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 publication, subject |