UL Instruction   Searching for scholarly information / management and economics   Before you start your search   Dividing the problem statement into elements

Dividing the problem statement into elements

You should now translate the problem statement step by step into a combination of search terms that you can use to search various databases. Since the search terms often differ per database, you will probably have to adjust your search profile per database.

‘Do people invest in real estate or precious metals when stock exchanges are down?’

To start with, you can divide the question into the following elements:

  • real estate
  • precious metals
  • stock market crises
  • investment behavior

For each of these elements you should then find one or more search terms.