Planning a Search

In my first search in Lesson 1, I entered only a few key terms to determine likely biomedical databases.

Identifying alternative search terms for our topic is very important to achieving comprehensive search results. We need to think about the terms and appropriate synonyms we should use to request information from the Dialog system before going online. For example, articles might contain words, such as GRAFT or REPLACE to discuss this topic.

Step 1: Selecting Additional Search Terms

Terms I might use to find information about coral, treatment, and parts of the body might include:

Concept 1	Concept 2	Concept 3
coral	substitute	bone
	implant	eye
	replacement	cancellous bone
	graft
	surgery

Tip 2-1

Notice that I also put all of the synonyms for the concept "substitute" in the same column. This helps me keep the terms straight when I create my search strategy.

Go to the next page to see additional modifications to the search strategy.

2-2

Search Tip 2-1

When we are thinking of synonyms for words, we must also think about words that may be two-word phrases, as well as hyphenated words. All variations should be part of our synonym list.

Most databases on Dialog follow spelling conventions for American English; however, some databases produced in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries (e.g., Canada and Australia) follow British spelling conventions, e.g., orthopedics vs. orthopaedics; color vs. colour, etc.