Visit the Basic and Advanced Library Research Guide to learn more about the library.
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This page is designed to introduce you to search strategies to find review-reviewed articles in databases and library systems.. If you don't find what you are looking for or need help using them, contact a librarian like Brea Henson, Political Science Librarian.
Many instructors require you to use peer-reviewed sources for your papers and projects, but what does that mean?
Most databases allow you to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles.
Developing a Search Strategy
A search strategy is an organized structure of key terms used to search a database. The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search question in order to retrieve accurate results.
Your search strategy will account for all:
Each database works differently so you need to adapt your search strategy for each database. You may wish to develop a number of separate search strategies if your research covers several different areas.
It is a good idea to test your strategies and refine them after you have reviewed the search results.
"Literature search explained: Develop a search Strategy." University of Leeds. https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/1404/literature_searching/14/literature_searching_explained/4
Keep in mind that research is an iterative process so you will have to do multiple searches in more than one database for maxim results.
When you don't know synonyms for your topic keywords, you can use online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference books to find them. You can also use Wikipedia to find a definition or synonym for a word, but don't use it as a source for your paper or project because it is not authoritative.
Copyright © University of North Texas. Some rights reserved. Except where otherwise indicated, the content of this library guide is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. Suggested citation for citing this guide when adapting it:
This work is a derivative of "PSCI 3300: Introduction to Political Research", created by and © University of North Texas, used under CC BY-NC 4.0 International.
