Choose search terms
Search tools are built to look up search terms. Sometimes the search terms are consistently structured, there is a thesaurus in the database. You can often also search freely in all text.
Before you start searching, you should break down your information search needs into key concepts that you can use as search terms. Initially, you may not know much about your subject.
Choose your search terms and try them out; you will reconsider them later as you search and make new experiences.
You should usually choose both Swedish and English search terms because scientific research is predominantly published in English. Here we only show one example with English search terms.
An example
You are thinking of writing an essay on "Assess the impact that social media has had on recent outbreaks of civil unrest".
"Assess the impact that social media has had on recent outbreaks of civil unrest".
The key concepts can be
- Social media
- Civil unrest
Synonyms
The key concepts may have synonyms or related concepts. Try to list them.
ALTERNATIVE KEY CONCEPTS | ALTERNATIVE KEY CONCEPTS |
|---|---|
Social media | Civil unrest |
Social network | Conflict |
Social networking | Riot |
Revolution | |
Uproar |
Test search
Try combining and searching for your key concepts as search terms. Here is a search for "civil unrest" and "social media" in Primo. Try other search terms, evaluate and test search again.
The quotation marks around the search concepts, for example around "social media", mean that you are searching for the cohesive concept.