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Searching for journal articles

Quicker, smarter, more effective searching.

Putting it all together

 

Click the Transcript button to see the transcript of the video above

From the previous sections, you know about Boolean operators and you have brainstormed alternative words, phrases, and spelling.

You can put this all together in one big search called a Boolean search strategy:

health OR hospitals
AND
"aging population" OR "ageing population" OR "greying population"
AND
Australia*

If you are typing all this on one search line, then put the alternative terms in parentheses (round brackets)

(health OR hospitals) AND ("aging population" OR "ageing population" OR "greying population") AND Australia*

However, many search engines have an Advanced Search where you can combine the different concepts using multiple search boxes.

When using an advanced search, put different words or phrases for the same concept or subtopic on each line, separated by OR.
Join the lines with AND.

Try it yourself

Database in miniature - explore different search combinations

The interface below represents a miniature database of 8 journal articles

Experiment with the search choices, and click the Search button to see the results of different searches on the miniature database

After clicking the Search button, some articles will be highlighted in green to show the ones you have found with your search choices, and a brief text explanation of your search will appear below the highlighted articles

Mini-Database Searchinator

This is a limited search interface, with pre-filled example search terms (normally you would type these yourself)

Mini-Database contents

Survival of
universities
in
Australia
Universities
in
the US
Universities
and TAFEs in
Australia
TAFEs in
Australian
conditions

The
Australian
situation:
TAFEs in
Australia
Australians
at
university
Australian
universities
Universities
in NSW

The 8 boxes above represent a collection of 8 journal articles - a mini-database (micro-database?). Which ones did you find?

Mini-Database search review

Database search

Search NAME

  

        

Progress

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