4 Creating a Search Strategy
The first step in any successful research project is analysing your research question and planning your search. The SKILL method is a useful framework for this process and stands for:
- Summarise
- Keywords
- Identify
- Link
- Locate
Summarise
First, summarise your topic or question in your own words. Base your summary on:
- your assignment task or question
- the aim of the assignment.
Keywords
From your summary identify the keywords and phrases.
You will use these keywords in your search, so only choose the ones that are most important.
Identify
Now you have your keywords, brainstorm some alternative terms you might find in the literature.
This is a useful step as not all the literature will use the same word to refer to your topic.
Identify:
- synonyms (words that mean the same thing)
- various spellings (e.g. colour, color).
Spelling can be a critical issue in various topics in Western music. Composer names might be spelled differently in various sources.
For example:
Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovski, Chaikovsky, Chaykovsky, Chaikovskiy, Chaykovskiy, Chaikovskii, Czajkowski, Čajkovskij, and Čajkovski are all forms of the same composer’s name.
Musical genres and works differ between languages.
For example:
- symphony (English)
- symphonie (French or German)
- sinfonia (Italian)
Non-English place names may also be found in their original language in some sources.
For example:
- Cologne / Köln
- Moscow / Moskva
You might want to use a dictionary (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary (UQ students & staff)) or an encyclopaedia (e.g. The SAGE International Encyclopaedia of Media and Culture (UQ students & staff)) to check for variant spellings and synonyms
For example:
Imagine you are searching for information about the theorbo (a large member of the lute family of instruments). A subject search in Library Search for theorbo returns 284 hits. Another type of bass lute that is not totally dissimilar to the theorbo is the chitarrone, so you think it might be useful to include this term as well. Expanding your search to theorbo OR chitarrone returns 321 results.
| Keyword | Synonym | Related term |
|---|---|---|
| theorbo | chitarrone | bass lute |
Keep in mind, exact synonyms are rare. A chitarrone is not exactly a theorbo, in other words. Often such terms relate to a more generic umbrella term (in this case, bass lute). Getting to know your terms, and other possible near synonyms, variants and related terms is all part of developing good research habits.
Link
Use search operators to link your keywords and synonyms. This helps you translate your search from plain English into something a database will understand. See below for the most common operators.
Note: Not all databases use the same operators. Check a database’s Help section if you are unsure.
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are connectors you place between your keywords to improve your search results.
| Boolean operator | Example | Results |
|---|---|---|
| AND | baroque AND music | This search will find both words |
| OR | choir OR choral | This search will find either word |
| NOT | baroque NOT renaissance | This search will find the first word but not the second |
Truncation and Wildcards
Truncation symbols (* or !) are used to find alternative word endings.
For example:
chor* retrieves choral, chorale, chorus.
Wildcard symbols are used to replace a single character within the word.
For example:
organi?ation retrieves organisation or organization.
Note: These truncation and wildcard symbols vary between databases. Use the Help section in each database to find the correct symbol.
Phrase Searching
Place double quotation marks around any terms that you want to search together as a phrase, using the specific order of words. Rather than finding results for two or more individual words, the search engine will return results for the phrase.
For example:
Searching music psychology in RILM retrieves 12,713 results, while searching “music psychology” retrieves 7,654 results and searching “music psychology in education” retrieves 48 results.
Combining Operators
Use multiple operators in the same search to capture all the relevant information. Make sure to group your synonyms with parentheses.
For example:
“a cappella” AND (voice OR vocal* OR intonat*) AND (drift OR variat*)
Locate
Once you have created a search, you can use it in a range of databases.
If you are not getting the right results, or are getting too many or too few results you may need to make changes to your search.
When you are getting too many results:
- add more keywords or phrases
- use filters to limit your results (e.g. limit by date or subject area)
- search within a particular field (e.g. title or abstract field).
If you don’t have enough results:
- check your spelling
- use fewer keywords
- try different keywords
- try other databases.
