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SEARCH
TECHNIQUES
B. Identify your search
terms
The first step in conducting a literature
search is to identify the main concepts of your topic. For
example, if your topic is:
| caring for adolescents with diabetes |
you can break this down into three concepts:
|
care
|
adolescents
|
diabetes
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NOTE: The concept "care" may be implicit
in a Nursing database, so you might not have to include it in your search.
In a more general database, you would want to include it.
Articles and prepositions are rarely
used as search terms. Rather, they are considered stop words
and ignored by the computer. There are other types of words that
are not always good to use in a search because there can be so many other
ways to express them -- for example, "effects" can be "results," "outcomes,"
"what happens," etc.
It may be helpful to further define
your topic with synonyms or similar terms:
CARE
nursing
critical care
treatment |
ADOLESCENTS
adolescence
teenage
teenagers |
DIABETES
diabetic
insulin |
These are your search terms or keywords
that may be used in your search statement.
Next: C.
Constructing a search statement
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