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SWK 3400 Human Behavior in the Social Environment II: Adult Lifespan

Selected Social Work Databases

Google Search Tips

Try These Tricks When Searching Online

Tools like these help you find better search results more quickly.

Use the limiter site: to filter which websites your results are from. Add your own search terms after that.

Domain Name

Ask for websites that end with a certain domain name that may be more reliable or relevant.

  • site:.gov  only returns sites that end with .gov (federally funded government sites)
  • site:.edu only returns sites that end in .edu (higher education sites)

screenshot of Google search for site:.gov Aurora, Illinois

Website

Search an entire website from the back end with Google.

A screenshot of a Google search for site:aurora.edu research help

Add quotation marks around a word or phrase in a Google search to:

  • require all results include that word or phase
  • specify an exact phrase or spelling

A graphic showing that adding quotation marks around Illinois in a Google search returned results about the city of Aurora in IL, rather than Colorado

 

Find the Tools button at the top of your search results. When toggled, new options will be revealed, like the option to filter results by the date they were published. You may also choose to use the Google advanced search to get more specific!

Search Tips

Keywords

Identify keywords for your topic and brainstorm narrower, broader, and related terms.

Example: Factors that affect academic performance in first-generation college students.

Academic Performance College First-Generation Students
Student Success Higher Education Children of Immigrants
Student Achievement University Minority Students
Learning Outcomes Community College Nontraditional Students

 

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT allow you to broaden or narrow your results in the library catalog and databases. You can easily use these to clarify what you need by choosing the advanced search option.

Peanut butter AND jelly, only results with both terms; Peanut butter OR jelly, results with either or both terms; Peanut butter NOT jelly, results with peanut butter only, excludes results with jelly and with both terms.

 

Found too many results?

Add more keywords.

Adding additional keywords to your search can help to further narrow your topic.

Example: college AND first-generation students AND academic performance

Use a filter

Look on the left side for ways you can filter your materials. Here are a few to consider, depending on your needs.

  • material type - such as a book, newspaper article, or review
  • peer-reviewed - to find scholarly articles
  • date - typically to find the most current materials
  • subject - to find articles about a certain topic

 

Found too few results?

Try different search terms.

What other words could you use to describe this concept? Brainstorm related terms, synonyms, and slightly different forms of your word or phrase. Also brainstorm broader categories or concepts it belongs to, as well as narrower elements or examples. (See the keywords section above for examples.)

It may also be useful to consider the official, academic, or formal way to write that term. This is more likely to be used in academic writing.

Use fewer search terms.

Sometimes less is more! The more words, phrases, or subjects you ask the database to find, the fewer sources will meet the criteria.

Use OR.

Broaden your search by using the boolean operator OR to link your terms.

Example: (college OR higher education OR university) AND first-generation students AND (academic performance OR student success)