What is a search strategy?
A search strategy is the plan you use to search for relevant information. The strategy provides you with both a structure for your search and also a record of your search history. As your research develops and your search is refined, your search history can be extremely useful. It can also improve the relevance of the results you obtained as you uncover how your search terms are related to each other.
To develop a search strategy you will need to:
- define your research question - what you are going to research?
- identify keywords, terms, and phrases related to your research question
- identify keyword synonyms - this can also be done in some databases
- Identify the time period you will be searching
- what types of material you will include (books, journals, conference proceedings, etc.) and why?
- identify where you will search for the information
Documenting your search plan and process
Documenting your search plan and process can help you:
- think critically about concepts in your research topic
- refine your searching to focus on your topic
- reduce duplicate searches
- save time and effort
Keeping a record of the terms you search, where you have searched, and your results will make your work more efficient. Keeping track of search terms and where you've searched can be done easily in an Excel spreadsheet. Keeping track of your references is covered in the section Managing your references.
Search Lifecycle
Additional Resources
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Literature Search: A handout to introduce tools, terms, and techniquesCreated by Katy Kavanagh Webb for Elsevier's Library Connect service, this document outlines tools, terms and techniques you can use when developing a search strategy and conducting a literature search.