Search for Books
Search Strategies
Research question or statement
What is it exactly that you are trying to find? Think of a way to state your topic in 1-2 sentences.
Example research question:
How do international companies create business strategies that successfully work in different work cultures that may vary drastically from one another?
Search Terms
Using the 1-2 sentences you created for your research question or statement, pull the important words (and synonyms of those words) to use as keywords to create your search.
Example keywords could be the following:
- international management
- culture
- business strategy
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators can broaden or narrow your search and create relationships between keywords.
AND, OR, NOT
Note: when using these Booleans you should write them in all capital letters.
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AND combines two search words together. Both must appear in your article, narrowing your results.
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OR allows you to search for synonyms or like terms. Only one of the terms must appear in your article, broadening your results
- NOT removes a specific term from your results
Quotation Marks
Phrases in quotation marks stick together as one key phrase. Searching "international management" in quotation marks will make sure your results include those terms together.
Asterisks
When added to the end of a root word an asterisk will find all words that include that root term. Using the term manage* with an asterisk at the end will return results with the keywords manager, management, manages, manage, etc.
More tips
- Use search options (also known as facets or filters) to further narrow your search to a specific type of resource or date range.
- String together relevant synonyms or words with similar meanings to broaden your search results. For example you might use the Boolean operator OR to string together strategy OR plan OR method OR practice
- Avoid putting your entire research statement into the search box. You'll get better results breaking your query up into keywords.
- If your search returns no results, be sure to change the drop down next to the search bar in SURF to include UM Libraries and use the facet "Include Non-USMAI results" under "Refine Your Results". Even if our library doesn't have a title, you can still request a copy via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
