Author: Juergen Plieninger, Librarian

Editor: Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen

Bottom Up Searching: If you know specifically what you are searching for, you can take the search direction bottom up. That means, if you are searching with a specific catch word and if you don’t get useful results, repeat the search request with a more common search item.

However- before searching with superior (advanced) terms, first try it with synonyms. Here are some examples:

• If you don’t find something about trade unions in Belgium, search for trade unions in Western Europe.
• If you don’t find something about direct democracy, search for democracy theories.

Often you will find an area for entering advanced terms, which will then allow you to specify your search.

If you are searching the WWW, the instruments for specific searches are called search engines.

Top Down Searching: If you are not very familiar with the knowledge area you are searching in, it would be better to begin your systematical online research with a superior item (advanced term) and then to continue with increasingly specific items (which you will become familiar with during the research process).

If you are searching the WWW, the instrument for browsing beginning with a more common item is the thematic index (or web catalogue).

The Search Matrix: Often, social scientists don’t manage their online research well. It’s frequently a process of trial and error, not systematically planned research. But it does not have to be that way!
Imagine, many of our searches cannot be processed with one search item; often it is necessary to make a combined search with two and more search items or terms.
By searching within a database or a catalogue, do you think that the right search items are at your fingertips? I don’t think so.

A search matrix could be an aid for creating an efficient research strategy and for realizing the search. If one requires closely and distantly related associations (matches), synonyms, and English or foreign-language translations for several concepts, and wants to be able to link them all into a single searching instrument- then a matrix is an obvious solution in the early stages of the search.

An empty matrix looks like this:

if your first language is not English, it is important that you translate your search terms into English seeing as it is the language of most search resources.

Example: You are searching for the rotating function of the EU’s Council of Regions

With the search matrix (incidentally a professional instrument for reference librarians), you have a tool for well structured research into questions which are composed of several items.

Other Search Techniques

Use Block Building: If your question is too varied or complicated for a search matrix, split the topic in blocks (or sections) and try to find catch words in the database you are using, or make a search matrix for part of the question. Perhaps it is possible to summarize blocks using the necessary search words with the help of Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) in your searching inquiry.

Citation Pearl Growing: If a specific document corresponds to your thematic interest, you can search for it in a library online-catalogue or a database. You can enter your search and check the catchword results offered by the librarian or the processor. Then you can use those catchwords to search for similar documents. By doing this you can grow or expand the catchwords for your search by applying the interim results. In German, there is a precise term for it: Schneeballsystem, literally, snowball effect or system. If you want to apply this effect using internet search machines, choose those which give you the option refine your search (sometimes also named “clustering”) or similar results.

Boolean Operators: With the combination of three operators AND, OR and NOT (sometimes correct: AND NOT) you can narrow your search by looking directly for documents which contain either some or all search items or exclude search items from the result list.

Most searching services have added the AND-function as a default in their easy search menu.

AND: An “AND” function limits a search.

You should use the operator “AND” …

… if you want to find all items in your list of catch words…. if you are sure of the formulation and wording of your search item…. to limit general search items.

OR: The “OR” function extends a searching inquiry.

You should use the operator “OR” …

… if you are not sure about the wording of an item… if you would like to find documents in different languages, for example “strawberry OR fraise”, “democracy OR démocratie”… to find documents with synonyms, e.g., “EU OR European Union”, “Sri Lanka OR Ceylon”… to increase the number of results

NOT:  The operator “NOT” or “AND NOT” can be very helpful in improving the quality of your results. With this function you can exclude phrases and items which might increase the number of your searching results needlessly.

NEAR: The distance operators NEAR and ADJ (for adjacent = adjoining) offer you the possibility to fix the maximum distance between request items in a document. If, for instance, an “AND” linking incurs too many results and you can not find any additional search items in order to further limit the amount of results, it can be helpful to find documents in which the items you are searching for are in closer vicinity to one other.

The distance operator ADJ insures that the request items are found directly side by side.

Jokers, Search Strings, & More

A wildcard or joker offers the possibility of searching for parts of a word or word endings. Thus you can search for a particular section of a catchword, and combine different searching inquiries into one. To mark the missing part of the word which must be contained in the result document, special characters are used. Use of the star “*” is very wide-spread; with some data banks utilizing the dollar sign “$”, and other searching services using the question mark “?”.

Phrases

A phrase search uses fixed and compound items and is an excellent instrument in order to search more specifically as compared to utilizing several catchwords.

A phrase search helps if you are searching for documents with persons, companies or products, for example. You should also investigate with items such as “Federal Minister of Economics” or other specific names in this manner.

Thesauri

If you are not familiar with the terminology of a special theme, a thesaurus-search can be valuable. A thesaurus is a controlled, hierarchical list of terms.Humanities and Social Science Electronic Thesaurus from HASSETT.

SOSIG Thesauri:
General Social Science Thesaurus
Government, Politics and Anthropology
Social Work and Welfare

Standard-Thesaurus Wirtschaft

Thesaurus Sozialwissenschaften

Thesauri in the WWW list in German.

Tips & Tricks 

If you need dictionaries, please consult yourdictionary, more specific glossaries you can find with the help of The Glossarist.There are several online possibilities for synonym searches:
Key Word Map
Search term suggestion tool
Visual Thesaurus

There’s a pretty little tool for looking for similar websites parallel to web searches: Nextlinks simultaneously displays a list of 10 similar sites for the page shown in your browser. It’s a service of the University of Leipzig which you can download and install here.

The inclusion operator “+” is very often mistaken with the boolean operator “AND”. However, there is a very important difference: the inclusion operator ensures that the preceding search item is contained in the result list. Example: the search inquiry “party + labour” will find all documents which contain the item “party”, while “labour” might be contained, but does NOT have to be.

Some searching services permit the search for single web page elements. This can be an additional help in the case of very high result numbers. The following elements are searchable:

This is the best and most efficient way of summarizing possible search words into one searching inquiry with the help of brackets. Indeed, many “extended search options” offer this in their menu already, however, line oriented input with the help of brackets offers you more freedom for creating a precise inquiry.

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