Google Scholar

You should always select your search strategies before you begin. Please watch this video refresher on strategies or view the infographic below.

Exact Phrase

Add Quotation Marks to search for an exact phrase or words in a specific or EXACT order. An exact phrase will return more accurate results because it snaps all of the words together, turning it into a phrase that must be found exactly in that order.

Example: social media vs. “social media”

3 Magic Words - AND, OR, NOT

Filters

Apply filters to limit your search results. Because they limit your results, filters might also be called limiters. The most common and helpful filters to limit your results are:

• Date: Limit to the past 5 years, or a specific date range
• Source Type: Limit to academic/scholarly sources or any other type, such as news or ebooks
• Peer Review: Limit to scholarly sources that have been peer reviewed

Keywords

Create a list of keywords associated with your topic.

What else could it be called (synonyms)?

For example: smartphone - "cell phone" - cell - "mobile phone" - "cellular phone" - mobile - "mobile device"

Topics can be narrowed or broadened depending on the use of search terms. What describes it specifically (hyponyms)? What is it related to broadly (hypernyms)?

General: smartphone

Narrower: iPhone

Broader: mobile device