Keywords
KEYWORDS carry some of the most important meanings that will open doors to vast amounts of information. You can develop keywords by searching reference sources, books, websites, and thesauri, among other materials.
Creating KEYWORD LISTS are important in that you will use these terms to search library tools such as the library catalog and article research databases.
PICO Question
Clinical question: Are foam rollers or roller massagers effective for increasing flexibility in asymptomatic physically active adults?
Advanced Search Strategies
BOOLEAN OPERATORS
These terms (AND, OR, NOT) can help you broaden or narrow the results you receive when searching within the databases.
- AND narrows your search, as it tells the database that you only want results that contain ALL of the search terms
- OR expands your search, as it tells the database that you want all articles that contain EITHER of the terms
- NOT excludes items from your search, as it tells the database that you do not want any articles that contain a certain term
TRUNCATION
Using the * (asterisk symbol), truncation uses the root of the word to find results that contain any variation of the root.
- Example: pharm* will find pharmacology, pharmacy, pharmaceutical, etc.
- Example: injur* will find injured, injury, injuries, etc.
So what does this all look like?
