Why Search Strategy Matters
Use these recommended search techniques:
Choose the main words that represent your research topic, then list synonyms and related terms to capture all possible ways authors might describe the same idea. This helps you find more comprehensive and relevant results.
Use AND to narrow your search by combining terms (e.g., education AND technology), OR to broaden it by including synonyms (e.g., teenagers OR adolescents), and NOT to exclude unwanted terms. Use quotation marks for phrase searching (e.g., “climate change”) to find exact phrases, and a truncation symbol (often *) to find word variations (e.g., educat* finds education, educator, educational).
Many academic databases use controlled vocabularies or standardised sets of terms that describe the main topics of articles. Examples include MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) in PubMed, APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms in PsycINFO, and CINAHL Headings in CINAHL. Searching with these subject headings helps you find all relevant studies on a topic even when authors use different keywords or terminology. Combining subject headings with your own keyword searches makes your literature search more comprehensive.
Where to Search
Research sources vary and each type supports your study in a different way. Expand the sections below to learn more.
Primary sources are original materials that present first-hand evidence or data. Examples include interviews, surveys, experiments, historical documents, and artworks.
Secondary sources analyse, interpret, or summarise primary sources. They help you understand how others have explained or built upon earlier work.
Grey literature includes materials not formally published, but still valuable to research. This can include theses, conference papers, working papers, organisational reports and preprints. Grey literature can be accessed through a range of online and institutional sources, rather than academic databases. You can find it by searching university repositories (for theses and dissertations), conference websites, government or organisational portals, and research institute websites.
How-To Videos
Watch these videos to help you study better.
Start here What counts as good information? How to find good information