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Research Guides

Comprehensive Searching in the Social Sciences

Now that you considered what keywords to use and where to search for sources, it’s the right time to consider how best to conduct your search.For most comprehensive searches in the social sciences:

  1. Start with the database that provides the best coverage of publishing in your discipline, especially if that database has a subject heading index with detailed scope notes
  2. Create an account or log in to access the full suite of tools
  3. Search using both keywords and subject headings, combined with Boolean operators
  4. Revise your database search to improve the balance of precision or sensitivity
  5. Translate your search into additional relevant databases

Using a structured approach

Using a structured search approach – a search that flows logically through each step towards a predetermined goal – allows you to build a search that is easy to edit and refine, easy to interpret, and easy to reproduce.

The following example from the education database ERIC demonstrates a search that follows a clear strategy from step 1 at the bottom of the figure to step 4 where all concept keywords are combined into a final set of results.

Step 1: Build search to represent first concept

  • Search for all relevant subject headings
  • Search for all relevant keywords
  • Combine with OR to create concept 1 search

Step 2: Build search to represent second concept

  • Search for all relevant subject headings
  • Search for all relevant keywords
  • Combine with OR to create concept 2 search

Step 3: Build search to represent third concept (if needed)

  • Search for all relevant subject headings
  • Search for all relevant keywords
  • Combine with OR to create concept 3 search

Step 4: Build search to combine all concepts

  • Combine concept 1 search AND concept 2 search AND concept 3 search

Results: A list of documents with overlapping descriptions/topic

Examples of combining search concepts

ProQuest

EBSCO

Web of Science

Using NOT to test your search development

The Boolean NOT operator can be used to help you understand the impact of your search decisions on your search results. You might choose to use the NOT operator if:

  • you are wondering if the number you have paired with a proximity operator is too large or too small (E.g., N/5 versus N/3)
  • you are considering including or excluding a specific keyword (E.g., Do I need to include both “non-binary” and “gender nonconforming”?)
  • you are unsure if a specific subject heading improves your search or not (E.g., The ERIC thesaurus says to use MAINSUBJECT.EXACT("Sexual Identity") for any studies related to the term “transgender” but I’m not sure if that’s the right choice.”)

For a demonstration, check out the following video created by U of T’s health science library team. You’ll need to make some adjustments for your social science database, but the explanation of how this works is very helpful.

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