Carers Victoria research guides
Text based searching
Text based searching is used by most online research tools, including internet search engines like
Google, bibliographic databases like Medline and online catalogues in research or public libraries.
Text based searching refers to what happens when you type words or concepts ('search terms')
into a search engine and retrieve a list of all the references that contain those terms.
Choosing search terms
For a search engine, a search term is a combination of characters (letters and numbers). It
compares the combination you have typed in with those contained in its files and retrieves
references ('hits') that are an exact match.
Some search engines (such as Google) use complicated algorithms to also look for related and
variant terms (such as synonyms and plurals) and to make allowance for misspelling, but not all
research tools are this sophisticated.
Think carefully about the search terms you choose. Search results that are incomplete or too large
may be caused by:
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Misspelling
Ignoring synonyms and plurals: if you use only one variant of a term or concept, you may
miss many relevant references.
Being too specific: if you use too many search terms, or terms that are very specific, you
may retrieve few or no references.
Being too general: if you type too few search terms, or terms that are too general, you may
retrieve too many references.
Inappropriate terms: if you use terms that are not commonly used to describe the subject
you are researching, you may retrieve irrelevant references ('false hits').
Advanced search features
Most search engines have advanced search features that help you to pinpoint your search more
accurately.
This guide outlines some of the more common features. Not every research tool will make all
features available and different tools may use different names to describe the same feature.
Look for labels like 'advanced search', 'about searching' or 'help' to find out what a particular tool
will let you use.
Combining search terms
Boolean search operators use Venn logic to let you combine search terms in particular ways:
The AND operator
Narrows your search by retrieving only references that contain
BOTH the terms used.
It allows you to create a search that includes more than one
concept.
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Text based searching
The OR operator
Broadens your search by retrieving references that contain
EITHER or BOTH of the term used
It allows you to create a search that includes synonyms or
similar concepts.
The NOT operator
Narrows your search by retrieving references that contain one
term but NOT the other
It allows you to create a search that excludes irrelevant
concepts.
Phrase searching
Phrase searching lets you search for a string of words, side by side, in the order that you type them
in. Often you can do this by enclosing the terms in double quotation marks ("mental illness").
Phrase searching is useful if you want to link concepts closely or are searching for a title that you
already know exists.
Remember that it is possible to unintentionally exclude references using phrase searching.
The phrase search “mental illness”, for example, will catch the reference ‘caring for somebody with
a mental illness’ but will exclude the reference ‘caring for the mentally ill’
Truncation
Truncation allows you to search for variants of a word by using a symbol (usually * or ?) to replace
the possible letter combinations after a word root. Remember that it is possible to choose a word
root that unintentionally retrieves a lot of irrelevant references ('false hits').
The search care*, for example will retrieve the words carer, carers, caregiver and caregivers. It
will also retrieve the words career and caretaker.
Limiting results
Many search engines will allow you to limit results using predefined filters. You may, for example,
be able to specify that you only want to retrieve references that are published:
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within a specific date range
in a particular language
in a particular format type (PDF files, video or image files)
on a particular website or in a particular peer reviewed journal
Field searching
Search engines usually file (‘index’) information in database fields. A research document, for
example, may contain the following types of fields: author, title, date of publication, publisher, full
text.
Field searching lets you search for a term only within a particular field.
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Text based searching
Searching for the term 'Carers Victoria' in an author or publisher field, for example, will limit your
search to references published by Carers Victoria and exclude references to Carers Victoria in
works published by other authors.
Controlled terms
Controlled terms (also called subject terms, descriptors or keywords) are standardized terms used
to describe the content of references in bibliographic or library databases.
Controlled terms help minimize synonyms and variant phrases and can make searching more
reliable. For example, the controlled term 'caregivers' is used to describe references to carers and
caring families in bibliographic databases based on Medline subject headings and in most public
and research library catalogues.
Some databases (such as Medline) collate controlled terms in a thesaurus. A subject thesaurus
may have an elaborate structure of broader, narrower and related terms, which will help you to
identify, refine and select appropriate search terms.
Snowballing your search
Once you have identified a useful reference, use the information it contains to help you find similar
references. This research technique is called 'snowballing'.
Check whether:
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The author has written other works on the subject
Your reference has a bibliography listing potentially relevant research
Your reference is cited by later research. Many databases support 'cited reference
searching', a feature that lets you start with a good reference and expand your search to
include later references that cite it.
Your reference contains key words, phrases or concepts that can help you to refine your
search
The bibliographic entry for your reference includes controlled terms that can help you to
refine your search.
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