LibrarySkills@UCL: Searching for information

Searching is an iterative process - you will need to examine and assess your results, and review and revise your search accordingly.

There is no such thing as a 'perfect search' or a perfect set of results. Furthermore, the number of results you should be aiming for will vary, depending on the nature of your work. You might be looking for just a few reliable articles to support an assignment - or you might be undertaking a systematic review, for which you might retrieve hundreds, sometimes thousands of results.

Don't forget you can always consult a librarian for help.

• General advice
• Too many results?
• Not enough results?
• Results not relevant?
• Video: evaluate your search

• Examine your search results carefully, and understand why you got the results you did. Look at the full record for a few results and try to locate your search terms in the fields you searched (by default usually title, abstract and keywords) - sometimes they will be highlighted. This will help you to adjust your search.
• Check the search rules for the database you are using -  is the way you have entered your search causing any errors or unexpected numbers of results?
• Search for each term individually - this will help you to spot where any particular search terms are giving very large or small numbers of results.

Often, people find they have too many results. Consider:

• Is your topic too broad? A search about alternative therapies for depression will return far more results than a search about acupuncture for depression.
• Are your synonyms focused enough? Although it's good to think of alternative search terms, make sure they are also focused enough and think about whether they might retrieve unwanted results. For example, if you were searching for running you might use the term jog, run, sprint but the word activity could be too broad.
• Have you combined your terms correctly? Remember, OR should be used to combine different ways of referring to the same thing: jog OR run OR sprint. the AND operator should be used to combine different concepts. (jog OR run OR sprint) AND tendonitis
• Have you remembered to search for phrases where necessary? e.g. "publication bias".
• Are you searching an appropriate database? Searching sources such as Google Scholar will always retrieve a large number of results as they trawl the web and might retrieve duplications. Check whether there are any databases specific to your subject you can use, which might give you a more focused set of results.
• If you have used subject headings, check that you have used them correctly. Check the scope note if available. If you have exploded a subject heading (searched for narrower terms), check that all the narrower headings are relevant to your search.
• Finally, if you have lots of results but they do all meet your search criteria, you might have chosen a very popular topic. Some subjects receive a lot more scholarly attention than others do at certain times.

Bibliographic databases contain hundreds of thousands of records. If your search only brings back a handful, its likely you're not finding everything you could.

• Make sure you haven't searched for too many different concepts. Are there any aspects of your search question that can be left out? Are you trying to be too specific?
• Have you used operators correctly? Remember, OR should be used to combine different ways of referring to the same thing: jog OR run OR sprint. The AND operator should be used to combine different concepts, e.g. (jog OR run OR sprint) AND tendonitis. Combining with OR will get you more results. Combining using AND will always get fewer results.
• Is your search topic too focused, specialised, or very modern? Are you looking for a topic where there just isn't much published information?
• Have you checked your search for spelling mistakes?
• Have you included enough synonyms, and identified correct terminology for your subject? For example, a search for herbal therapy might not get as many results as phytotherapy.
• Have you checked the search rules for the database you are using? Check whether your search syntax is causing any errors or unexpected numbers of results.
• Are you searching the right resource for your subject? Check the subject coverage of the resource you are using.

If you have found some results but they are not what you are looking for:

• Firstly, remember you will always need to sift through your results to pick out the results that are relevant to you, even if the search strategy is the best you can do. A good search will always include some results that are not relevant to you.
• Examine your search results carefully, and understand why you got the results you did. Look at the full record for a few results and try to locate your search terms in the fields you searched (by default usually title, abstract and keywords) - sometimes they will be highlighted. This will help you to adjust your search.
• Have you included ambiguous terms in your search? Some words have multiple different meanings. Sometimes this will result in irrelevant results, even when your terms have been combined with other concepts.
• Have you truncated too early? A search for sing* will find sing, singing, and singer, but it will also find single, singular.