Focus Your Search
Identify the main concepts of your search. What do you want to know about your topic?
Frame your topic as a question.
Identify the sub-topics and look for information on those.
Using synonyms for your concepts can help you find more articles. Add in another concept to narrow down your topic and your results.
Topic 1
Let's make our topic: How has Indigenous knowledge been incorporated into STEM education?
| Indigenous epistemology | Indigenous worldview | Indigenous knowledge |
| STEM education | STEM pedagogy | STEM curriculum |
Putting the Search together:
Putting your search together: ("Indigenous epistemolog*" OR "Indigenous worldview*" OR "Indigenous knowledge") AND (STEM OR science or technology or engineer* or Math*) AND (education* OR pedagog* OR curricul*)
Topic 2
Let's make our topic: What is the relationship between cell phone use and sleep quality?
| Cell phones | Mobile phones | Smart phones |
| Sleep quality | Sleep hygiene | Insomnia |
Putting your search together:
("cell phone*" OR "mobile phone*" OR "smart phone*") AND ("sleep quality" OR "sleep hygiene" OR insomnia)
Click the links to see what our search might look like
Modify your search based on your topic of interest. Make use of the filters on the left in the database to narrow down further.