TEDU310 Database Searching Tutorial

Revising a search

It is common to find either too many or too few records.
Think laterally about your topic.
When you find a useful article, take a note of the descriptors and use any relevant ones in another search to find other articles.

Following are some other tips if you find either too few or too many records.

You need to broaden your search. Try these methods:

Have you made a spelling mistake or mistyped a search term? Remember you need to use North American spelling. Entering “behaviour” will result in vastly fewer records than "behavior".
Truncate your search terms to retrieve variant forms, e.g. cooperat* will find cooperate, cooperation, cooperates etc.
Think of alternate terms or synonyms and try these as search terms.
Find a useful article and use the relevant descriptors (subject headings) from the article record to do another search.
Use the Thesaurus to find alternative terms.
Searching on something very specific (e.g. "name-calling") is unlikely to be successful. Instead, consider it in terms of the overall type of behaviour (e.g. "bullying" or "anti-social behavior").
Reduce the number of concepts you are using, e.g. if you are searching for three concepts, try just searching for two.
Have you used long phrases as search strings? Break down long phrases into key concepts and join concepts together with and.
If you have tried all of the above and are still not successful, try another database. If your initial search was in ERIC, try PsycINFO.

Your search is too general. Try these methods to make it more specific:

Add another concept to your search and use the connector AND.
Check that the limits have been applied correctly.
Use the thesaurus or the descriptor field of records to find more specific terms.
Are you using OR rather than AND?
Use an Educational Level limit. ERIC uses North American educational terms. You can either select the educational levels from the Advanced Search screen, or type them in as search terms.
- Primary - Elementary Education or Primary Education. Most records use Elementary Education, e.g.
  social skill* and (elementary or primary)
- Early childhood - Early Childhood Education or Preschool Education, e.g.
  social skill* and (early childhood or preschool)
Another alternative is to specify the age group in the search. You will need to consider the age and year-in-school in New Zealand, then identify the US equivalent. Use the grade as a search term, e.g. writ* and grade-8 to find articles about writing and grade 8. If multiple years are required, these should be entered within parentheses, e.g. writ* and (grade-7 or grade-8). The thesaurus also lists grades covered by ERIC. Enter the term grade into the Browse box of the thesaurus and you will find a list of relevant grades.