Search Strategies

Quick Links

Library Home Page
Databases, catalog, interlibrary loan, LINK+...
OSCAR - Library Catalog
Find books, videos, journals/magazines, etc.
A-Z Database List
You can also browse the list by subject, type, or vendor.
Ask a Librarian
Get help from a librarian by texting, IM, email, or make an appointment.
Camino
Link back to your course syllabus, readings, etc.
Citation Guides
How to cite your sources in APA, MLA, Chicago styles, etc.
Google Scholar
Link to article's available through the SCU library and other sources.

Searching databases for journal articles is a bit more challenging than using tools such as Google or Bing. The good news is that you have a lot more control over how you design the search. This also means you should get better, more targeted results.

Before you start searching, try focusing your topic by writing a one sentence research question.
For example: Will changing the Electoral College from a "winner-take-all" format to a proportional division of votes make the Electoral College more closely reflect the will of the voters?

Identify the main ideas in your research question.
- electoral college
- vote distribution

Boil the statement down to keywords, or the most important elements of your issue.
EX: electoral college, winner take all, proportional

Use an asterisk to find variations of a word.
EX: proportion* will find proportion and proportional

Then, separate the keywords with the "and" and "or" connectors
EX: electoral college and (winner take all or proportional)

The above search strategy in the Political Science Complete database will look like this. Note that I changed "Select a Field" to "SU Subjects" for the first line so the database will only look for "electoral college" in the index (subject) terms.

You can also limit your search to "peer reviewed" publications so you search only the academic literature.