When searching in databases, keep in mind that they do not work in the same way as Google - you have to be more strategic with your searching to find resources that are relevant quickly.
You may have to try different search terms in order to find the kinds of articles you want. Brainstorm a list of search terms around your topic and try them in different combinations.
You can consider:
- Narrower Terms
If you are getting far too many results, you can try narrowing down your topic to specific events, geographic locations, or more specific ideas that are involved for your topic. For example, searching for articles about immigrant culture and identity probably won't yield results as it is a very broad topic. But if you narrow it down to specific things that speak to immigrant culture and identity, like Chinatowns, festivals in large urban centres, or newcomer programs, you may find more research done on those ideas.
- Broader Terms
Conversely, if you are finding too few things, you may want to try terms that are one step bigger. For example, maybe there hasn't been much research done about crows in your neighborhood, but there are probably studies that look at crow populations in urban centres in general.
- Synonyms
One of Google's strengths is that your results may have terms that you didn't actually search for, but are still relevant to your ideas. Databases, unfortunately, don't do that. Think of words that mean roughly the same thing and connect them with the word OR in a search bar. An example might be: (first nations OR aboriginal OR indigenous).
- Related Concepts
Maybe there hasn't been a lot of research done on your exact topic, but a related topic might have a bit more and you can use that to provide context for your analysis. For example, perhaps you are looking at a very recent event. Scholarly resources take a long time to produce, so maybe there is a similar event that has happened in the past that can give you context. For example, if you want scholarly information on our most recent election, you may have to use analysis of previous elections since political scientists haven't had time to examine the event yet.
In their Advanced Search Options, databases will give you different search bars to help you break your topic into meaningful chunks. They will also let you search for only specific kinds of resources (for example, peer reviewed articles) to cut down on your search time.
