1. Get to know your topic thoroughly (read background sources; textbooks, review articles, and encyclopedia articles).
2. Find and track keywords (keep notes).
3. Choose your search location strategically (CINAHL, Google Scholar, OneSearch, PubMed, Science Direct)
4. Observe search results and adapt (every search gives you information, either about your topic or your search technique).
5. Use articles you find to get to more articles (note keywords and authors, check the reference section, track citations using Google Scholar, see video on this page).
If you do not already have an account with NCBI (PubMed) consider starting one, although you should be aware of changes to NCBI accounts coming June 1st 2021. It is also possible to create an account in EBSCOhost (CINAHL/MEDLINE) although you will need to by on the Olympic network to do so. These built-in tools can make tracking your research easier.
There is a wide variety of citation managers available and if you have not yet started using one, be aware they might help with this class. There are many that require a fee but I will highlight a couple here that are free.
Zotero (user guide for Zotero from Cornell University, FAQ from Cornell University) *Bonus* It is easy to create a shared folder for group work.
Mendeley (guide for Mendeley users from University of California Berkeley, note the non-UCB user instructions)
EndNote Basic (guide to EndNote Basic from the makers, Clarivate)
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