OneSearch

There are two ways to use OneSearch, simple Links to an external site. and advanced. A simple search should work in most situations. To launch one, type a few search terms or phrases into the search box on the page. 

If you look through the options beneath the search box, you’ll see that you can limit your results in a few key ways. You can opt to use one of these now or you can apply these and many other filters after you’ve launched your search. You can always switch to the advanced search page if you want more options.

 

 

 

 

 

A very broad, simple search will typically return a huge number of results – these results can total hundreds, thousands, or even millions – which can be time-consuming to sort through. That’s why it can be helpful to think about potential keywords you might use before you begin searching on a topic. You can also make use of filters to narrow down your initial pool of results.

Keywords

When using OneSearch and specific databases, it is important to search with keywords that capture the essential concepts that make up your topic. Start with a small number of keywords and then add more terms or try different terms based on the results you’re getting. Narrowing down your topic into specific key concepts will help your research process to develop more smoothly.

A search like 

What is the relationship between social media use and academic success among U.S. college students?  

will retrieve fewer results than if you searched for 

college students AND social media AND academic success.

Brainstorm all of the keywords or terms with the same meaning as one of your key concepts.

For the phrase social media, authors might use terms such as

social networking, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat.

Searching for all of those terms together with OR between them (e.g., social media OR social networking OR Facebook OR Twitter OR Instagram OR Snapchat) tells the search engine to find all of these terms in your search results, and it retrieves all of the possible works on your topic at once. 

Think about a more focused aspect of your topic or various angles of your topic. For example, if you are looking at the topic of how diet impacts athletic performance, you may want to search for information on specific diets, particular sports, different ways of measuring athletic performance, or dietary supplements.

Sometimes placing quotes around a title (e.g., “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) or a key phrase can return more relevant, targeted results.