• Develop a keyword search
• Construct a research strategy using Boolean Operators
• Recognize the difference between scholarly and popular sources
• Get tips for searching EBSCO and ProQuest databases

Finding the Best Information

Developing a Search Strategy

Before you begin to look for articles, it is best to take a few minutes and develop a search strategy. Watch the video in the video library, Developing a Search Strategy, to get started.

*Note: Although the video refers to a few resources from a different library, the same strategies apply to JHU library resources.

Finding Appropriate Information

Most of your resources need to be scholarly.  Find out the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly sources by watching the video in the video library, Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals.

Building Searches

After viewing the videos above you should have a better understanding of search strategies. Below you will find examples of two sample research topics and their potential search terms. Please review these examples.

Example 1: You are writing a paper exploring strategies for grouping high school students for collaborative work.

Building a search query:

Search Terms: strategies, grouping students, high school

Search terms using Boolean Operators:

• strategies AND grouping student
• strategies AND grouping NOT (elementary school)
• strategies AND "grouping model" NOT (elementary school OR middle school)

Example 2: You are researching single subject design and interventions for students with behavioral problems.

Building a search query:

Search Terms: single subject design, behavior problems, interventions

Search terms using Boolean Operators:

• single subject design AND behavioral problems
• single subject design AND implement* AND behavioral problems
• single subject design AND behavioral intervention

Finding Articles – Database Searching

The Research Guides lists several databases you can use to look for scholarly articles on topics of interest. On your Research Guides, the Education Journals link will take you to the ProQuest platform and Academic Search Complete link will take you to the EBSCOhost platform.

Watching these videos will give you a better understanding of how to effectively perform searches and use the databases. View the videos in the Video Library to see demonstrations of the following:

• Searching in an individual database – best when your search combines more than two concepts
• See a search in the Education Journal (ProQuest) and Academic Search (EBSCOhost). Both provide scholarly and peer review material from a variety of databases and a wide array of research topics.
• Focus search results, email and export records to yourself
• Build a search from the Thesaurus (also known as Subject Terms) of a database

To get to the databases, go to the Education Research Guide, and try one of the databses in the "Best Bets for Articles" box.

ERIC is one of the databases on the EBSCOhost platform. There are roughly 80 databases to select from on this platform; click on the Choose Databases link at the top of the EBSCOhost page to see additional education databases.

Education Journals are on the ProQuest platform, which like EBSCO, contains many other databases as well.  To locate other resources, go to the top of the ProQuest page and find the Searching link to select additional databases.

Getting the Full-text of Articles

You have conducted a search and are now viewing the search results. As you decide which articles you wish to read, how do you get the full-text of the articles?

In many of the databases, in your results list, you will see a link to the pdf or html view of the article. When the full-text is not indicated in your results lists, click on  Watch the video, "Get Articles" for a demonstration.

But not everything is available immediately through Johns Hopkins.  But don't worry, we can get it for you, and get it quickly.  There are many options for obtaining the materials you need.  Ask your librarian at soelibrarians@jhu.edu for help.

Test Your Knowledge: