More basic tips to finding articles

Be specific. When looking for articles, it's important to ask for what you want.

• If you're researching "post-traumatic stress disorder as exhibited by Vietnam Veterans," search by using these terms, not "stress" and "war" for example.

Zoom in or out: If you're not finding enough using a focused search, try a broader one.

• If "post-traumatic stress disorder as exhibited by Vietnam Veterans" doesn't work, try "post-traumatic stress disorder and war" or even "Veterans and psychology."

The key is to keep trying using different words and mixing their combinations.

Keep it simple: Don't include more than two or three concepts in a search statement. You'll want to break up your topic into discrete variables and search these terms individually connecting them with AND. For instance, if your topic is:

• "Most people, including immigrants, say immigrants take jobs Americans don't want, but the public is divided on whether immigrants help the economy,"

break it up into simple parts:

• immigrants AND jobs AND economy

If you don't find enough articles, take out the word "jobs" or try another database.

Finally, keep trying. Sometimes it just takes finding new words, trying different search combinations, or repeating your strategy in a different database. Remember, you can always ask a librarian for help.

Next: Is it scholarly or popular?