When searching in Google or another search engine, using a country's specific government domain extension can help you restrict your results to sources from a particular country's government websites.
For example: "climate change" site:.gov would show you results from U.S. government websites that mentioned "climate change".
Before searching for information related to our research question, we first need to identify our topic's key concepts and their related keywords or synonyms.
Sample Topic: What strategies can the United States use to improve the legal residency process for immigrants?
| Step 1: Identify the key concepts | Step 2: List related keywords |
| strategies | solutions, policies |
| United States | America, USA, United States of America |
| legal residency | citizenship, naturalization, green card, immigration law |
| immigrants | lawful permanent resident, immigration |
The final step is to select a library database and search for the topic using a few different search tricks.
Type your search terms into the search box in a library database or Google Scholar to find articles related to the topic.
| Narrow your search |
Use the word AND (in capital letters) to ensure that each result contains all search terms. Example: citizenship AND policies *You don't have to use AND in Google Scholar, just put the search terms next to each other Example: elderly immigrants |
| Search for a phrase |
Use "quotation marks" to ensure that each result contains that exact phrase. Example: "United States" |
| Expand your search |
Use the word OR (in capital letters) to ensure that each result contains at least one of the specified search terms. Example: immigrants OR "lawful permanent residents" |
| Search for alternate word endings |
Add an asterisk* to the end of the root of a word to search for alternative word endings. Example: citizen* searches for citizen, citizenship, etc. |
| Exclude search terms |
Use the word NOT (in capital letters) to exclude terms from the search results. Example: elderly NOT children |
| Combine search tricks |
Use (parentheses) to create more complex searches by mixing and matching your search tricks Example: (immigrants OR "lawful permanent residents") AND "United States" AND "immigration law" |
When searching in the Library catalog or a database, type your search (like citizenship AND policies) into the search box to find resources related to your topic.
Jylisa Kenyon
Social Sciences Librarian
Email me to schedule a meeting or contact the Reference Desk for assistance!
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