After completing this module you will able to.. 1. Analyze a research topic 2. Develop appropriate search strategies and conduct a search 3. Refine search results

1. Application of Internet and Computer in Medicine (MD-First Part ) Course Director Prof. A Refat
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Application of Internet and Computer in Medicine
For MD-First Part Faculty of Medicine Zagazig University 2021
Course Director Prof. Ahmed Refat
Tutorial # 6
How to Develop a Search Strategy:
and Search Query
An Interactive Tutorial
Interactive tutorial is a structured collection of navigable web pages.
Individual pages can contain any combination of text, images, audio, video,
self test questions and other interactive activities.
Learning outcomes
After completing this module you will able to..
1. Analyze a research topic
2. Develop appropriate search strategies and
conduct a search
3. Refine search results

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How to Develop a Search
Strategy and Search Query
What Is A Search Strategy?
When you design a search strategy you are planning how you will look
for information. The more care and thought you put into your search
strategy, the more relevant your search results will be.
A well designed search strategy:
 saves you time in the long run
 allows you to search for information in many different places
 helps you to find a larger amount of relevant information
Different strategies work better for different people. The first step is to think
about what you need to answer your question.
You should think about:
1. Finding The Focus Of Your Question
2. What The Key Concepts or key words Are
3. Alternative Terms To Describe These Concepts
4. Combine the concepts using Boolean operators.
5. Building On What You've Found
When you need to find information, you should take time to plan your
search and develop a strategy. The SKILL Planning Strategy, outlined
below will assist you to do this.

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The S.K.I.L.L Planning Strategy
When you need to find information, you should take time to plan your
search and develop a strategy. The SKILL Planning Strategy, outlined
below will assist you to do this.
Follow the SKILL Planning Strategy to plan your
search:
Step 1 - Summarise your topic in one or two sentences;
Step 2 - Keywords and phrases need to be highlighted;
Step 3 - Identify synonyms, alternate terms, phrases and variant spelling;
Step 4 - Link your keywords and phrases;
Step 5 - Locate your information.
STEP 1 - Summarise Your Topic
What specific information do you need?
Think about what specific information you need. It is helpful, at this stage
to summarise your research topic in one or two sentences. For example,
instead of saying you want to do an assignment or paper on “genetics” or
“the gold rushes” or “eating disorders”, which are very broad topics, you
could state your specific information need as:
o 'I am interested in the scientific and ethical issues of
reproduction research, specifically those related to
human cloning'
or
o 'I want to investigate the effect of the gold rushes on
agriculture during the 1850s and 1860s.'
or
o 'I want to find information about urban planning for
sustainable environments.'

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Questions to assist you with your summary:
Answers to the following questions will assist you to formulate your
research summary:
 What is the main idea of my research topic?
 What specific ideas am I trying to describe or
prove?
 What coverage am I interested in: international or a
specific geographical region?
 What types of information am I interested in, eg.
statistics, patents, journal articles or conference
proceedings?
 What is the currency of the information I require:
the last 5 years or further back to the last 20 years
or more.
When you have summarised your research topic, record it on the SKILL
Search Strategy Planner included at the end of this UseIt.
For example:
STEP 1 - Summarise your topic below
I want to find information about urban planning and sustainable
environments.
STEP 2 - Keywords and Phrases should be Highlighted
Identify and highlight the main keywords and phrases in your summary.
This will break down your sentences into keywords and phrases (or ideas).
When you have identified your keywords and phrases, record them on your
SKILL Search Strategy Planner.
For example:
I want to find information on urban planning and sustainable
environments.

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STEP 2 - Record The keywords and phrases
Phrase
urban planning
Keyword
sustainable
Keyword
environments
STEP 3: Identify Synonyms & Alternate Keywords
Create a list of synonyms, alternate keywords and other phrases (don’t
forget words with variant spelling ( eg. paediatric or pediatric,
encyclopaedia or encyclopedia) that describe the keywords and phrases
you have highlighted.
These keywords and phrases will form the basic units of your search
strategy. As you progress through the search process, your knowledge of
the topic will increase and your list of keywords and phrases will grow
and/or be refined. Record your results in your SKILL Search Strategy
Planner.
For example:
STEP 3 - Record other synonyms & alternate keywords and
phrases
Keywords
from Step 2
urban
planning
sustainable environments planning
OR town ecolog* habitat* architect*
OR regional energy locale build*
OR city viable neighbourhood design*
STEP 4: Link Keywords & Phrases Using Connectors and
Parentheses
Combine your keywords and phrases into a search strategy
Use the Connectors, OR, AND, NOT and Parentheses ( ) to combine your
keywords and phrases into sets and then your sets into a strategy. If you

