SOC 442: Tips for Searching the Databases

Tips on searching the databases

Here are some general tips on searching for articles for your report:

Tip Examples
Use keywords, not long search phrases

Instead of searching for "How is the stop-question-and-frisk policy considered to be a racial profiling practice?"break down your search into the main keywords:

racial profiling, law enforcement, zero-tolerance, systemic racism, stop and frisk

Truncation broadens your keyword search to include various word endings and spellings. To use it, enter the root of a word and put the truncation (*) symbol at the end.  racis* = racist, racists, racism

Use quotation marks (" ") to keep phrases together

Use AND to combine different keywords

"systemic racism"

"system racism" AND "criminal procedure"

Use OR to combine similar/associated keywords" "racial profiling" or "racial discrimination"
Look for ways to limit your search in the database You can often limit by type of article (scholarly and peer-reviewed), year of publicationsubject