Search strategies

• Get an overview by conducting an initial search.
• Search systematically by compiling a list with search terms.
• Take an article as a starting point for conducting a search with the snowball method.

  Initial search

An initial search allows you to gain basic knowledge on a topic. It is about getting an initial overview, acquainting yourself with specialist terminology and identifying key research areas. Textbooks, handbooks and reference works are suitable for such initial searches.

If you would like to find out which topics could be covered in more depth in the field of energy management, for example, entering the following search query in library catalogues might be useful in helping you get started: "energy management" AND (textbook OR introduction).

  Defining search terms

Have you already read up on your topic and defined a specific research question?

• If so, you should now break this question down into individual components and check how the respective contents are linked.
  
• Are all components equally important?
  
• Should or can an individual component be omitted from the research process?
• After answering these questions, you should then compile your search terms.
  
• You can find suitable search terms for the components in the literature you have already identified as well as in reference works.
  
• Translate non-English search terms into English, since it is often only possible to conduct searches in specialist databases in English.
  

Work with a lexical field to keep track of your search terms. This will serve as a memory aid and can be refined during the course of the research process. Consider whether narrower terms or umbrella terms also lead to information about the core term. Umbrella terms also enable you to find sources that take account of the aspect you are looking for as well as other aspects.

The search query can be supplemented and optimised step by step using additional terms from identified sources. Ideally, search queries should be formulated in such a way that they deliver as many relevant hits as possible and no superfluous ones. You can use various search techniques to this end.

  Snowball method

Have you found a particularly suitable text for your topic? If so, great! You can now use this as a starting point to search for further literature using the snowball method.

Backward search

Look at the bibliography and search for other relevant sources there. In the case of articles in specialist databases, you will often find the cited texts under "Cited references" or "References".

Search for these sources and look at their lists of references as well. This way, your collection of relevant literature on your topic will grow quickly.

Please be aware, however, that this method will only allow you to find literature that is older than your original source. Literature that isn’t cited very frequently can also be missed.

Forward search

Various databases also provide information on how often an article has been cited in more recent literature. This information can be found under "times cited", "cited" or similar headings.

This function is provided by the interdisciplinary Web of Science database, EBSCO databases (e.g. Business Source Premier, CINAHL, Communication Source) and Google Scholar.

 The PICO framework

This framework serves as an aid for the precise formulation of questions in the medical field that focus on clinical interventions and their modes of action. The abbreviation stands for:

• P = population (client population of interest)
• I = intervention (treatment, exposure to disease, risk behaviour, prognostic variable)
• C = comparison (which may include an alternate or standard therapy, absence of risk or prognostic factor or alternate prognostic variable)
• O = outcome (of interest) (see Kleibel & Mayer, 2011, p. 30)

Other research aids in the area of health: