The next step is brainstorming potential keywords: related words, broader and more specific words, and synonyms – words that mean the same thing.

Synonyms are especially important because the words others use may not be the same ones you think of.

For example, synonyms of our Keywords Include:

• capital punishment - death penalty
• deterrent effect - deterrence, crime prevention
• homicide - murder, capital crimes

Connecting your keywords helps you better limit or expand your search for more relevant results.

• AND will only find articles that contain the words or phrases in both search boxes.
• OR will find articles that have either one or both of the words or phrases.

You can usually ask the database to search in these places:

• Key Fields are the default in many databases and typically fairly efficient. Key fields include the full citation, subject headings, and abstract/summary if there is one. 
• Title can be very useful for narrowing down overwhelming results. Remember that it can eliminate perfectly good results where the keyword may not be in the title.
• Full-text is great when there are not many articles on your subject, but you may need to make your search much more focused.

In the MEDLINE library database, use the Advanced Search feature.

Enter your concept keywords in two or three separate search boxes. You may also want to Select a Field to search--such as "TX All Text"--in the drop down menu.

Before hitting the Search button, scroll down to the Search Options --> Limit your results and set these options:

Check the boxes for

• Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals
• Linked Full Text
• Date of Publication(set for the last 5 years)

A unique feature in MEDLINE is the ability to set the Publication Type  to "Randomized Controlled Trial". In other databases you will have to enter that in search box (as above). (Many library databases will have similar features - look for them.)