- The Library

How do I carry out a search?

Start here for some inspiration to help you break down your project topic and identify the kinds of keywords you'd want to type into your database or search engine of choice.

Plan your search - ask yourself:

 

For example, my project topic question might be something like:

"Review of the Strength and Lifespan of various Composite Biomaterials"

To find suitable keywords to use in a database search, I'd break this title into its main subject areas like this:

You might use these sort of keywords in a database search.

 

Think about your keywords to refine your search:

"strength", "fatigue", "mechanical properties" and "characteristics"  - generally speaking all these words mean the same in the context of this topic.

But think about the kind of information you are trying to find: 'hard' technical data or more 'accessible' review articles?  Think what words would an academic researcher use to communicate with other researchers? Consider how that kind of language might be different compared to the way a more general magazine (review journal, newspaper story and similar) might refer to a topic for a less 'expert' audience.

Being aware of these these issues will help you choose keywords that might work better in one database than in another one.  Using some types of keywords instead of others, will affect the kind of articles you get back from a search.

Beware of spelling!

Of course bad spelling will mean you won't get the results you want if you type in the keywords wrongly. But also, think about how North American and British English spelling can vary...

For example, if you are looking for information about "vehicle tyres" you probably will miss the information relating to "tires" from articles written by North American authors.

 

Many databases provide functions to help you refine your search strategies, I've described a few of them below

Boolean Operators

Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) to create relationships between keywords:

For example a search using OR "aircraft OR airplane" will find results that use either word

For example a search using AND "wing AND carbon-fibre" will find results that include reference to wings and the material carbon fibre. The advantage of combining the terms using AND is that you get a smaller set of results than you would if you searched for "wings" in a general engineering database.

For example a search using NOT "wing NOT bird" would remove all results where birds were mentioned, making it more likely that you were left with results relating only to the manufactured, mechanical type of wing.

Summary of Boolean Operators:

Most modern online databases provide these Boolean Operators by default using drop-down menus to select which you want to use. The Library Catalogue is also a good place to see an example of these kind of Boolean Operators and test how they work.

 

Truncation

Truncation symbols are used by databases to help widen the results of your search.

The symbols used can vary between databases and search engines but in these examples an asterisk* is used:

For example if you type the following keyword into a database search box: calci*

The database will then search for all words that can be derived from the root "calci" such as:

"calcium", "calcify", "calcification", "calcified" and so on.

 

Wildcard characters

Just like Truncation symbols, wildcard characters can widen your search results by making the database use your keywords in a more flexible way.

Think about this example of how North American and British spelling can be different: tyres versus tires

If you use a wildcard character in place of a single letter, you can get more results than searching for one specific version of a word or spelling:

 

For example if you type t?re into a database search box, the results will include both "tyre" and "tire"

Once again, the wildcard characters can vary between database resources, I am using a question mark? in this example.

Check the database help screens on the resource you are using to check which characters are used for each function or email to ask me and I can check for you.

 

Go to "Overview of Journals and Conference Papers"

Go to "How do I find Journal Articles / Conference Papers?"

Go to "Which database/resource should I use?"

Back to Introduction page

If you would like to know more about the information contained on these pages or suggest other resources or information for inclusion please contact the Mechanical Engineering Subject Librarian, via H.C.Tacey@bath.ac.uk