This guide was created to help you find excellent resources for your assignments.
To get started:
1. Decide on your research topic.
2. Using what you learned in your library instruction session, create a search strategy. If you need a refresher, scroll down this page.
3. Start searching! Remember to check the assignment requirements - how many credible resources do you need to use? Do you need images as well? Keep this in mind while you search.
4. Evaluate the sources you find using the RADAR method.
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Try using words from your assignment topic first. For example: cavities
If you're having trouble finding articles and books (or other sources) that match your topic, try using a more specific technical term. For example: caries
You can also add words to describe what aspect you need. If you're looking for information on the prevention of caries, you can add: prevent*
Tip: The asterisk (*) at the end of the word is called truncation and will retrieve results for prevent and prevention.
To focus your search further, consider adding a specific patient type to your search such as children. To do this, add: child*
Tip: The asterisk (*) at the end of the word is called truncation and will retrieve results for child and children.
To further expand your search, include synonyms and related terms to your search string. For example, are there other ways that children may be mentioned in the sources you are looking for? You can try adding them to the string by using brackets and the Boolean operator OR.
If your topic is more than one word, remember to use quotation marks around it. This is called phrase searching and ensures the entire phrase is searched rather than each word separately. For example, if your topic is oral cancer, you could search for: "oral cancer"
