If you've done a search, and are overwhelmed by the number of search results, there are ways to narrow these further. Some suggestions:
- Be precise. If you've searched "seizures" but you want information on "febrile seizures," be sure to include that in your search terms. What words would an expert use to describe your topic?
- Use Boolean Operators. These search commands tell the databases exactly what you want once you understand how to use them to combine your keywords. (see below)
- Narrow by demographics. Do you want information regarding infants? Adolescents? Adults? Seniors? Populations by race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation? Sexual orientation or gender identity? Something else? Add related keywords to your search terms.
- Narrow by location. Limit your results to a certain city, county, state, region, country, or continent by adding it to your keywords.
- Narrow by time period. Choose a year, decade, century or era, and add it to your keywords.
- Use filters: OneSearch and most databases have search filters (e.g.,. limiters, refine results) to the left of the search results. These let you limit by publication date, peer-review status, type of publication and more.
- Use advanced search: OneSearch and most databases have an advanced search option near the basic search bar. Click it to see what other options are available to let you narrow your search even further. Note: The subject-specific databases will offer more relevant advanced search options than OneSearch will. For example: PsycARTICLES (for psychology articles) will let you limit by methodology and demographics without having to add those as keywords.
These sections of our Research Skills Tutorial will help further:
Boolean Operators
Using Concept Charts to Identify Keywords
Refining Results by Date, Peer Review, and Document Type
