There are a lot of databases and search engines to choose from when looking for articles. Figuring out which one is the most appropriate can be a challenge. Here are some common databases that might be useful for this course.
In the above section, you see we put “climate change” and “global warming” in quotes. Doing this in your search will bring back only that exact phrase.
There are a few different ways to use truncation symbols or “wildcards” to search for different forms of a word. Here’s an example:
A search for gene* will bring back all these words:
But beware! Make sure you put your wildcard character in just the right spot. The same search will also bring back these words:
See more about what truncation can do for you in this great tutorial from Colorado State.
You can use nesting (parentheses) to help organize a more complicated search. For example, you could search for:
“genetically modified” AND (crop* OR food) NOT (corn OR maize)
to get results about genetically modified food or crops that do not talk about corn, aka maize.