Explore the help options and online guides available in the databases

Information Searching Techniques

1. Define your research topic and think of meaningful search terms
Identify keywords describing your topic, including synonyms and combinations of words. Use
these as search terms in the databases.

2. What kind of information to use?
Do you need information from books, journal articles, newspapers or trade magazines, statistics or
company information, etc. The type of publication determines which database to search. See the
list of information resources available from the BI Library.

3. Search techniques
The various information databases differ in layout, search options, search interfaces etc. But a basic
understanding of general searching techniques would be useful:

Too few hits -- Expand your search
Truncation: Search only the root of the search word, followed by a symbol, usually *
Example.: strateg* includes strategy, strategies, strategic.
Use synonyms, broader terms and other alternative search expressions.
Check spelling. Check vocabulary when searcing in foreign languages.

Too many hits Narrow your search
Combine several search terms (see below)
Limit to specific search fields (e.g. author, subject, publication name)
Limit to specific publication types (e.g. peer reviewed journals, master theses etc.)
Limit by publication year

Combination of terms using search operators (Boolian searching).
AND: The search result must contain both the one and the other search word. This narrows
the search.
Example: internet AND marketing internet marketing


OR: . The search result must contain either the one or the other search word. This expands your
search. Commonly used for synonyms and abbreviations.

Example: green touris* OR ecotouris*
green touris* ecotouris*

NOT
The search result must contain the first term and not the other (excludes all items with the last
term). Narrows the search
Example: coaching NOT football
coaching football

Other operators might be optional,
e.g. SAME, to find items with the search terms occuring in the same sentence.