michigan informatics

Effective Searching

An effective search for information involves the following steps:

1. Formulate your question
   Before you begin searching for information, you must be clear about exactly what you need. You need to state your question succinctly, break it into separate concepts, choose which concepts are necessary to your search, and list all synonyms and related terms.
2. Search for answers
   After formulating your question, you will begin your search for answers.
   1. Choose resources
      This tutorial will list a number of different databases which are freely available for you to search. Those who are affiliated with a university, hospital, or other large institution, will have many more databases to choose from. Selecting appropriate databases is critical to your successful search.
   2. Develop search strategies
      Each database may need to be searched in a slightly different way. Some may employ special search features such as truncation or a controlled vocabulary, while others may allow only the most basic keyword searching.
   3. Review search results and repeat steps as necessary
      During your search, you will need to continuously review your results and revise your search strategy or your choice of database as appropriate. Searching is always an iterative process and you will rarely find exactly what you are looking for on the first try.
      
3. Evaluate your results
   Although many of the journal articles that you retrieve may come from peer reviewed journals, you still need to critically evaluate each article that you want to use. Look for author qualifications, study design, bias, and whether there are any contradictory articles.