CRIJ 4363: Cybercrime: Tips for Searching

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Before you start searching for books or articles, take a moment to think about what you will search for.

Write down keywords, phrases, names, and/or topics that might relate to your topic.

• Think about synonyms or words with related meanings. For example: women, females, wives,....  
• Put phrases (multiple words that need to be together in a certain order) inside "quotation marks."

How do you come up with the words to write down?

• Use your textbook (or assigned reading) to help you get started.
• Brainstorm with your roommate, a classmate, or other trusted friend to also come up with words (they may have different experiences that lead to different terms).
• Read encyclopedia entries about a related person, place, event, or concept to get ideas for more words. Try the Library's Reference Universe.
• As you find sources, see what language they use and add new terms to your list to help you refine additional searches.
• Do a Google or Wikipedia search to try and locate historical synonyms for the modern term you know.

Still stuck?  Visit with a librarian to talk through your ideas.

• Connect virtually through (See the "Ask Us Now" link on this page)
• Schedule time with your subject librarian (there is a librarian assigned to each degree plan at SHSU).

1. What are you searching for?
   • What is your topic or thesis statement?
   • What type of source(s) do you need?
2. Who are people that can help you on your mission? (Librarians!)
3. Where can you go to find more information about what you need? (https://library.shsu.edu)
4. What clues do you follow when you don't find exactly what you need?
   • What synonyms can you use instead of the search terms you've been sticking with?
   • What are RELATED topics to your search?  Brainstorm with a friend.
   • Were other sources mentioned in the reference lists on sources you did find that might be useful for your research?

Entering a full sentence or question into the search field of a database is unlikely to yield useful results. Instead, use keywords that describe your topic.

First, determine the key nouns or main concepts in your research question.

Research question: What impact does police officer training have on use of force incidents?

Next, create synonyms for each key term and also consider terms that are more specific, more general, and related:

• Police: "law enforcement" OR officer
• Training: education OR development
• Impact: effect OR influence

Use words AND, OR, and NOT in your database to connect your keywords.  The above example might look like this in a database:

Use the articles you find from your first search to discover additional keywords.  Then modify your keywords in the database as you discover new terms to increase your search results.