How to Search Databases
Although every electronic database has its own unique features, there are some basic techniques common to different search tools. Many electronic resources have their own specific online help feature that you may find useful. For assistance with specific databases, please ask a reference librarian.
Database Structure
Field-Specific Searching vs. Keyword Searching
Boolean Searching
Truncation and Wildcard Searching
Database Structure
A database is a collection of records. Each record describes a unique piece of information: a journal article, a book chapter, a conference paper, etc. These records may be in the form of a citation, an abstract, or an article. A record is comprised of fields; common fields include author, title, and subject headings, but most databases have other fields such as language or publication date.
Following is a sample record from PsycINFO:
Title:
The effect of modern female sex role portrayals on advertising effectiveness.
Author(s):
Jaffe, Lynn J.; Berger, Paul D.
Affiliation:
Northeastern U, Coll of Business Administration, Boston, MA, US
Source:
Journal of Advertising Research; 1994 Jul-Aug Vol 34(4) 32-42
ISSN/ISBN:
00218499
Language:
English
Abstract:
Examined the effect of 2 modern female role portrayals, the superwoman and the egalitarian, on advertising effectiveness. 140 married women with different working status (unemployed outside the home, working part-time, and working full-time) were exposed to 6 print ads for a food product. Ss indicated the ads' effectiveness in terms of their feelings toward the ad (affect) and their purchase interest, and completed questions concerning their gender ideology and demographic status. Analysis reveals that the egalitarian portrayal is the most effective role portrayal among many segments of the female market. Economic resource theory and sociological theory were used to develop hypotheses and to explain significant interaction effects between role portrayal and different female market segments on advertising effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1995 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)
Key Phrases:
superwoman vs egalitarian sex role portrayals; advertising effectiveness; married female 21-50 yr olds
Subjects:
ADVERTISING; CONSUMER-ATTITUDES; HUMAN-FEMALES; SEX-ROLES; ADULTHOOD
In the preceding record, the most important fields are the title, author, source (which tells you where to locate the material), abstract, and subjects. Once you know the source, you can use the how to find a journal research guide to search for a paper or electronic copy of the article. If the source is a book, use the Library Catalog to see if the Library owns the book.
Field-Specific Searching vs. Keyword Searching
Many electronic databases default to keyword (or "free text") searching. Keyword searching allows you to search for the terms you enter throughout all the records in the database wherever they appear. Keyword searching is effective when you don't know what official subject heading or descriptor you should use, or when the record contains detailed information that may not be reflected in the subject headings. Keyword searching is usually more flexible than field-specific searching. It may present a problem, however, because the search term may only be mentioned within an abstract or article and it may not be the main topic of the article. For instance, if you're looking up the disease AIDS, you may retrieve a record about deafness because hearing aids are mentioned in the abstract.
If you encounter this problem and retrieve too many irrelevant records, you can do a field-specific search. This means that you're going to look for your terms only in certain specific fields. If you're searching for a particular topic, you'll want to limit your search to the subject field. In many databases, such as PsycINFO, ERIC, and some of the FirstSearch databases, the terms in this field are called descriptors rather than subject headings.
Only certain terms can be used as descriptors; for example, the official descriptor for women in PsycINFO is "human females." Articles about women in general will have this term in the descriptor field. To search for the term "human females" in the descriptor field alone you would enter "human females" and specify a subject search. In order to perform an effective search, you should try to use official subject headings; this will help you obtain the most relevant materials. Most databases have lists of subject headings, indexes, or thesauri that will help you determine the appropriate terms. Another way to determine the appropriate subject headings is to do a keyword search and look at the subject headings or descriptors that have been assigned to the most relevant records; then use those terms.
Field-specific searching also allows you to search for an author and limit by date, language, journal title, etc. Keep in mind that not all databases allow this more sophisticated searching; for instance, in a basic search in CIOS's ComAbstracts you are usually better off searching on simple one-word terms.
Boolean Searching Using AND, OR, and NOT
Most databases cannot interpret or search for phrases, such as "the portrayal of women in advertising." Using Boolean logical operators allows you to perform more powerful searches, particularly for keyword searching. Boolean searching allows you to combine search terms for more precise searching by using Boolean operators including AND, OR, and NOT. In the preceding topic, you would need to determine that the basic concepts are "women" and "advertising."
The and operator combines two terms. It will find records that include both terms.
women and advertising
The or operator retrieves records that have either of the terms you specify. To expand your search results, think of synonyms for your terms.
(women or females) and advertising
Include the parentheses to tell the computer how to process your search terms.
The not operator excludes terms. If you don't want articles that have to do with radio advertising, your search would look like this:
(women or females) and advertising not radio
The not operator is tricky and should be used with caution. It can have unintended consequences.
Most databases are different from most web search engines! If you search for "women advertising" in most web search engines, you will find all websites that have both words in them. But most databases (but not all of them!) will interpret this search string to mean that you want all articles with the phrase "women advertising" in them. To get all articles on women and advertising from a database, and not just the ones on "women advertising executives" or "women advertising to women" you will need to search for women AND advertising.
Truncation and Wildcard Searching
Truncation allows you to look for variant endings of a term, usually by using a symbol after the root of a word. For example, advertis* will find advertising, advertisements, advertise, etc. Unfortunately, not all databases use the same symbol, so check the help feature if available, or ask a librarian for details. ? and * are the most frequently used symbols.
Wildcards let you substitute a specified number of letters, again, by using a symbol. For example, wom#n will find women or woman.
Now your search may look like this:
(wom#n or females) and advertis* and portrayal#
As a general rule, it is better to do a broad search initially, and then narrow it down if you find too many records. Since each database uses different searching conventions, consult a librarian for the best way to construct a search on your particular topic. And remember to look at the Help screens for your database.
