1. Health &
behaviour:
finding articles
Elizabeth Yates,
Health Sciences
Librarian
March 2014

2. Today’s outcomes
You will recall strategies for:
• Finding articles using keywords,
synonyms, and exact phrase searching in
SuperSearch
• Using the Health Sciences Research Guide
as a portal to scholarly information
resources
• Pros and cons of Google Scholar

3. Think like a search engine

4. What’s a
keyword?
-usually a noun
-main concepts in
research topic
-word versus
phrases/sentences
-start with 1-2
keywords; add more
to focus search

5. Topic: Theory + content/context
e.g. “Theory of planned behaviour” + diet
Strategy: search your theory as an exact phrase
and pair with keyword(s) for your content area
Think of content synonyms e.g. diet:
• nutrition
• food
• eating

6. Find articles
Research Guide for Health Sciences
– Library website > left nav menu “Research
Guides by Program”
– Find articles tab
Pro Tip: Use this guide
as your one-stop shop
for scholarly
information resources

7. Best bet: SuperSearch
1. Refine your results: select “Scholarly
(Peer-reviewed) Journals”
2. Slide the Publication Date to adjust time
period
3. Select “Subject” to find results focused on
a specific aspect of your topic
4. Use “quotes” to search for an exact phrase
5. Use * to search for variations of a word
ending e.g. behav*(behaviour, behavior)
6. Add another keyword to find results
focused on a specific aspect of your topic

8. Pro Tips: save time
>Find a good article?
Check the subject/keywords, references and
“cited by” for clues to other good articles:
save time!
>Scroll down: first result may not be the
best

9. Google Scholar & SuperSearch
Google Scholar
SuperSearch
-broad scope
-don’t know where you are searching
-broad scope
-you can discover what journals are
being searched
-many options for focused searching
e.g. by subject, format, title, abstract
etc.
-few options for focused searching
Pro Tip: Both tools are great – choose the
one that’s best for your search

10. Google Scholar
Research Guide for Health Sciences
– Library website > left nav menu “Research Guides by
Program”
• http://researchguides.library.brocku.ca/CHS
• Find Articles tab
• Google Scholar
• Advanced
search (pull
down tab)
TIP: Click “More” for copy & paste citation

11. Help with APA style
Research Guide for Health Sciences
– Library website > left nav menu “Research
Guides by Program”
• http://researchguides.library.brocku.ca/CHS
• Writing and Citing tab

12. Getting help
• Chat/text/email us
• Visit our Help Desk
• Click on the Help
tab to search topics
by Category
• Contact me:
eyates@brocku.ca

13. Summing up