On this page: Search strategies, Search in the right place, Search technique

Search strategies - Use different strategies so you don't miss what's important

Start with articles in an encyclopedia

In encyclopedias you'll get a good overview of your topic, you can see who the most important researchers are and you get references to central texts on your topic.

Search for review articles

Review articles give you a picture of what studies there are within a topic and during a certain time period, with comments and comparisons. They give you a good overview of the topic and many references to follow up.

Start with an article you already have

Search for other articles by the same author
Search for other articles in the same journal
Use the search function "related articles" in the databases
Use the same key words that are used in the article and search for them in article databases
See who have cited the article
Look up the references

In the database Scopus, you can search for articles which have cited other articles, and you can also find related articles. Here you can also find many useful keywords to use in your searches.

Scopus

This video gives you a short overview on how to use these search strategies in Scopus. It is in Swedish, but you can choose English subtitles (under the Settings icon - Captions).

Search in the right place

Choose the right database for your question
- Google Scholar and LUBsearch. Broad searching, they capture a lot
- EconLit: Searches scholarly material within economics and economic history
- Business Source Complete: Searches within business administration, both scholarly and other types of sources, e.g. trade journals and market research
- AIS eLibrary: Searches within informatics and information systems, both conferences and journal articles

Google, Google Scholar or the library databases - which one should I use?

Library databases

Search technique - Search smarter and get the best results

Truncate

Search for different endings to a word by using the asterisk *. Sustainab* will give you results for both sustainable and sustainability. Not compatible with Google Scholar.

Phrase searching

Search for phrases by putting quotation marks around them. Try searching in LUBsearch for Macroeconomic Policy or "Macroeconomic Policy".

Boolesk search

Combine words with AND or OR, e.g. "Macroeconomic policy" AND Swed* AND (Corona OR Covid OR Covid-19). Use AND when all your search terms need to be in the results, and OR when it's ok if at least only one word is found.

Contact:

LUSEM library web page: lusem.lu.se/library

E-mail: Biblioteket@ehl.lu.se