Look at your research topic/question and pull out important concepts and ideas.
Research Question |
Key Concepts |
How does sleep affect academic performance in college students? | sleep, academic performance, college students |
Select keywords from your research topic or different keywords for the same concept.
Key Concepts |
Synonyms |
Sleep |
Insomnia, hypersomnia, oversleeping, sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, sleep habits |
Academic performance | Academic achievement, grades, graduation, success |
College students |
Community college students, undergraduates, freshmen |
Topic | How does sleep affect academic performance in college students? |
Key Concepts | sleep | academic performance | college students |
Related Search Terms | Insomnia, hypersomnia, oversleeping, sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, sleep habits | Academic achievement, grades, graduation | Community college students, undergraduates, freshmen |
Now that you've created your list of search terms, you will need to combine them using BOOLEAN operators (AND and OR). In your example, the combined search terms would look like this:
(sleep OR insomnia OR sleep disorder) AND (academic OR success OR grades) AND (college OR students OR undergraduate)
When searching the MC Library databases, use these tips to help you find the best results quickly:
1. Spell names, titles, or phrases correctly.
2. Use quotation marks for names, phrases, or titles:
3. Combine your keywords together by using AND to narrow, OR to broaden, NOT to exclude:
Research Question Example | How does sleep affect the academic success of college students? |
AND | oversleeping AND college |
OR | (college OR undergraduate) |
NOT | NOT "high school" |
Keywords to enter into a database | sleep AND "academic success" AND (college OR undergraduate) |
4. Use the limiters that are typically in the left hand column. You can find full versions of articles, scholarly (peer reviewed) articles, and articles from a specific time frame.