Education Research Guide: Article Search Tips

Use the Thesaurus: Click the Thesaurus link at the top of the database screen. This allows you to find the best search term to use. You can also use the thesaurus to find synonyms and related terms. 

Consider word truncation: Use the * at the end of the word to find all derivatives. Using will increase number of results.

      instruc* will find instruct, instruction, instructional, instructive, or instructor

Consider proximity searching: You can specify how close search keywords should be to each other in an abstract or title.  

      motivation N5 success will find results that match "motivation for success" as well as "success was more important for motivation"

(PsycINFO ONLY) Preset limits: You can limit to a specific Age Group, Population Group, or Methodology before clicking search.

Use the Refine Results options, which displays on the left side of the results screen, to select with appropriate limiters:

• Limit To "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” to see just scholarly research articles 
• Publication Date change the first publication year to 2004 to see articles in the last decade only
• Subject click on one the subject phrases to see just those citations

A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string used to identify content, and provide a link to its location on the internet. Not every scholarly article will have a DOI, but when they do it is important to include them in your citation.

Example DOI: 10.3390/ani6020011