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Political Science

Information resources for research in Political Science

Create a Search Strategy

 

Choosing search terms

Start to build a search strategy by determining search terms. Search terms or keywords can be people, events, theories, concepts, ideas, periods. Use terms that describe the concepts in the research question and their synonyms. You can consult a reference text, such as an encyclopedia, for additional background information and to identify additional terms. You can also look at the "subjects" listed in the "details" section of your Search@UW results for additional terms to try. You may have to test a few terms to see which terms retrieve the most relevant results.

For example, if you are interested in researching the impact of political donations on regulatory enforcement in addition to "political donations" some additional key words might be "campaign finance", "campaign donations", and "political contributions."

Boolean operators

 

Venn diagrams of Boolean Operators, AND, OR, and NOT, created by a librarian

Cecelia Vetter, CC BY-SA 4.0

AND includes both terms

Example: "regulatory enforcement" AND "campaign finance"

OR includes either term

Example: "campaign finance" OR "political donation" 

NOT excludes term*

Example: "campaign finance" NOT reform

*Note that NOT may exclude results with the term even if a result contains a search term you want included

Database syntax

Using database syntax can help you refine your search. For example using "double quotations" will narrow searches by searching only for that specific phrase rather than each individual term. Using truncation (*) or wildcard (?) can expand your search by expanding the scope of a single term. Note the wildcard (?) symbol doesn't work in Search@UW.

Symbol Use Function Example
"..." Double quotation marks Searches exact phrase "campaign finance"
* truncation Adds none or more characters regulat* searches regulate, regulations, regulatory

Different database platforms (i.e. EBSCO, ProQuest) may use different syntax. Review a more complete list of database syntax.

Building a search strategy

 

A search strategy (or search string) are the keywords, terms, and syntax used in your search. A typical search strategy includes 2-4 concepts, but may include more keywords.

For example, an initial search for information on campaign finance regulations might be:

"campaign finance" AND regulations

But you may want to expand your search to account for variations on the terminology for campaign finance, but also narrow results to specific agency's regulations or regulations related to a particular topic. So instead you might try:

("campaign finance" OR "political contributions") AND ("environmental protection agency" OR EPA OR "clean air") AND regulat*