Now you need to conduct your search to find your articles. Remember use these techniques in your search strategy for best results:
- OR connects similar words like race OR ethnicity
- AND connects different concepts like interracial AND marriage
- double quotes "...." to find specific phrases. e.g. "ethnic heritage"
After you build up a search strategy, you are ready to search. Some example searches are below.
Library Collection
The Library Collection can be a useful starting point in locating information.
Put your search in the basic search box, group your alternative keywords inside brackets. For example:
(interracial OR "racially mixed") AND (marriage OR relationship) AND attitudes
Use the advanced search to split your concepts on to different rows. For example:
interracial OR "racially mixed"
AND
marriage OR relationship
AND
attitudes
Use Refine my results on the left hand side to narrow your results. Here are some examples:
- Show Only - Peer-reviewed journals
- Resource Type - Book chapters
- Publication Date - limit to the last 10 years
Databases
The Library Collection does not list everything we have access to. Try a database when you are not finding relevant results in the Catalogue, or in order to restrict your results to a specific discipline, topic area or material type.
Here is an example in Sociological Abstracts (via ProQuest) it provides descriptive information for international literature in sociology and related disciplines, covering journal articles, books and conference papers.
Example Advanced Search
- Put a different concept on each line.
- Use OR to connect any similar terms (synonyms).
interracial OR "racially mixed"
AND
marriage OR relationship
AND
attitudes
- Tip: Use the Find it button to try and locate full text articles.
Google Scholar
Try Google Scholar to find scholarly information. An advantage of Google Scholar is that it provides access to the full text of many UniSA scholarly (academic) articles
The Advanced Scholar Search option gives more flexibility when you search. To access it select the menu (three lines) in the top left hand corner of Google Scholar. This menu will appear once you do an initial search in Google Scholar.
Here is an example:
Enter the term ‘attitudes’ in the ‘with all of the words’ field, enter the phrase ‘racially mixed’ in the ‘with the exact phrase’ field and enter the terms ‘marriage relationship dating’ in the ‘with at least one of the words’ field.
Tip: Ensure your articles focus on sociological aspects by adding 'sociology' as another search concept. You could also add a relevant theory or theorist here
