Begin your search for peer-reviewed or scholarly journal articles in the following recommended databases.
No one database has everything. Search multiple databases from the list below to find enough relevant articles on your topic. To find more databases from the library click Subjects A-Z on the library website and choose the subject(s) most relevant to your topic
Citations and abstracts of scholarly journals, dissertations, books, and conference papers in the social and behavioural sciences.
Citations to journal articles, books, reviews, and chapters in the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology.
Before you begin, read your research question/assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your instructor or TA before you begin your research.
| Why? | How? | Example | |
| Step 1: Identify key concepts | Key concepts from your research question are the most effective search terms to quickly locate relevant sources. | Underline key nouns from your research question. | What is social media's role in the prevention of cyber-bullying? |
| Step 2: Identify alternative search terms | To find everything relevant to your topic in a database. | Brainstorm alternatives (synonyms, alternative spelling) for your key concepts. |
Key concept 1: social media
Key concept 2: prevention
Key concept 3: cyber-bullying
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| Step 3: Combine your search terms | In order to get more focused results, use Boolean operators (and, or) as well as the wildcard* to combine key concepts. |
And: Combines key concepts together to find articles that contain both concepts. Or: Combines alternative search terms to find articles that contain either/any concept. Wildcard*: Finds variations in spelling, prefixes, and suffixes (cyberbull* = cyberbully, cyberbullies, cyberbullying) Quotation marks: searches for word or phrase as a unit (preserves word order) |
("social media" or "social network*" or "social platform*" or Twitter or Facebook) AND (stop or prevent* or eliminat* or deter*) AND (cyberbull* or cyber-bull* or "cyber bull*" or "online bull*" or "online harass*" or "electronic bull*") Searching Canada: AND (canad* OR newfoundland OR nova scotia OR “prince edward island” OR "new brunswick" OR quebec OR ontario OR manitoba OR saskatchewan OR alberta OR "british columbia" OR yukon OR “northwest territories” OR nunavut) |
| Step 4: Consider using limiters (available in a library database) | In order to focus on articles that are appropriate for your assignment. | Choose limiters in a library database that are relevant to your research needs. |
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| Step 5: Review your search results | Check if articles are appropriate for your assignment to ensure you find the right information to write a high quality paper. |
Check if you articles are:
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| Step 6: Adjust your strategy | If you don't find relevant articles, change your search strategy. |
Too few articles? Try...
Too many articles? Try...
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Examples:
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Adapted from The University of Manchester Library: Making Your Search Work (Cheat Sheet)
The search terms for each of your main concepts should be entered in their own search boxes. In the example below, the search terms for social media are in the first box, prevention in the second box, and cyber-bullying in the third box.
If you have multiple search terms for a concept, combine them with the Boolean operator OR.
Use the drop-down menu next to the search box to tell the database where it should be looking for your search terms (e.g. anywhere except full text, which looks in the title, abstract, and keywords).
To read the articles or access the full-text PDFs of resources in your results list, look for a full text link in the database. For example, in Sociological Abstracts or the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, click on Full Text - PDF underneath the description of the article in the search results.
If the PDF link isn't available for an article you're interested in, click on the Get it! UTL button - this will check for full-text access to the article in all of the databases and collections that the U of T Libraries subscribes to. If we have access to the article, you'll be directed to it automatically.