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find you have too many keywords, use the additional ones to modify your
search strategy after your initial search.
NOTE: Connectors are sometimes referred to as Operators or Boolean
Operators or Boolean Connectors Follow the steps below:
 Create sets by combining your synonyms with the OR connector
 Enclose each set of synonyms with parentheses ( )
 Combine the sets with either the AND or the NOT connector
Record your results on your SKILL Search Strategy Planner.
For example:
o Create sets by combining your synonyms with the
OR connector
o Enclose each set with parentheses
o Check the results for each set and then combine the
sets with the AND connector.
Set 1 ("urban planning" OR town OR regional OR city )
Set 2 (sustainable OR ecolog* OR energy OR viable)
Set 3 (environments OR habitat* OR locale OR
neighbourhood)
Set 4 (planning OR architect* OR build* OR design)
Set 5 Example: Set 1 AND Set 3
Example: Set 1 AND Set 2
Continue with combining sets until you are
sure you have covered all keywords and
phrases.

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STEP 5: Locate the Information by Conducting the Search
How do you enter your search strategy into the database to get the
best results?
Using the SKILL Search Strategy Planner, you may find that you
generate a number of sets of keywords and phrases (similar to Fig
4 above). If this is the case, you may be able to use a building block
approach (similar to Fig 4 above) to enter your search strategy into your
selected database.
How To Improve Your Results?
To broaden your search (i.e. increase the amount you find) you can:
1. reduce the number of concepts you are using
2. use an OR search
3. use all possible synonyms for your topic
4. use more general search terms
5. use subject headings as search terms
6. make sure you have used any Boolean
operators correctly
7. combine keywords using 'OR'
8. use truncation to get variations on your term, or
use alternate spellings
To narrow your search (i.e. reduce the amount you find) you can:
1. use an AND or NOT search
2. look for more specific alternative terms
3. use subject headings as search terms
4. make sure you have used any Boolean operators correctly
5. use more precise terms
6. remove any truncation
7. use thesaurus terms
8. limit by particular fields

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Using Parentheses (Nesting)
In complex search statements involving the use of more than one Boolean
operator it is necessary to use parentheses (i.e. brackets). This is also
called nesting.
Truncation
Keywords may have variant endings - singular, plural and adjectives - all of
which may be relevant to your subject. Using the singular form will only
retrieve records which have the word in that form. In order not to miss any
'hits' (and to reduce the amount of typing!) use truncation.
Type in the start of the word plus the truncation symbol ($ * ? #)
depending on which database you are using to retrieve all the variant forms
of the word.
'Snowballing' (Moving from specific to general)
Once you have identified some, or even one, useful reference it can lead you on to
other similar ones. Note the keywords assigned to your reference(s) in the database.
Use these to run a new search. Also don't forget to search for other writings by the
author, and also follow up on the references your author has used in their bibliography.
Stop Words Are Useless Key Terms
Common words, prepositions, conjunctions, and common verbs such as
"and, about, the, of, in, as, if, and it" are examples of stop words. Do not
use stop words.
Nouns And Objects Should Be Your Query
Terms
Keyword types should be nouns since they are the most precise query
terms. Adverbs and adjectives can help but should usually be avoided .

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Summary
Key points to remember when developing a search strategy:
1. Be specific
2. Whenever possible, use nouns and objects as keywords
3. Use At Least Three Keywords
4. Put most important terms first in your keyword list
5. Combine keywords, whenever possible, into phrases.
Re…..
Write - Revise – Type
Supplementary materials ….. visit these sites
Choosing Search Terms https://youtu.be/AXXbBMT0BtY
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetbasics/using-search-engines/1/
http://file.lacounty.gov/sdsinter/dhs/204498_basicinternetsearchtechniques.pdf
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetbasics/using-search-engines/1/
https://libguides.wits.ac.za/Scholarly_Research_Resources/Research_Search_Engines
https://subjectguides.esc.edu/researchskillstutorial

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Quizzes
1. How should you narrow a topic that is too broad? (Check all that
apply.)
A. Look at a certain aspect of it
B. Look at where it overlaps with other topics
C. Look at it within a certain time period
2. If you are doing research using the keywords "death penalty and
budget," which terms would also be worthwhile keywords:
A. torture and cash
B. capital punishment and revenue
C. incarceration and finance
D. Leave this Field Empty
3. If you use the word "AND" in your search terms it means the
following:
A. Only the words after "AND" will be searched.
B. The terms before and after the word "AND" will be searched by the database.
C. Either the terms before the word "AND" or after the word will be searched by
the database.
4. What do "quotation marks" ask a database or search engine to do?
A. Nothing. Quotation marks have no bearing on a search.
B. Look for the exact phrase within the quotation marks
C. Exclude the terms within the quotation marks
5. What is a good way to get additional resources from a really good
article that you already found?
A. Do another keyword search, but capitalize the first letter in each word
B. Search for the same article in a different database
C. Use the citations that are referenced within the article to find similar articles by
looking up the references