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🔎 Search information: use search techniques and methods

Once you've defined your search query and search terms and selected your information sources, you can start searching for information. We'll share some techniques and methods to help you search more effectively and efficiently.

Search bar techniques

Boolean operators

When you enter multiple search terms in a search bar, most search engines will look for documents that contain all the terms. If you want your search terms to be combined in a different way, it's best to use Boolean operators. Below is an overview of the most common ones:

  • AND: Use when both terms must appear. AND must always be capitalized. For example, Booktok AND Flanders
  • OR: Use when at least one of the terms must appear. OR must always be capitalized. For example, teenagers OR young people OR students
  • NOT: Use when the term following NOT must not appear in the document. NOT must always be capitalized. Note: This operator does not work with Google Scholar. In this search engine, use a minus sign (-) instead of NOT. For example, Flanders NOT Netherlands / Flanders - Netherlands

Exact phrase

Use double quotation marks (") before and after your search terms to find documents where the terms appear together and in that exact order.

For example, "social media"

Truncate

An asterisk (*) after the root of a word searches for all possible endings.

For example, student* searches for student, students, studentes, students (both Dutch and English).

Mask

Truncation within a word is called masking. A question mark (?) within a word is replaced by any possible letter(s) by the search engine. You can use this search technique when you're unsure of the spelling of a word, want to search both old and new spellings, or want to search both British and American spellings.

E.g., Behavio?r: searches for behavior and behaviour

Search methods

There are also search methods to achieve the desired results.

🧩 Best match method

This method is primarily used in the orientation phase when you don't yet know exactly what you're looking for. You enter as many relevant terms as possible in succession to find suitable literature. The best match method works best when your search terms are as specific as possible.

🌱 Pearl growing

This method is used to find new search terms. You can retrieve them from the sources you've found. The keywords section of scientific articles is particularly valuable for this.

⏩ Forward citation tracking

Forward citation tracking is also called the "citation method." It involves starting with a specific work and looking at which newer works cite this original work. This way, you'll find increasingly recent sources on your topic.

⏪ Backward citation tracking

Backward citation tracking is also known as the "snowball method." You start with a specific work, using the literature consulted for that work as a starting point to find other works, going back in time. A disadvantage of this method is that you always find older sources. However, this way, you discover the sources on which many more recent works are based and can potentially discover an evolution in the research field.

Simple or advanced search

You can search the Media Hub catalog in two ways: simple or advanced.

With simple search, simply enter your search term(s) in the search bar. This will help you find most search terms.

With advanced search, you can add Boolean operators to your search, search by title, author, language, search term, etc., and combine multiple searches to find the desired result. You can also filter by format, language, and year of publication, among other things. Using advanced search will result in fewer search results, but the results will be closer to the information you need.

Too many or too few search results

If you have too many or too few search results, this could be due to several factors.

If you have too much (irrelevant) information, try searching in a subject-specific database instead of a general one. You can also adjust your search terms by adding more components, using an exact phrase, or adding more filters in the advanced search.

If you have too few search results, you might be searching in the wrong database or it would be better to try a general database. You can also rephrase your search query or use fewer search terms. Using synonyms, applying techniques like truncation and masking, or searching in a different language can also help yield more search results.

AI tools and applications

AI can be used in various ways when searching for information. An AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Copilot can help you construct search strings or find the right Boolean operators for your query. There are also specific AI tools that map the connections between different studies, such as Litmaps. This tool allows you to see which studies were most influential within your field of research, which studies are based on each other, and so on. Not all articles on Litmaps are open access, but you can often find them in the Media Hub catalog.

Step-by-step plan