Systematic searches
With systematic searches, you make use of an extensive search profile to search within a database. In the search profile you have found search terms for the subjects in your problem statement. You have combined the search terms using the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT.
Since databases use their own search terms, you will have to ‘translate’ the search terms that you found into those used in a specific database. For example, you came up with the search term ‘bike’ but the database in question uses the word ‘bicycle’. You should first search the list of subject headings or thesaurus in the database (see below) for the correct search terms.
Some databases use a thesaurus to index and describe documents. A thesaurus is a hierarchical list of subject headings which shows the relationships between the subject headings listed. In a thesaurus you can search for assigned subject headings. In this way, you can be certain that the search terms you use in your search will correspond to the controlled vocabulary used by the database .
You now combine the search terms chosen for the database using AND, OR or NOT to search documents.
If you use this search method, you should take note of the following:
- If you combine too many elements with AND, you will not find anything.
- If you make a typographical error, you will not find anything.
- You should divide up the search question. This takes time.
